Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Academy in

Telford Telford () is a town in the Telford and Wrekin borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Shropshire, England. The wider borough covers the town, its suburbs and surrounding towns and villages. The town is close to the county's eastern b ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

, England, is a

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

on Ironbridge Road in Madeley which was founded in 1937. It is named after

Abraham Darby III Abraham Darby III (24 April 1750 – 1789) was an English ironmaster and Quaker. He was the third man of that name in several generations of an English Quaker family that played a pivotal role in the Industrial Revolution. Life Abraham Darby ...

and is situated one mile from the Iron Bridge which he built in 1779. In September 2008 the school was converted to an

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

through a link to

Haberdashers' Adams Haberdashers' Adams Grammar School is a selective state grammar school for high-achieving boys and girls aged 11–18 with boarding for boys, located in Newport, Shropshire, offering day and boarding education. As of 2024, boarding fees are £14, ...

, and was accepted by the

Department for Children, Schools and Families Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) was a department of the UK government, between 2007 and 2010, responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19, including child protection and education. DCSF was repl ...

(DCSF). The school is a subsidiary of

Grammar School in Newport. It part of the HWMAT group of schools. The new-style-academy is sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers'.

History

The school was founded as Madeley Senior Council School, Hill Top, opened in 1927 with 400 mixed places. It became known as Madeley Modern School from 1944, was enlarged in 1958-59 and had 619 pupils by the end of 1959. It amalgamated with Coalbrookdale High School in 1965 to form the Abraham Darby Comprehensive School. There were 1,244 pupils in 1980. The school has a musical tradition, particularly with the wind band and the Abraham Darby Showband, which has played in the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

and at the

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The school achieved

Arts College An Arts College, in the United Kingdom, is a type of specialist school that specialises in the subject fields of the performing, visual, digital and/or media arts. They were announced in 1996 and introduced alongside Sports Colleges to En ...

status and again renamed itself, this time to the Abraham Darby School for the Performing Arts in 2003. The new building began construction in late 2009 and completed in 2012. It was officially opened by Prince Edward on 11 October 2012. In 2018, a new trend steming from the name change of Adams Grammar School to Haberdashers' Adams emerged and led to the name change from Abraham Darby Academy to Haberdashers' Abraham Darby as part to recognise the historical links with the Haberdashers' company and as a marketing strategy.

Academy

Links between Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Academy and

Grammar School at Newport are strong, with student and teacher exchanges, leadership training, mentoring systems, CPD Events, a common house system and the same uniform for all year groups. There are joint events, including those for sport, music, drama and academic events. The curriculum is supported by ICT, and each school has specialisms: Abraham Darby Academy with performing arts, business, enterprise and social sciences; Adams Grammar School with Science, Mathematics, English, Technology and MFL . The joint project is supported by

Telford and Wrekin Council Telford and Wrekin Council is the local authority of Telford and Wrekin in the ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It was founded in 1974 as The Wrekin District Council, and was a lower-tier district council until 1998. The district was r ...

, the DCSF, and the 300-year-old

Haberdashers' Company The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, is an ancient guild, merchant guild of City of London, London associated with the silk and velvet trades. History and functions The Haberdashers' Company ...

as a sponsor. The two schools, although operating separately, will share governors. Part of the project will be a capital investment, and new school building by 2011. ADA student uniform comprises a tie, and a blazer bearing the Haberdashers’ crest, identical to that of Adams Grammar.

Notable alumni

* Former English

super-middleweight Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing In professional boxing, super middleweight is contested between the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, in which boxers can weigh between 160 pounds ( ...

professional boxer

Richie Woodhall Richie Woodhall (born 17 April 1968) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2000. He held the WBC super-middleweight title from 1998 to 1999, as well as the Commonwealth middleweight title from 1992 to 1995, and the ...

(attended during the 1980s).

Madeley Modern School

* Billy Wright, the former captain of

Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. ...

and the

England football team The England national football team have represented England in international football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by the Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in England, which is affilia ...

Coalbrookdale County High School

Louis Kirby Louis Kirby (30 November 1928–14 October 2006) was a British newspaper editor. In 1971, the ''Sketch'' merged with the ''Mail''. ''Sketch'' editor David English was appointed as editor of the merged newspaper, leaving Kirby as acting editor ...

, political journalist, and editor from 1980 to 1986 of the ''

London Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free of charge in London, England. It is print ...

'', and from 1974 to 1980 of '' The Evening News''. * Dame

Lorna Muirhead Dame Lorna Elizabeth Muirhead (née Fox) is a past President of the Royal College of Midwives and from 2006 until her retirement in 2017 she served as the Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside. In 1992, she joined the Council of the Royal College of Mid ...

, former president of the

Royal College of Midwives The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) is a British midwives organisation founded in 1881 by Louisa Hubbard and Zepherina Smith. It has existed under its present name since 1947 and is the United Kingdom's only trade union or professional organisati ...

and

Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside The office of Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside was created on 1 April 1974, taking over some duties from the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire and Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire. As Merseyside (north of the River Mersey and parts of The Wirral) remains par ...

2006 to 2017. *

Edith Pargeter Edith Mary Pargeter (28 September 1913 – 14 October 1995), also known by her pen name Ellis Peters, was an English author of works in many categories, especially history and historical fiction, and was also honoured for her translations of ...

OBE, author who wrote ''

The Cadfael Chronicles ''The Cadfael Chronicles'' is a series of historical murder mysteries written by the English author Edith Pargeter (1913–1995) under the name Ellis Peters. Set in the 12th century in England during the Anarchy, the novels focus on a Welsh B ...

'' between 1977 and 1994, which are set in Shropshire.

Notable staff

Madeley Modern School

Mary Whitehouse Constance Mary Whitehouse (; 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permis ...

, founder of the

National Viewers' and Listeners' Association Mediawatch-UK, formerly known as the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (National VALA or NVLA), was an advocacy group in the United Kingdom, which campaigned against the publication and broadcast of media content that it viewed as har ...

, was art teacher and senior mistress there from 1960 until 1964 when she began to concentrate full-time on her TV clean-up campaigns.Report by Toby Neal, part of 'Great Lives' series on Midlands worthies.

References

External links

Abraham Darby homepage

Abraham Darby Academy bands

History
{{authority control Academies in Telford and Wrekin Secondary schools in Telford and Wrekin Schools in Telford Madeley, Shropshire