Harpur Trust
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Harpur Trust is a charity for Schools in Bedfordshire in the United Kingdom. It runs Bedford School (formerly Bedford Grammar School), Bedford Modern School, Bedford High School (formerly Bedford Girls' High School), and the Dame Alice Harpur School (formerly Bedford Girls' Modern School) as well as a Pilgrims Pre-Preparatory School.
The stated aims of the Harpur Trust (or Bedford Charity) are as follows:
1) The promotion of Education 2) The relief of hardship and need 3) Recreation with a social welfare purpose for the people of Bedford and its surroundings.
The Bedford Charity was founded in 1566 by Sir William Harpur (1496-1573). Harpur was a merchant from Bedford who became Lord Mayor of London in 1561. He was knighted in the following year. In 1566 he and his wife Dame Alice gave an endowment which consisted of some property in Bedford and 13 acres of water-meadows which are now Holborn. It was to support free schooling, dowries for poor maidens and “nourishing and informing poor children”. The school which he had founded in Bedford eventually became Bedford School. It was not until 1882 that girls' education was considered important enough for them to have schools too.
Today the Harpur Trust governs the five schools mentioned above, making Bedford famous for the quality of its education. Its current Chief Executive is David Russell.
