Lady Hawkins' School 2.85

Lady Hawkins' School is situated in the market town of Kington in north west Herefordshire. It operates as both a secondary school and sixth form, which takes children from the age of 11 through to the age of 16, and offers further education through its sixth form through the ages 16 to 19. The school is currently led by headteacher Jeffrey Kay.The school comprises two houses named after prominent figures in Kington's past: Banks and Garrick.The sixth form is one of the smallest in Herefordshire and was threatened with closure in 2006; however, it currently remains open.HistoryThe school was founded on September 29, 1632 with the funding of Lady Margaret Hawkins (Married to Sir John Hawkins) who had died in 1619. In her will, dated April 23, 1619, she left £800 'for the purchasing of lands or tenements of a yearly value of forty pounds for and towards the perpetual maintenance of a learned and choice preaching divine, the Master, to keep a free school in Kington, in the County of Herefordshire, and of a learned and discreet Usher under him, for the instructing and teaching of youths and children in literature and good education.'Captain Anthony Lewis, servant to Lady Hawkins and acting executor of the will, purchased School Farm, Upper Hergest, in 1622 to produce the necessary forty pounds a year for running the school. He paid £26 13s 4d for a piece of ground in Kington on which the school would be built upon. Lewis contracted John Abel of Sarnesfield to build it. John Abel, who was Carpenter to King Charles I, was to provide the materials and was paid £240 for his work.