Kimbolton School

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Private school in Cambridgeshire, England

title: "Kimbolton School" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["educational-institutions-established-in-the-1600s", "1600-establishments-in-england", "private-schools-in-cambridgeshire", "member-schools-of-the-headmasters'-and-headmistresses'-conference", "boarding-schools-in-cambridgeshire", "grade-i-listed-buildings-in-cambridgeshire", "kimbolton,-cambridgeshire", "alessandro-galilei-buildings"] description: "Private school in Cambridgeshire, England" topic_path: "geography/united-kingdom" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimbolton_School" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Private school in Cambridgeshire, England ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox school"]

Field	Value
name	Kimbolton School
logo	Kimbolton School Coat of arms 2024.png
logo_size	120px
image	Kimbolton Castle 01.jpg
image_size	280px
motto	Spes Durat Avorum
motto_translation	Latin: "May the hopes of our forefathers endure"
established	(Earliest references from 1531)
type	Private school
religious_affiliation	Inter-denominational
headmaster	Will Chuter
founders	Henry Balye and William Dawson
city	Kimbolton
county	Cambridgeshire
country	England
coordinates
other_name	Kimbolton
postcode	PE28 0EA
urn	110925
gender	Coeducational
lower_age	4
upper_age	18
enrollment	1082
enrollment_as_of	2024
capacity	1100
houses	Four in the Preparatory School, five in the Senior School
colours

Purple, black and white | song = (historically) All My Hope on God is Founded

(unofficially) Jerusalem | publication = The Kimboltonian | free_label_1 = Former pupils | free_1 = Old Kimboltonians | website =

Kimbolton School is a British [[Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference|HMC ]] co-educational private day and boarding school in the village of Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire, England.

There are 1,000 students, aged 4 to 18. Boarding and flexi-boarding is available to a limited number of students from the age of 11. There are approximately 700 students in the Senior School, and 300 in the Preparatory School.

Since 1950, the school has occupied Kimbolton Castle (the former seat of the Dukes of Manchester) and its grounds.

History

The school is the successor to the village grammar school and although there are references to a school at Kimbolton as early as 1531, the generally accepted date for its foundation is 1600. It originally occupied buildings within the churchyard, but moved to new premises in Tilbrook Road in the late 19th century. In 1949 its named was changed from Kimbolton Grammar School to Kimbolton School, and the following year it bought Kimbolton Castle from the Duke of Manchester.

The Senior School is based in the grounds of the Castle, while the Preparatory School is based at the other end of the village and connected to the senior school by 'The Duchess Walk', a tree-lined avenue. The school grounds total over 120 acre.

The school's Latin motto is: "Spes Durat Avorum" (Let the hope of our forefathers endure).

Campus

Kimbolton School's campus is currently situated upon Kimbolton Castle grounds. This land is in conjunction with some other areas of land owned by the school prior to the purchase of the castle in 1950.

The school's total campus area comes to ~105 acres.

In addition to the Castle, the school campus also includes the Queen Katherine Building, opened in 2011, to a total development cost of £10.6m

The Castle

The Castle was bought by Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester, in 1615. His descendants owned the castle until it was sold in 1950.

Charles Edward Montagu, the 4th Earl, who was created 1st Duke of Manchester in 1719, had reconstruction works carried out between 1690 and 1720. Sir John Vanbrugh and his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor redesigned the facades of the Castle in a classical style, but with battlements to evoke its history as a castle, the portico was later added by Alessandro Galilei. The Venetian painter Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini redecorated some of the reconstructed rooms in 1708. These rooms included the main staircase, now called the Pellegrini Staircase, and the chapel. Gilded furnishings in a Louis XIV-inspired style by French upholsterers working in London were also commissioned.

For a later Duke, Robert Adam produced plans for the Castle Gatehouse and other garden buildings, including an orangery. Only one of these buildings, the gatehouse, was constructed, in around 1764. Mews buildings were added to provide stables, and an avenue of giant sequoias was planted in the 19th century.

The Castle was used by the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II, and the 10th Duke of Manchester sold the Castle to the school in 1950. The furnishings were scattered in sales and some have come to national collections. There is limited public opening during the school holidays and at weekends.

The Castle is mostly used for 6th form and Spanish teaching and also houses staff areas as well as the 6th form common-room.

Most teaching and other activities take place in other buildings, on the school grounds.

Boarding

The boarding houses are situated on Kimbolton High Street. The boys' boarding house, called Kimbolton House, is by the top of the High Street, while the girls' house, White House, is at the bottom, opposite the Church of England parish church.

Notable former pupils

Louise Brealey, actor
Charles C. W. Cooke, journalist and broadcaster
Lieutenant Dennis Arthur Copperwheat George Cross recipient
Christopher Curry, founder of Acorn Computers
George Furbank, Northampton Saints and England rugby player
William Giles, Colonial Manager of the South Australian Company (1840–1861)
Prof. Jonathan Kydd, agricultural economist
Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton, Conservative peer and former Member of Parliament
Raymond Lewin George Cross recipient
Clive Mantle, actor
Ben Saxton, sailor and Team GB Olympian at 2016 Summer Games
Simon Thurley, historian, archaeologist, Chief Executive of English Heritage (2002-2015)
Martin Yates, Conductor
John Whitworth (1921–2013), countertenor, organist, and professor at the Guildhall School of Music

Notable staff

Peter Jones, BBC Sport radio commentator and master at the school
John Greening (poet) (teacher of English, 1983-2014), poet and critic
Ronald Lancaster MBE (staff 1963–88), an Anglican clergyman, was Chemistry master and School Chaplain, and founded Kimbolton Fireworks in 1964
Howard Payne, Olympic and Commonwealth Games athlete Commonwealth Gold Medallist (hammer) 1962, 1966, 1970
Henry Peacham, a writer, was an assistant master at the school in the early 17th century
Waldo Williams, leading Welsh language poet and master at the school.
Edward Maria Wingfield, English colonist of America, later Governor of the school

References

"Kimbolton School". UK Government.
"Kimbolton School - GOV.UK".
"Queen Katharine Building and the Donaldson".
"School Maps".
Garry Humphreys, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/john-whitworth-celebrated-countertenor-8817899.html John Whitworth: Celebrated countertenor], in ''[[The Independent]]'', 15 September 2013, accessed 20 June 2020
Elizabeth Hageman, Katherine Conway, ''Resurrecting Elizabeth I in Seventeenth-century England'' (2007), p. 73

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