Monument record TQ 54 NE 424 - Tonbridge School

School founded by Sir Andrew Judde as a `free grammer school' in 1553, with additions and alterations throughout the 19th and early 20th century. Sir Judde entrusted it's management to Skinner Company, of which he was a member, and endowed it with land in the parish of St Pancras. For the first 290 years of it's existence Tonbridge School remained a grammer school, with the number of pupils never exceeding a hundred. It became a boarding school when Dr Welldon (1843-1875) became headmaster, and by 1875 had 240 pupils. The 16th century school was pulled down in 1864, and replaced by the present buildings. The new school, that faces the High Street, forms an E shaped group. The back of the `E' is the main school building, the north half (TQ 54 NE 39) dating from the 1890's and the south half (TQ 54 NE 40) dating from the 1860's. The science block forms the north prong and was built by E H Burnell in 1887. The Old Chapel (TQ 54 NE 37) now a school museum forms the central prong, and the south prong is the headmaster's house (TQ 54 NE 41). Between the north and central prongs is Old Judde House ((TQ 54 NE 42). To the rear is another `E' plan,

Historic England archive material: AL2400/102/02 View of the old Grammar School building in Tonbridge This building was replaced in 1864.
BF104366 Tonbridge School, High Street, Tonbridge

<1> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<2> Malcolm Seaborne, Roy Lowe, 2022, The English School: Its Architecture and Organization, Volume II 1870-1970 (Monograph). SKE58621.