Sackville School is a small profit-making

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 ...

independent school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

located in the village of

Hildenborough Hildenborough is a village and rural parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. It is located 2 miles (3.2 km) north-west of Tonbridge and 5 miles (8 km) south-east of Sevenoaks. The village lies in the River Med ...

, in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England.

History

Sackville, formerly Foxbush House, was built in 1866 for Charles Fitch Kemp, a London Chartered Accountant. The

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has been the notional "centre of London" and became the point from which distances from London are measured. ...

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) (historic spelling ''Tunbridge'') is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Mall ...

railway line was in the process of construction and the purchase enabled him to combine his London career with his ambition to be a country landowner. He and his wife, Sarah, had ten children (4 sons and 6 daughters) and a large staff of servants and gardeners to maintain the house. He kept a pack of dogs in kennels beyond the

kitchen garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...

and employed his own cook. He played an important role in local affairs, being the first Chairman of the Hildenborough Parish Council when it was formed in 1894 and a churchwarden from 1869 until his death in 1907. In 1912 the estate was sold to Barnett Lewis, a wealthy diamond merchant, who installed oak panelling in several of the reception rooms. On his death in 1929, the property was damaged only to be refurbished by Herbert Rae, whose wife's coat of arms is on the fireplace in the entrance hall. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the house was requisitioned as the headquarters of the 59th Newfoundland Heavy Regiment,

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. From 1949 to 1970 it was the Convent of Our Lady School, which had moved from Cannon Lane, Tonbridge. In 1970, St Thomas's School moved to the site from Sevenoaks, and later became Foxbush School. This in turn was replaced by Sackville School in 1987. In 2014 former Irish rugby International

John Hewitt John Hewitt may refer to: * John Hewitt (priest) (died 1588), English Roman Catholic priest and Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929 * John Hewitt (antiquary) (1807–1878), English official * John Hill Hewitt (1801–1890), newspaper editor * John ...

became headteacher .

References

External links

Sackville School website
Private schools in Kent Tonbridge and Malling Educational institutions established in 1987 1987 establishments in England {{Kent-school-stub