Sackville School, Hildenborough
Encyclopedia
Sackville School is a small profit-making
For-Profit School
For-profit education refers to educational institutions operated by private, profit-seeking businesses....

 coeducational independent school
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...

 located in the village of Hildenborough
Hildenborough
Hildenborough is a village and rural parish in the District of Tonbridge and Malling, Kent. It is two miles north-west of Tonbridge and five miles south-east of Sevenoaks...

, in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The school is owned and operated by the Cognita Group
Cognita
Cognita is a private company which owns and operates independent schools throughout the United Kingdom. In addition, Cognita operates a number of international schools in Singapore, Spain, Thailand and Vietnam...

.

History

Sackville, formerly Foxbush House, was built in 1866 for Charles Fitch Kemp, a London Chartered Accountant
Chartered Accountant
Chartered Accountants were the first accountants to form a professional body, initially established in Britain in 1854. The Edinburgh Society of Accountants , the Glasgow Institute of Accountants and Actuaries and the Aberdeen Society of Accountants were each granted a royal charter almost from...

. The Charing Cross
Charing Cross
Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London, England. It is named after the now demolished Eleanor cross that stood there, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross is now occupied by an equestrian...

 to Tonbridge
Tonbridge
Tonbridge is a market town in the English county of Kent, with a population of 30,340 in 2007. It is located on the River Medway, approximately 4 miles north of Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles south west of Maidstone and 29 miles south east of London...

 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
Kitchen garden
The traditional kitchen garden, also known as a potager, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden - the ornamental plants and lawn areas...

 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 been refurbished by Herbert Rae, whose wife's coat of arms is on the fireplace in the entrance hall.

During the Second World War, the house was requisitioned as the headquarters of the 59th Newfoundland Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...

. 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.

Notable former students include Formula 3 driver Adrian Quaife-Hobbs
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs
Adrian Rodney Quaife-Hobbs is a British race car driver, notable for being the youngest driver to win the T Cars championship and the youngest ever winner of an MSA-sanctioned car racing series...

.
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