School History

Charles Kingsley was born in North Devon. During his life time, he became Chaplain to Queen Victoria in 1859, private tutor to the Prince of Wales in 1861 (later to become King Edward VII) and a cannon of Westminster Abbey in 1873. Kingsley famously wrote the novel Westward Ho!

Edgehill College was opened on the current Kingsley School site by the Methodist Church of Great Britain. It was the principal independent school for girls in the area, and had 4 boarding houses called Carisbrooke, Longfield, Belvoir and Kiltrasna.

The Ursuline Convent in Bideford was taken over by The Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary, who renamed it Stella Maris Convent, offering an independent school education to girls. In later years (along with Edgehill College) it provided grammar school places to girls, as the Bideford Grammar School was boys only. It was renamed Stella Maris School, after the Sisters of Charity left in 1990.

Grenville College, named after Sir Richard Grenville, an Elizabethan sea captain (1542-1591), was opened in Bideford as an independent boys' school with a specialism in supporting dyslexic boys.

Stella Maris School merged with Grenville College to form a co-educational independent school which took the latter's name Grenville College.

Kingsley School, named after Charles Kingsley, was formed following the merger of Edgehill College and Grenville College.