| StorageSite | UCL Institute of Education |
| AdminHistory | Tunbridge Wells High School opened in 1883 at Fairlawn, Mount Sion. In 1902 the school moved to Cambridge House in Camden Park (later Cambridge Gardens). In the 1920s the school held joint advanced courses for pupils over 17 with Tunbridge Wells County School for Girls. The courses were stopped in 1927 as the high school failed to attract enough pupils to continue. From the late 1920s the numbers at the school fell as more pupils attended the County School, which charged lowers fees and local boarding schools began to take younger pupils. Though the school did well academically it was no longer financially viable and survived proposals by the Trust to close it in 1929-1935. From 1926-1931 the Kent Education Committee paid the fees of free places and the local town borough agreed to pay the fees of 12 free placers from 1931. In 1935 the school was saved by a grant by the local borough council for 5 years, fees were increased and the tenancy of the building was renewed. In 1939 it was felt that the school could not be maintained after withdrawal of the local grant in 1940 and the Trust planned to close the school in 1940. Due to the outbreak of World War Two, the pupils of Blackheath High School in London were evacuated to the Tunbridge Wells school. The remaining Tunbridge pupils were taught with the evacuated pupils by the Blackheath teachers and the school temporarily became Tunbridge Wells and Blackheath High School. At the end of the war, the Blackheath pupils returned to London and the Tunbridge school was officially closed in 1945. |