History of Beechwood

Now in the final decade of its first hundred years, Beechwood Sacred Heart School is as much a part of Tunbridge Wells as the health-giving springs which gave the town its name.

However, the decision of the Society of the Sacred Heart to establish a Roman Catholic convent school in this most English of towns was perhaps a surprising one. 

Indeed, their solicitor advised the sisters, back in 1915, to shed their black habits and go in mufti to view the big old Victorian house upon which they had set their sights. Almost one century on, the success of their venture speaks for itself.

It was a tumultuous century, fractured by two world wars and buffeted by a hurricane of social change under which less flexible institutions have been blown away. However, Beechwood Sacred Heart, an independent lay school since 1973, has absorbed all these changes to evolve into a thriving 21st Century school, with the same spirit and commitment to real education it has always had.

Writing about her old school, former pupil Biddy Haywood, now a Daily Telegraph journalist, recalled nice, rounded, intelligent, capable, non-flibbertigibbet girls, a description of which current headmaster, Nicholas Beesley, thoroughly approves.

You can read more about the history of Beechwood in the School History Book, "Calm Amidst the Waves", written by local journalist Jane Bakowski. To order a copy of this book, please contact the school.

Pictures from days gone by...

Early days in the Junior School	A Junior Dormitory
A Chemistry Lesson in Regina Mundi	Still popular - making toast in the Front Hall
Home from home	The School Orchestra