INTRODUCTION.

In a letter written in 1921 to the Director of Education for
Leicestershire, the then Headmaster of Kibworth Beauchamp
Grammar School, Mr. C. L. Ryley, stated, "As far as I can find
out, the School appears to be one of the oldest in the Kingdom".
Mr. Ryley's assertion is indeed true, for the origins of the School
date from the early years of the 15th century.   Kibworth
Beauchamp School was already in existence when Henry V won
the Battle of Agincourt. It has a past that reaches far back into
the pages of English history, and the fact that no full account of
it has hitherto been written is a sufficient justification for the
appearance of this book.   A History of the School was indeed
written in the nineteenth century by the Rev. J. B. Hildebrand,
Headmaster from 1836 to 1870. In 1865 he published his account,
a copy of which is still to be found in the archives of Kibworth
Church, but his narrative was very slight for the period before the
nineteenth century, was based solely on printed sources, such as
Nichol's work, and made no use of the vast mass of documents
stored in the school chest. For the nineteenth century, however,
the work is really valuable, as he had access to Governors'
Minutes, which are now lost. Thus my account of the School
in the last century is, to a great extent, based on Hildebrand's
History.

For the period before the nineteenth century, however, I have
relied mainly on the documents in the school chest. With their
aid, I have been able to write a fairly full account of the School's
history. They do indeed show the great age of the School, the
wide reputation it enjoyed in the seventeenth century, and its
splendid tradition.

A school possessing this fine tradition should not be allowed
to pass out of existence, and we hope that Kibworth Beauchamp
Grammar School will continue to serve the community in the
future as it has done for over five hundred years. At the moment,
however, that future is uncertain, and one reason for my writing
this book is to interest people in the School, so that its future may
be assured.

I have dedicated the book to Mr. John Elliot, who was
Headmaster from 1927 to 1955. He is the creator of the School
as we know it today, and I wish to thank him for allowing me to
dedicate mv work to him.

At the same time, I wish to thank his successor, Mr. L. T.
Daw, not only for writing the Foreword, but for the constant
encouragement he has given me in preparing this book for the
press. To Mr. B. Simon, of Leicester University, I am indebted
for the names of the boys who left Kibworth for Oxford and
Cambridge in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.   I also
wish to thank my former colleagues at Kibworth, Miss N.
Waddington and Mr. H. St. G. Cramp, for reading the MS. and
for making numerous suggestions.   The School Secretary, Mrs.
James, very kindly—and skilfully—re-typed the work. Finally,
I have to thank many others who in various ways have helped me
in this task. Their aid has been invaluable, but naturally I take
full responsibility for everything mentioned in this work. I trust
that all who read it will come to the same conclusion as I have
done, that Kibworth Beauchamp Grammar School has done so
much for education that it should definitely not be closed.

BERNARD ELLIOTT.

6th April. 1957.