Our School and the History of our School Badge

Our school opened on 7th January 1969 with 112 pupils in 4 classes.

The school badge comes from the coat of arms of the ‘Fane’ or ‘Vane’ family, which has three golden gauntlets on a blue shield. The family moved from Monmouth in Wales to Hildenborough in 1426 and lived in the original Hilden Manor – which was on the land opposite the present Hilden Manor. The *manor of Hilden or ‘Hyldenn’ as it was spelt in those days, dates back to at least 1240.

The present Hilden Manor was built beside the ruins of the original fortified manor between the 14th and 15th centuries, on the road which has been an important route from London to Rye and Hastings since the 10th-12th centuries, when they were the two main ports

A ‘manor’ in those days also meant an area of land. So the village was the ‘manor of Hylldenn.’ A historian wrote, "Hilden is a manor situated at about a mile's distance from Tunbridge town, and was anciently part of the possessions of the family of Vane, before the reign of Edward III.”

In 1624, Francis Vane became the first Earl of Westmorland. The land the school was built on originally belonged to Francis Vane.

So, the Earl at the time the school was built in 1969 - David Anthony Thomas Fane, 15th Earl of Westmorland (Born 31st March 1924 – died 8th September 1993) was asked for permission to use one of the gauntlets from the Vane coat of arms for the school badge.

Manor – a unit of land, often belonging to a peer of the realm (such as an Earl , Baron or Lord), consisting of a manor house , surrounding land and lands rented to tenants.

Lowy - The name 'Lowy' derives from a French word meaning 'league', a unit of distance roughly equivalent to two miles. A Lowy therefore would include all land within this distance of a castle.