Cranbrook School, Kent

Cranbrook School (formerly Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School) is a co-educational state funded boarding and day grammar school in the market town of Cranbrook, Kent, England.

Selection is made of pupils at age 11 and 13.

History
The school was founded after the death of John Blubery, a yeoman of the King's Armoury. In his will he decreed that if the child of his daughter be a girl, then his mansion house be turned into a free school for the poor children of Cranbrook. Queen Elizabeth I granted the school charter in 1574, which is now housed in the library.

Recent history
In 2003 alumnus Piers Sellers, a NASA astronaut, took a copy of the school charter into space with him. A photo is exhibited in the school cafeteria. In 2005 Sellers opened the school's observatory, which is named after him. This observatory houses the 22.5-inch Alan Young telescope operated by the Cranbrook and District Science and Astronomy Society (CADSAS). In May 2010 Sellers took into outer space aboard the Space Shuttle an original watercolour portrait of Cranbrook School painted by Brenda Barratt. The painting was later returned to the school with official NASA verification that it has travelled into space. In 2018, a new day house specifically for the 120 students in Years 7 and 8 was named after Sellers. The sellers house will have 180 students in the future.

Barham House
Barham House is the school's main office. It contains the reception room, the offices of both the headmaster and the deputy head, and meeting rooms. The school medical centre is also in Barham House, but has its own reception and entrance. The building was originally the local vicarage.

The Library
Central to the school, there is a large library which is one of the oldest parts of the school. It was once the school hall, but it was converted to the library after the number of pupils became too big to fit in the hall. School assemblies are currently held in the local church, St Dunstan's, or the Queen's Hall Theatre. The library also plays host to the original royal charter provided to the school by Queen Elizabeth I in 1588. In 2019, the roof of The Library fell through, meaning it had to be closed for renovations and reopened in November 2022.

Queen's Hall Theatre
The Queen’s Hall Theatre was first opened in 1976; the original vision for the building was to provide a local community theatre which was funded by Cranbrook school, by the Education Authority and by Public subscription.

The subsequent refurbishment twenty years later in 1996 was financed by a generous grant from Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, the Lottery Agency and by the Governors of the School, to capitalise upon the venue’s ability to attract visiting Arts Companies of a high calibre to the local area.

Today the Queen’s Hall Theatre provides a diverse range of professional shows to appeal to all ages and tastes within the Cranbrook community, such as live music events and The Cranbrook Comedy Club. As well as professional productions, The Cranbrook Operatic and Dramatic Society puts on 3 shows a year, whilst the school puts on a musical and a play each year, both are done to a very high standard.

Seating a maximum of just over 350 people, The performance space is very flexible with adaptable seating allowing performances in the round, as well as on stage within the traditional proscenium arch.

The building is well equipped with state-of-the-art technical equipment and includes a large retractable cinema screen, a comprehensive lighting rig including intelligent moving fixtures, and a high-quality sound system.

There are two good-sized dressing rooms backstage as well as a classroom and green room which can double as extra-large dressing/band rooms when required.

Performing Arts Centre
The Performing Arts Centre (PAC) was opened in 2004. It contains the Wilkinson Studio, Music Practice Rooms, Vickers Auditorium, and a Recording Studio. The PAC is used for drama and music lessons and is open to students for practice during break.

Houses
Since September 2019, the school has five day houses and six boarding houses. Each house works in conjunction with the main school to provide pastoral care and academic support.

Boys' boarding houses

 * Cornwallis
 * Crowden
 * Rammell
 * School Lodge (only for Year Nine boys)

Girls' boarding houses

 * Blubery
 * Scott

Day houses

 * Allan House, formerly split:
 * Allan Boys
 * Allan Girls
 * Horsley House, formerly split:
 * Horsley Boys
 * Horsley Girls
 * Webster House, formerly split:
 * Webster Boys
 * Webster Girls
 * Lynx
 * Sellers (Junior School)

Notable Old Cranbrookians

 * General Sir John Akehurst, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (1987–1990), and president of the United Kingdom Reserve Forces Association (1991–1999)
 * Sir Anthony Barnes Atkinson, professor of economics at the University of Oxford
 * Air Chief Marshal Sir John Barraclough, station commander of RAF Biggin Hill (1954–1956)
 * Emma Biggs, mosaic artist
 * Hugo Burnham, drummer (Gang of Four) and associate professor at the New England Institute of Art
 * Jon Cleary, Grammy award-winning musician
 * Canon John Collins, radical clergyman and political campaigner
 * Michael Croucher TV film producer
 * Barry Davies, sports commentator
 * Louise Dean, novelist
 * Phil Edmonds, cricketer
 * Henry Ford professor of arabic and principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford
 * Karin Giannone, journalist and news presenter at BBC News
 * Henri Gillet, professor of mathematics at the University of Illinois at Chicago
 * Harry Hill, comedian
 * Sir Victor Horsley, neurosurgeon
 * Wing Commander Sir Norman Hulbert, Conservative MP for Stockport (1935–1950) and Stockport North (1950–1964)
 * Arthur Surridge Hunt, papyrologist
 * Richard L. Hunter, Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge (2001–)
 * Hammond Innes, novelist
 * Giles and Imo, legends
 * Hugh Kennard, wing commander, World War II pilot civilian aviator
 * Kevin Lygo, television executive and Channel 4 Director of Television and Content (2007–)
 * Ruaridh McConnochie, silver medal-winning member of the Great Britain national rugby sevens team at the 2016 Olympics and England Rugby Union player
 * Richard Barham Middleton, poet and short-story writer
 * Brian Moore, football commentator
 * Sir David Muirhead, Ambassador to Peru (1967–1970), Portugal (1970–1974), and Belgium (1974–1978)
 * Tony Nicklinson, right-to-die campaigner
 * Stuart Organ, actor
 * Colonel Mike Osborn, British military officer and former commander of the 22nd Special Air Service Regiment
 * Caspar Phillipson, actor
 * Richard Pilbrow, theatre producer
 * William Rootes, co-founder of the Rootes Group
 * Piers Sellers, astronaut
 * Sir Nicholas Shackleton, professor of quaternary palaeoclimatology at the University of Cambridge (1991–2004)
 * Edwin Shirley, rock and roll tour organiser
 * Sir Tim Smit, co-founder of the Eden Project
 * Henri Tebbitt, painter
 * Air Vice-Marshal Sir John Weston, station commander of RAF Halton (1952–1953)
 * Peter West, television presenter
 * Sir Charles Wheeler, BBC journalist
 * Wallace Duffield Wright, VC recipient
 * Katie Kittermaster, musician
 * Es Devlin, artist and stage designer
 * Sarah Keith-Lucas, meteorologist
 * Vijay Rangarajan, British diplomat
 * Annabel Gallop, head of the Southeast Asia Section at the British Library
 * Henry Shields, playwright
 * John Bluett, cricketer
 * Alfred Daldy, priest
 * Georgina Henry, journalist
 * Jacqueline Winspear, author
 * Toby Rowland-Jones, founder Big Sur Food and Wine Festival, California

News items

 * Telegraph July 2008