The Thomas Hardye School

The Thomas Hardye School is a secondary academy school in Dorchester, Dorset, England. It is also part of the DASP group. History Grammar school The school is named after Thomas Hardye of Melcombe Regis and later Frampton. Hardye was a property owner who endowed the Dorchester "free" school in 1579, ten years after its completion by the town. It is unknown how old the original school was, given that the 1569 building was constructed to replace an older, damaged school building. Hardye was an ancestor of novelist Thomas Hardy and Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy His monument is on the south wall of St. Peter's Church. The Tudor grammar school offered free education to boys of the town and neighbourhood. The building was destroyed in a 1613 fire, but was rebuilt in a few years and later flourished under the Puritan regime of Revd. John White. An oak screen was installed into the reconstructed school, alleged to have been salvaged from a Spanish Galleon. The oak screen was later moved between buildings and structures and remained part of the school until 2021. It survived the doldrums of the 18th century, though at times having very few scholars, and struggled through the first half of the 19th century. The Charity Commission eventually closed it whilst it was rebuilt, reopening in 1883. It was known as Dorchester Grammar School until approximately 1952, when the name Hardye's School was adopted as a reminder of the 16th century founder and links to the Hardye family. Though he had as a child attended Isaac Last's rival establishment in Durngate Street, the novelist Thomas Hardy laid one of the foundation stones for the school's new building on the out-of-town Fordington site in 1927. The land had previously belonged to the Duchy of Cornwall, and the new building was formally opened in 1928 by the Duke of Cornwall, the then Prince of Wales, and remained the 'Hardye's' site until 1992. The Memorial Gates, dedicated in 1957, escaped demolition and were moved to the new Thomas Hardye School. Dorchester Grammar School for Girls was opened in around 1930, and Dorchester Modern School some time after the 1944 Education Act. These schools formed the basis of the Thomas Hardye School.