Private Schools in Herefordshire

Independent education in Herefordshire is characterised by an extraordinary historical lineage set against one of England's most rural counties. At the heart of the county lies Hereford Cathedral School, widely recognised as the sixth oldest school in the UK; originating as an Anglo-Saxon song school around 676 AD with records of its first headmaster dating to 1384, it still educates the cathedral's choristers while operating as a leading co-educational day school. In the north of the county near Leominster, Lucton School—founded in 1708 by the London vintner John Pierrepont—reflects the region's pastoral character as a small all-through day and boarding school complete with its own equestrian centre. A notable geographical quirk of Herefordshire's private school sector is found on its eastern border in the village of Colwall: despite carrying Malvern postal addresses often associated with neighbouring Worcestershire, both The Elms School and The Downs Malvern sit firmly on the Herefordshire side of the Malvern Hills. Established in 1614, The Elms is the oldest preparatory school in the country still occupying its original site and incorporates a working farm into its curriculum, while The Downs Malvern, founded in 1900, is famed for having employed the poet W. H. Auden as a schoolmaster in the 1930s.