Edgehill College was a co-educational independent school

Independent school

An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...

 situated in Bideford

Bideford

Bideford is a small port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is also the main town of the Torridge local government district.-History:...

, Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

. Founded in 1884 by the Bible Christian movement, Edgehill was one of a number of independent schools owned by the Methodist Church of Great Britain

Methodist Church of Great Britain

The Methodist Church of Great Britain is the largest Wesleyan Methodist body in the United Kingdom, with congregations across Great Britain . It is the United Kingdom's fourth largest Christian denomination, with around 300,000 members and 6,000 churches...

 and was sister-school to nearby Shebbear College

Shebbear College

Shebbear College is a co-educational Methodist public school located in Shebbear, Devon, 39 miles from the county seat of Exeter, in the South West region of the United Kingdom and is one of a group of independent boarding schools that form part of the Methodist Church's involvement in...

. It was traditionally the principal girls' independent school in the area, becoming co-educational in 1992. The Preparatory School was always co-educational.

On 5 March 2006, a fire caused costly damage to the main school. Another fire caused significant damage on 11 May 2008.

In 2007 Charlotte Shaw, a pupil, died training for Ten Tors

Ten Tors

Ten Tors is an annual weekend hike organised and run in early May for 2,400 young people by the British Army on Dartmoor. The majority of entrants are schools, colleges, Scout groups and Cadet squadrons from South West England, though groups from across the UK regularly take part, as do teams from...

, when she fell into a brook on Dartmoor and was swept away.

Houses

Pupils were assigned membership to competitive houses on enrolment. Since September 2003 until the school's closure these houses were named after local rivers: Tamar, Taw and Torridge. Prior to this the houses had been called Belvoir, Carisbrooke, Kiltrasna and Longfield, after the boarding houses which all girls were members of. It is also known that four competitive houses were named after famous female authors and these were Austin, Bronte, Elliot and Gaskell, with house colours blue, green, yellow and red, respectively. The competitive houses participated in sporting events as well as three annual inter-house festivals in drama, music, and poetry and public speaking. Before 2001 this system was also the basis of pastoral support with each house having a physical presence with a staff and recreational facilities.

Closure

On the 28th October 2008 it was announced by Methodist Education that Edgehill College and the neighbouring Woodard School, Grenville College

Grenville College

Grenville College was an independent boarding and day school situated in Bideford, Devon, England. In 2009 the school merged with neighbouring Edgehill College to become the Kingsley School.-History:...

, would merge to become Kingsley School

Kingsley School, Bideford

Kingsley School, Bideford, is a co-educational independent school situated in Bideford, Devon. In was founded in 2009 as a result of the merger of Grenville College and Edgehill College....

at the beginning of January 2009. This was a response to difficulty and pressure placed on maintaining independent education in north Devon. The move was triggered by a fall in pupil numbers in both schools since education reforms in 1997, and by difficult economic circumstances both locally and nationally.