About us

The Bedford Charity, also known as the Harpur Trust, is one of the 200 largest charities in the UK, but a local one, with three charitable objectives:

• The promotion of education
  
  
• The relief of those who are sick or in need, hardship or distress
  
  
• The provision of recreational facilities with a social welfare purpose

within the town of Bedford and the surrounding area.

We also administer the four main schools of the Trust:

• Bedford School is a boys boarding and day school
• Bedford High School is a boarding and day school for girls.
• Dame Alice Harpur School is a day school for girls
• Bedford Modern School became a co-educational day school with effect from September 2003.

All these schools take pupils from 7 to 18. Further details can be obtained from the schools' own websites and our Schools pages.

Pilgrims Pre-Preparatory School was set up by the Charity in January 1998 to offer education to children from 3 months to 7 years. It is run by Harpur Pre-Peparatory Schools Ltd, a separate charitable company limited by guarantee. Further details are on our Schools pages.

Last year, the Charity made grants of over £460,000 to support its three charitable objectives in projects as diverse as:

• sponsorship to enable an Upper School to apply for specialist school status
• the building of a fishing platform for disabled anglers
• funding collaborative working between voluntary agencies to provide one to one support to young, vulnerable homeless people.

Further details are on our Grants pages. In addition, we own and administer 38 almshouses in the Borough.

The Charity employs over 1,400 people in the town of Bedford.