Although the school has been on the Hectorage Road/Brionne Gardens site since 1936 its history goes back to 1854. We have the log books maintained by previous headteachers, the oldest dating back to 1863.
In 1854 a school was built in Waterloo Road, Tonbridge (behind St. Stephen’s Church). It was built in response to the rapidly growing population of poor cottage dwellers in the Parish. There were separate rooms for boys and girls. The school role was fifty girls but rose to 122 girls in 1868. Maggie Ann Cairney has kindly updated us about how the school was renamed:
“Hello, my name is Margaret Cairney nee Vinten. I attended Hillview School from 1966-1970. I have been reading about the history of the school and noticed that the reason for the name of Hillview is unknown. Well I can tell you, during our time there, it was decided to give the school a proper name. We had several choices of ideas for names on the blackboard. Through a voting system Hillview came out top, so from then on it had its new name of Hillview. I thought it would be nice to let you know.”
