By his will dated 29 September 1660, John Bentley, of Richmond, Surrey, left one sixth of a field called Ficketts, near Lincoln's Inn, London, and a rent-charge of £12 a year on another part of the same field, for the founding of what he called "a free English School" at Calne, and appointed three trustees to make the necessary arrangements.
In 1834, the Brougham Commissioners reported that Bentley's had ceased to be a classical school and that no Bridgman Exhibition had been claimed for thirty years.
[1] In 1836, the income was too small to hire a competent classical schoolmaster, and the trustees began to charge school fees.
A new headmaster, Mr. M. S. Gotch, was able to make a better sixth form for the arts and sciences by renting extra rooms around the town for classrooms.
In 1946, the County Council bought a site at Wessington for a new school building and a boarding house, not built by 1952.