Lady Manners has a long history of providing education in the Peak District area.

In May 1636 Grace, Lady Manners bought some land at Elton which was to provide an annual income of £15 for "the mayntayninge of a Schoolemaister for ever to teach a free Schoole within the Townshippe of Bakewell, for the better instructinge of the male children of the Inhabitants of Bakewell and Great Rowsley aforesaid..." The schoolmaster would "be appointed by the Lords of the Manor of Haddon, in the said Countie of Derby, being the heires or posteritie of the said Grace, Ladie Manners..." and as with the Pursglove Grammar School in Tideswell, the deed stipulated that the schoolmaster was to remain unmarried, and "if the said Schoolemaister shall at any time afterward marry, or shall live disorderly or scandalously, that then the said Schoolemaister shall have noe benefitt by the said Annuitie or rente charge, but shall be displaced from the said Schoole".

Additionally the schoolmaster would have received a pay rise following Grace's death as her 1649 will allowed for all the monies generated by the land at Elton to be used for school use (during her life she had kept 25% of the income).

T. Hurst, a graduate of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and a curate at the Parish Church, took over as schoolmaster.

According to White's Directory of Derbyshire (1857)[1] – Bakewell Grammar School, King street, established in 1637, (see Charities) is conducted by Mr Wm.

The New Market House is in King street, and the rooms above the basement are occupied by the Free Grammar school.Under Charities, White's Directory adds "Lady Manners, in 1637, left a rent charge of £15 per annum, out of lands at Elton, to a schoolmaster, for the instruction of male children of the township of Bakewell and Great Rowsley.

The master also receives a voluntary addition of £40 from the Duke of Rutland, making in the whole, £55 per annum; and according to the revised regulations and rules, 20 youths are admitted on the foundation, on the payment of 1s.

When Mr. Kay died in 1874, Archdeacon Balston, then Vicar of Bakewell, and a former Headmaster of Eton, recommended that the school should be closed, and in the absence of a suitable successor the monies from Lady Manners' Foundation should be allowed to accumulate.

The Charity Commissioners decided that a new building could be built "to be used as a grammar school by day, earning through its examinations grants from the Science and Art Department, and as a centre for technical classes in the evenings".

The school now admitted girls as well as boys – a pre-condition of the County Council's grant of £600 towards the building costs.

Subjects taught were Religious Knowledge, English, Classics, Mathematics, Science, French and Drawing.

Fees were £2 per head, but this meant the school operated at a loss and so the County Council agreed to fund 12 scholarships.

Barker House also disappeared for a while at the end of 1937 because when Buxton College became a County School and the Ridgefield boarding annex was no longer needed, there were fewer students from the North area.

By 1938, coinciding with the effective occupation of the new school buildings on Shutts Lane, the main Houses were rearranged again, now numbering four: Elton, Haddon, Glossop and Taylor.

In 1947, just after the Second World War, there was another change when the number of Houses became three again and Barker reappeared, replacing Haddon and Elton.

The school has been repeatedly extended in recent years, from the Cavendish library (named for the family surname of the Dukes of Devonshire, the influential aristocratic family of the nearby Chatsworth estate) in the 1990s to a new sixth form centre and sports facilities opened in 2005.

In July 2005, the orchestra, conducted by Robert Steadman, was awarded "outstanding performance" at the National Festival Music for Youth Finals at Symphony Hall, Birmingham and in November 2005 they were invited to play at the Schools' Prom at the Royal Albert Hall where the 70+ strong orchestra performed a suite from John Williams' score from Jurassic Park and Elgar's Pomp & Circumstance March No.

In July 2007 the school's Senior String Orchestra, also conducted by Robert Steadman, was awarded "outstanding performance" at the National Festival of Music for Youth at Symphony Hall, Birmingham performing a programme of Edward Elgar, Robert Steadman and Edvard Grieg.

In July 2008, the music department managed to achieve the unprecedented by having 5 ensembles reach the National Festival of Music for Youth: the School Orchestra (who performed King Arthur a new work written by Jonathan Roberts (a 6th-form student), Nimrod from the "Enigma Variations" by Elgar and Riverdance by Bill Whelan; the String Orchestra who performed two movements from the St. Paul's Suite by Holst, the Prelude from Psycho by Bernard Hermann and Frolicsome Finale from "Simple Symphony" by Benjamin Britten; the School Jazz Orchestra who performed a programme of four works including "Birdland"; the School Brass Band; and the Senior String Quartet who performed Dvořák and Scott Joplin.

Most years this has been a combined brass and wind band who have visited places such as London, Edinburgh and Yorkshire giving a number of concerts.

Last year (2017), the school orchestra made it to the Music For Youth national competition, playing in the Birmingham main concert hall.

In 2010, GCSE results placed Lady Manners School 7th in Derbyshire, with 70% of students achieving 5 or more GCSEs at grades A* to C including English and Mathematics (the average in England was 53.5%).