Coordinates: 51°52′19″N 0°10′21″E / 51.8720°N 0.1725°E / 51.8720; 0.1725

Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire in the county of Hertfordshire in England. It is situated just west of the M11 motorway, on the county boundary with Essex and is the closest large town to London Stansted Airport and part of the London commuter belt. Bishop's Stortford is 29 miles (47 km) north east of Charing Cross in the centre of London and 35 miles (56 km) from Liverpool Street station where the railway line from Cambridge to London, which runs through the town, terminates. In the 2006 edition of the Channel 4 "Best and Worst Places to Live in the UK", East Hertfordshire was the seventh best district to live in. The town has a population of 34,826.

Nothing of historical significance is known of the Bishop's Stortford area until it became a small Roman settlement on the Roman road of Stane Street between Braughing and Colchester. After the Roman Empire broke down, the small town was abandoned in the 5th century.^{[citation needed]}

Bishop's Stortford College is a co-educational independent school for day and boarding pupils from the ages of four to eighteen, with a 130-acre (0.53 km²) campus located on the edge of Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. As an "all-through" school it is a member of both the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools.

Bishop's Stortford College was founded in 1868 by a group of prominent Nonconformists in East Anglia who wanted to establish a public school

They approached the Bishop's Stortford Collegiate School, a non-sectarian school founded in 1850, and acquired the school buildings, naming the new educational establishment as the Nonconformist Grammar School.

Two grammar schools in the town proved confusing so in 1901 the name was changed to the Bishop’s Stortford College and the association became instead a board of governors with nominees from the Baptist, Congregational and Presbyterian churches on the panel.

The school’s first headmaster was the Reverend Richard Alliott and its first pupils were 40 in number. Rev Alliott led the school for 31 years and his successor Francis Young was also in post for 31 years.