Bridgnorth Endowed School

Bridgnorth Endowed School
File:Bridgnorth Endowed School 1908 Building.jpg
Address
Northgate Bridgnorth , Shropshire , WV16 4ER England
Information
Type	Voluntary Controlled
Motto	'Working Together For Success'
Established	1503
Founder	Bridgnorth Town Council
Local authority	Shropshire
Specialist	Technology College
Ofsted	Reports
Chair	Richard Stilwell
Headteacher	Harold Loveday
Gender	Co-educational
Age	11 to 18
Enrollment	1,009 (2008)
Houses	Hardwicke, Rowley and Washbrook
Website	http://www.bridgnorthendowed.co.uk/

Bridgnorth Endowed School is a co-educational secondary school in the market town of Bridgnorth in the rural county of Shropshire, England. It is a state school and is a specialist Technology College. Bridgnorth Endowed School is one of the most ancient schools in England, and indeed the world, having been founded in 1503 by Bridgnorth Town Council. The School celebrated the 500th anniversary of its foundation in 2003.

The Foundation of the School in the Sixteenth Century

Bridgnorth Endowed School owes its ultimate origin to a deliberate act of Bridgnorth Town Council in 1503, when a 'common school' was set up and the individual priests of the College forbidden to take pupils (the priests serving the Chantries and Church of St Leonard lodged at 'the College', on the site of the present College House in St Leonard's Close which now houses Bridgnorth Town Council's offices).

The School in the Sixteenth Century

File:Bridgnorth Grammar School - 'Old Grammer School' Building.JPG

The School appears to have been supported out of the revenues of the Chantries of St Leonard's Church, and when in 1548 the Chantries throughout England were dissolved, an annual payment of £8 from the exchequer was assigned in perpetuity 'to a Schoolmaster keeping a grammar school' at Bridgnorth. The School's first home seems to have been the the former chapel of St John the Baptist, a barn (the new Bridgnorth Town Hall was also built in 1652 using material from a dismantled barn) on the north side of St Leonard's churchyard outside St Leonard's Church. This building was described as the 'old school-house' by the end of the sixteenth century. The present 'Old Grammar School' in St Leonard's Close was originally built in 1595 to replace the former chapel of St John the Baptist. This building appears to have been erected by Sir Rowland Haywood, a sixteenth century inhabitant of Bridgnorth who made a name for himself in business in London and became Lord Mayor of London and a Member of Parliament for the City of London. Indeed, Sir John Haywood in his will of 1635 refers to the School as having been founded by his father, Sir Rowland. Sir Rowland appears to have charged a property at Bridgnorth with an annual payment of £20 to the School, a payment later rendered by the Apley estate after Sir William Whitmore's purchase of the land in question in 1623. In 1785 the 'Old Grammar School' was renovated with gifts of £200 each given by the town's Members of Parliament, Major Whitmore and Admiral Pigot. The 'Old Grammar School' building still stands in St Leonard's Close and is currently occupied by a firm of accountants.

The School in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

In 1639 Sir William Whitmore had erected on the east side of St Leonard's Church a house of which part was to be occupied, at a nominal rent, by the Headmaster, and the remainder by the Minister of St Leonard's Church. Sir William Whitmore's building still stands in St Leonard's Close. It has been converted into three private town houses with Grade II* listed status. The School was named by Edward Careswell of Bobbington as one of the several free grammar schools in Shropshire, also including Shrewsbury, Newport, Wem, Shifnal and Donnington (the last appears to have had only a short existence) to benefit by his will, which in 1690 devoted certain local properties to the maintenance of eighteen, later reduced to ten, scholars from these schools at Christ Church College, Oxford University. These Careswell Exhibitions were first awarded in 1746. For 160 years Bridgnorth shared in the resulting close connexion between Shropshire and Christ Church College, Oxford, until in 1905 the Exhibitions became tenable elsewhere.

The School was kept clean by the labour of 'a poor boy of the said School' who was paid 4 pence annualy by each of his fellows; normal repairs were paid for by the town; the town also added a further £10 to the School's annual income, but when that income had to be divided between the Headmaster and the Usher (who took the younger boys) it was naturally difficult to find and still more so to keep good masters. In 1635, for instance, the School contained only six boys. The reason for the long Headmasterships of Richard Cornes from 1677 to 1726 and of Dr Hugh Stackhouse from 1726 to 1743 was that they were both also incumbents of St Mary's Church. Dr Stackhouse bequeathed to the Bridgnorth clergy his collection of books and his memory is preserved in the name of the Stackhouse Library, the octagonal building later erected on the northeast side of St Leonard's Church to house the collection of books which he had begun. After 1766 no Usher was appointed; but the emoluments could not now support even a single master unless he could attract boarders to the School. Alumni of the School from this period include Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore and author of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Sir John Josiah Guest, the engineer, entrepreneur and Member of Parliament, Thomas Beddoes, the physician and scientific writer, and William Macmichael, the physician and author of The Gold-Headed Cane.

The Nineteenth Century School

In 1817 the Town increased its subsidy to £30, but in 1821 there were only ten boys, when the Dean of Christ Church College, Oxford, who had been asked to recommend a candidate, proposed as Headmaster twentyfour year old Thomas Rowley of Middleton Scriven, who had himself studied at Christ Church College. Under Dr Rowley's leadership the School's reputation increased. Dr Rowley's success as a teacher of the Classics soon attracted boarders (housed in the Headmaster's House in St Leonard's Close) from far and near. His pupils included not only Bridgnorth boys, but also those from further afield. The numbers rose to about 150. In 1841 Dr Rowley was attacked by some members of the Town Council who complained of the treatment of the day-boys by the boarders and of the School's concentration on the Classics; but the Borough Treasurer wrote in Rowley's defence that the day-boys can hardly not have benefited from the specialist teachers whom Rowley was able to engage. Alumni of the School during this time include Bishop James Fraser, the reforming Bishop of Manchester, Lord Lingen, the influentual civil servant, Henry John Roby, the classical scholar, writer on Roman law and Member of Parliament, General Sir Charles Warren, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police during the period of the Jack the Ripper murders and later a (less than successful) General in the Second Boer War, and Robert Eyton, the historian of medieval Shropshire. The East Window of the St Leonard's Church was replaced in memory of Dr Rowley, subcribed for by old scholars of the School and dedicated by Bishop James Fraser. Dr Rowley's successors after 1850 had not his ability, and accordingly the School's numbers and reputation, and their own enoluments, declined. Unsuccessful attempts were made to acquire some of the funds of the Careswell trust for the improvement of the School's buildings and endowments.

The Twentieth Century School

In 1909 the School passed into the control of the County Council, the new Grammar School building at Northgate having been built in 1908. (This building still forms the core of present day School and in 2003 a clock was placed on the outside of the building to mark the School's 500th anniversary.) In the years immediately previous to 1908 classes were held in three places - the Headmaster's House in St Leonard's Close, the Foster Memorial Institute in the High Street, and the 'Old Grammar School' building in St Leonard's Close. Alumni from this period of the School's history include Sir Cedric Hardwicke, the Hollywood character actor, and Cyril Washbrook, the cricketer who played for Lancashire and England and whose record as an England batsman is legendary. Until 1929 the Bridgnorth Girl's Public High School led an independent existence in the new Grammar School building at Northgate. The Grammar School and the Bridgnorth Girl's Public High School were finally combined in 1929. The mixed School was 'transitionally aided' under the Education Act 1944; in 1955 it become voluntary controlled. The School's name was changed from Bridgnorth Grammar School to Bridgnorth Endowed School in 1974 when it began the transition from a selective to a comprehensive intake. The new name reflected the School's history, referring to the endowments it had received. In the nineteenth century the term 'endowed school' and 'grammar school' were used interchangably as in the Endowed Schools Act 1869.

The House System

The School's three houses are named Rowley (red), Hardwicke (gold) and Washbrooke (green), after Dr Thomas Rowley, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, and Cyril Washbrook.

Notable Alumni

• Thomas Beddoes (1760–1808), physician and scientific writer.
• Robert William Eyton (1815-1881), historian of medieval Shropshire.
• Bishop James Fraser (1818–1885), reforming Bishop of Manchester.
• Sir John Josiah Guest, 1st Baronet, MP (1785–1852), engineer, entrepreneur, and Member of Parliament.
• Sir Cedric Hardwicke, KBE (1893-1964), Hollywood character actor.
• Lord Lingen 1st Baron Lingen of Lingen KCB (1819–1905), influentual civil servant.
• William Macmichael (1783–1839), physician and author of The Gold-Headed Cane (1827)
• Bishop Thomas Percy (1729-1811), Bishop of Dromore and author of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765).
• Henry John Roby, MP (1830–1915), classical scholar, writer on Roman law, and Member of Parliament.
• General Sir Charles Warren, GCMG, KCB, FRS (1840–1927), Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police during the period of the Jack the Ripper murders and a General in the Second Boer War.
• Cyril Washbrook, CBE (1914–1999), cricketer who played for Lancashire and England.

Further Reading

Maureen Jones (ed), Bridgnorth grammar and endowed schools : five hundred years of change 1503-2003 (Oxford, 2003)

See Also

• List of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom
• List of the oldest schools in the world

External Links

• Official site