History

A brief history of Bristol Grammar School

The ‘Gramer Scole’ over the Frome Gate was in the care of its first schoolmaster Thomas Moffat, when good fortune stepped in to secure its future. The Thorne family were wealthy Bristol merchants, friends of men like John Cabot and known to royalty. They wished to endow a school where the sons of Bristol merchants and tradesmen could receive a good education before settling down to the important business of making money. On 17 March 1532, Henry VIII issued a Charter under which the Thornes could endow The Grammar School and establish it in larger premises at St Bartholomew’s Hospital near the bottom of Christmas Steps. There the School remained for over two hundred years and the boys learnt Latin and Greek, divinity and some Hebrew.

By 1767 the buildings were too small and cramped and Charles Lee, the Master, had influence with the Corporation. He persuaded them that The Grammar School should be allowed to exchange premises with the other city school, Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital, which had a pleasant, new site on Unity Street, further up the hill. This exchange was carried out, and Charles Lee proceeded to enjoy his new school by greatly reducing the numbers of boys. He had a duty to accept any middle class Bristol boys whose parents wished them to receive a classical education, but he persuaded all too many parents that Latin and Greek were not the best preparation for business life. Eventually he was left with one pupil, known in the city as Lee’s Chick. The School was set to rights in 1812, but education was moving away from the classics and this caused further problems – aggravated by yet another unsuitable headmaster with the inappropriate name of Goodenough.

The Grammar School received a new scheme in 1848 and prospered. In 1879 the decision was taken under the Rev John William Caldicott to move again, further up the hill to the pleasant rural site of Tyndall’s Park. There the first buildings were the big school, with its remarkable Great Hall, originally a teaching room, and still with the Masters’ stalls in place, and the Headmaster’s house, a modest dwelling which is now the Lower School. Caldicott’s portrait is on the east wall of the Great Hall. The School grew rapidly on its new site. Further classrooms were added, a gymnasium, a fives court and a rifle range. These have been rebuilt as art rooms and rehearsal rooms but the Winterstoke wing still houses the laboratories which were added in 1914. The preparatory school began in 1900 and in 1928 moved into its own building on Elton Road, but this, with so much of Bristol, was destroyed on the night of 24 November 1940 by incendiary bombs.

The prep hall which survived is now the Mackay Theatre. The Elton Road ruin was rebuilt as classrooms under John Garrett, who added the University Road block and began to colonise the other side of Elton Road. Since then the School has built yet more classroom accommodation and a new sports hall; art and music have their own Elton Road houses, and the former playing field is now the technology centre. Playing fields at Failand provide accommodation for team games and outdoor sports, including rugby, netball, cricket, hockey, tennis and soccer.

The School is now a modern, coeducational, independent day school. There are over a thousand pupils and nearly one hundred staff, but the whole School can still assemble in Caldicott’s Great Hall.

Who would have thought it?

BGS was thinking environmentally and saving trees as long ago as 1906!

‘No more homework pads are to be given out. I have had too many instances of great waste to permit pads to be used. Form masters are to give out exactly what paper is required for homework at the end of the day, and no more. During the day boys will receive paper from masters taking the lesson and form masters will not be expected to supply it. At the beginning of a lesson a master will know whether he wishes any written work to be done and will, if he does so wish, order the two form monitors to distribute it. It will not waste time, if done at once, nor will it cause disturbance.’

Cyril Norwood, Headmaster 1906 - 1916