Bridgnorth Endowed School - History - 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries

16th, 17th and 18th Centuries

Bridgnorth Endowed School was founded in 1503, in the reign of Henry VII, established as a 'common school' by the Corporation of the Borough of Bridgnorth. The revenues of the Chantries of St Leonard's Church were originally used to support the school. An annual payment of £8 from the Exchequer was assigned in perpetuity 'to a Schoolmaster keeping a grammar school' at Bridgnorth after the dissolution of the Chantries in 1548 during the reign of Edward VI. A barn, which had been used as the chapel of St John the Baptist (the new Bridgnorth Town Hall was also built in 1652 using material from a dismantled barn), first housed the school. This stood on the north side of St Leonard's churchyard outside St Leonard's Church. By the end of the sixteenth century the former chapel of St John the Baptist was being described as the 'old school-house'. The former chapel of St John the Baptist was replaced in 1595, in the reign of Elizabeth I, by the present building in St Leonard's Close known as the 'Old Grammar School' which now houses a firm of accountants. 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, during the reign of George III, 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.

In 1639 during the reign of Charles I 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, during the reign of William III and Mary II devoted certain local properties to the maintenance of eighteen, later reduced to ten, scholars from these schools at Christ Church, Oxford. These Careswell Exhibitions were first awarded in 1746, during the reign of George II. For 160 years Bridgnorth shared in the resulting close connexion between Shropshire and Christ Church, 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 annually 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 Rev. Richard Cornes from 1677 to 1726 and of Rev. Hugh Stackhouse from 1726 to 1743 was that they were both also incumbents of St Mary's Church. Rev. Stackhouse bequeathed to the Bridgnorth his collection of theological books and his memory is preserved in the name of the Stackhouse Library, the octagonal brick building with a dome, built on the northeast side of St Leonard's Church to house the collection of books which he had begun, and by a marble tablet over the building's fireplace. 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. Distinguished eighteenth century alumni of the School include Bishop Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore and author of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Sir John Josiah Guest, the engineer, entrepreneur and Member of Parliament, Dr Thomas Beddoes, the physician and scientific writer, and Dr William Macmichael, physician to Kings George IV and William IV and author of The Gold-Headed Cane.