John Hampden Grammar School - History

History

In the early 1890s a fund was set up to raise money for an Art and Technical school in High Wycombe to help support the traditional skills in the town of cabinet making, carving and polishing. Early donations to the fund included a grant of £575 from the School of Art in Kensington Gardens and a further donation from Buckinghamshire County Council's education fund which had benefited from proceeds derived from an unpopular tax imposed on wines and spirits.

To make up the shortfall needed to pay for the building the schools' trustees and general committee ran a three day fair in the grounds of Wycombe Abbey, the home of the then Lord Carrington. The fête took place in July 1892, with Lady Carrington arriving by a special train from Paddington. The Great Western Railway also ran excursions from Maidenhead, Thame, Aylesbury and Chinnor and the revelries were led by the band of the 17th Lancers. By the end of the event the committee had raised £800.

The school was originally built on 530 square yards of land in Frogmore Gardens, known now as Frogmoor, purchased from Lord Carrington for £325. The building work cost £1,964 and when the school opened there was still a shortfall of £230, some of which was met by a further bazaar. In 1901 the trustees allowed girls to be taught in separate classes, with separate teachers and this arrangement continued until 1906 when the girls moved to buildings in Benjamin Road ultimately becoming Wycombe High School.

Courses were run at the School at all times of the day but most were in the evenings and weekends so that students could also work in the local furniture trade, but after the First World War the courses were supplemented by special tuition for ex-soldiers and sailors who had become disabled in the war. In 1919, the majority of departments from Frogmoor were moved to the empty grammar school building which had been vacated by the Royal Grammar School in Easton Street, High Wycombe, when the latter moved to its present site to the north of the town. The Frogmoor school continued to be used after the move to Easton Street and was finally sold in 1928. In 1920 the Junior Day School opened as a response to the 1918 Education Act. Classes were offered in all school subjects (except French) and lessons in metalwork and woodwork were introduced - the first in the country. The School's name changed to Wycombe Technical Institute.

Although the School of Art continued to be part of the Institute it was often considered a separate entity and it moved to Amersham in 1973 becoming part of Amersham and Wycombe College.

In 1927 land was rented from Lord Lincolnshire to become the school's playing fields - until then the boys had used the Rye for sports fixtures. The boys had to change in an open fronted pavilion near where the present one is and the girls had an even worse deal changing behind the large roller.

The school motto 'Quit Ye Like Men', adapted from I Corinthians 16 v13, was adopted in 1924. It remained the motto even during the co-ed period - girls were admitted in 1925 mainly to study commercial subjects. In 1944, following the introduction of the new Education Act, the Institute became the town's new technical school taking children at 11 and 13 plus. By 1954, the combined school and further education centre had become vastly over-subscribed and unwieldy. Consequently the High Wycombe College of Further Education was set up on its present site (now Bucks New Uni) although the final separation of students didn't come about until 1963.

In 1956 the girls transferred to the old Wycombe High School buildings in Benjamin Road to form Lady Verney High School. The boys remained at Easton Street as Wycombe Technical High School for a further 10 years before moving to the present site at the top of Marlow Hill in 1966. The name was changed to The John Hampden School in 1970 and John Hampden Grammar School in 1984.

More recent developments gave the school a new façade in September 1995 and the following January work was completed on a sixth-form block to provide specialist teaching rooms, private study rooms, a common room and a new library. In 2006 a new classroom block, used mainly for mathematics teaching and a sports hall, was opened by Bob Wilson. This in turn allowed for an extension of the music department and development of a music studio. In June 2011 a new food technology hall was completed, enabling food technology and cooking to be taught for the first time.