Warminster School - Founding and Amalgamations

Founding and Amalgamations

In 1707, Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth, under the influence of Bishop Thomas Ken (1637–1711), founded a grammar school for boys in the market town of Warminster, near to his family seat of Longleat, to teach the boys of Warminster, Longbridge Deverill, and Monkton Deverill Latin, Mathematics, and other subjects of the usual syllabus of the day. This became known as Lord Weymouth's Grammar School - referred to locally as the "Latin School" - and by the 20th century was called Lord Weymouth's School.

Lord Weymouth (1640–1714) was descended from the first Sir John Thynne of Longleat House. In 1673 he married Lady Francis Finch, a daughter of the Earl of Winchelsea, and lived at Drayton Basset, near Tamworth. He was Member of Parliament for Oxford University (1674–1679), and High Steward of Tamworth in 1679. In 1680 he was created Baron Thynne and in 1682 Viscount Weymouth. He was High Steward of the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield from 1679 to 1714. His three sons all predeceased him.

While the history of the school goes back to 1707, the school in its current form was created in 1973 by the merger of the former Lord Weymouth's School for boys and St Monica's (founded 1874 by the nuns of St. Denys Retreat) for girls. The school also occupies some buildings once used by the former St Boniface Missionary Colleges and the St Denys Convent and retreat.

In 2007 the school celebrated the tercentenary of the founding of Lord Weymouth's Grammar School with a series of events, including a Service of Thanksgiving in Salisbury Cathedral, at which the Bishop of Salisbury spoke about the school's history, and with a Royal Visit when Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, opened the new Wessex Science Centre.