Wigan Grammar School

The school was once on Rodney Street and moved sites multiple times. The last schoolbuilding was constructed in 1935–37 and was opposite Mesnes Park, Wigan. The school eventually closed in 1972 during the shift to comprehensive education.

• Name — Wigan Grammar School • Location — Wigan, Lancashire • Country — England • Type — Grammar school • Established — 1597 • Closed — 1972 • Gender — Male

The earliest surviving records of the school date from 1597. However, there is evidence of earlier education in the town. In 1208, a grant of land was made for a school, and a schoolmaster in Wigan is recorded in 1563. The grammar school was built and endowed in 1613 by Banks, Bullock, and Mollineauz, and some feoffees of the town. David Sinclair (1882) asserts that it had "formerly been styled the, Wigan College had resolved itself into the Wigan Free Grammar School", and that it certainly did not exist in 1536 (due to the Reformation) it was a scoliristic instittion "of no mean repute". The Mayor of Wigan and the town corporation were responsible for the grammar school. In the early years of the grammar school, the town had no dedicated bookseller. The small number of books needed were stocked by the headmaster, and the profit from selling them formed part of his personal income. The first bookseller in Wigan was Edward Bigby, who in 1685 sought and received permission to begin operating in that trade. Henry Felden is the first recorded headmaster, who died in or prior to 1676. The grammar school was founded to educate youth in Puritan tradition, emphasising religion, discipline, virtue and classical learning. Although it was a Free School, the number of free scholars was limited. The Mayor controlled the school, appointed the master, and enforced detailed regulations. The headmaster had to be a graduate or undergraduate of a Protestant university and proficient in Latin and Greek, and had to submit to an examination of his fitness before the Bishop of Chester. Students had long school hours, and the elder boys had to speak Latin during them. Students were allowed physical activities such as archery and running, but gambling and games like cards or dice were strictly forbidden and punished severely. The statutes and rules of the grammar school were first written in 1664, with later additions in 1711 and 1720. They were displayed prominently in the old school in Rodney Street until teaching there ceased. • Illustration — Wigan Grammar School in the early 1900s Although the school was intended to benefit poorer children, fee-paying pupils gradually came to dominate, and rising costs effectively excluded the poor. The institution became largely controlled by wealthier families whose sons received inexpensive classical and commercial education. Public dissatisfaction eventually led to a petition in January 1838, signed by 683 residents, urging the mayor and council to end this monopoly and restore the school for the poor as originally intended. In 1868, the curriculum was changed to include "all modern subjects, so as to enable boys to compete at the Oxford local examinations", and a preparatory school for boys under the age of 10 was established. The third site of Wigan Grammar School was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, the architect of Manchester Town Hall and London's Natural History Museum. Built on the site of the now Linacre Centre on Parsons Walk, its construction was funded by charities. It was a large but limited building with a headmaster's house, a hall, and five classrooms. As student numbers grew, six temporary wooden huts were added on the playground. In 1923, control of the school passed to Wigan Corporation, and the building was demolished in the 1930s to make way for the current one. • Illustration — The former Wigan Grammar School built 1935–37 The school's final site was constructed in 1935–37. The building is in the Modernist style in brick with red tiles and pantile roofs. It is grade II listed building and was later part of Wigan College. It closed in 1972 as part of the comprehensive education movement, and the building became Mesnes High School, which closed in 1989.