Beaminster Grammar School | |
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![]() School House, late 19th century | |
Location | |
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Coordinates | 50°49′N2°44′W / 50.81°N 2.74°W |
Information | |
Type | grammar school |
Established | c. 1868 |
Closed | 1962 |
Age | 11to 18 |
Beaminster Grammar School, known in its final years as Beaminster and Netherbury Grammar School, was a small grammar school in the town of Beaminster, in Dorset, England, founded about 1868 and closed in 1962.
An earlier Beaminster Grammar School existed in the town in the 18th century, and one of its Masters, the Rev. Samuel Hood, was the father of two admirals, Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood (1724–1816) and Alexander Hood, 1st Viscount Bridport (1726–1814). [1] This school had closed by 1820. [2]
The later grammar school was founded after the closure of a school called the Beaminster Classical and Commercial School, which came to an end in 1868. Originally for boys only, the new school took boarders as well as day boys. [2]
In 1904, Dorset County Council made the school a specialist centre for agriculture. A fund was opened to provide more accommodation, and the local member of parliament, Colonel Robert Williams, donated £300. [3] Writing about the 1910s fifty years later, old boy Ralph Wightman recalled that "The masters were kindly, and corporal punishment was almost unknown. I was at Beaminster under two Headmasters, and the second, Mr L. Skyrm, did not cane anyone..." [4] He remembered that in those days most children had gone to school by bicycle, but about eight had ridden in on horses, “…and the way home usually started with a race.” [5] This continued into the 1920s. [6]
After the First World War, the school merged with a similar establishment in neighbouring Netherbury and was renamed the Beaminster and Netherbury Grammar School. [7] It was by then co-educational, which was unusual for a secondary school in the first half of the 20th century. In 1923, an Old Boys' and Old Girls' Association (OBOGA) was founded. [6] In the 1930s, the number of pupils was about 130. [8]
In the 1950s there were both weekly and termly boarders, the boys sleeping at School House in Hogshill Street, the girls at Tucker House on the other side of the road, until later the girls were transferred to a house called Woodlands on the Bridport Road and Tucker House became a second boys' house. There was a flourishing Combined Cadet Force. [9] The school was successful at cricket, [10] and day children had their school lunches at a nearby inn, the Red Lion. [11] However, in December 1962 the school was closed, largely because its small size of about 150 pupils made it relatively expensive to operate. A new comprehensive school replaced it.
The old school association, OBOGA, was still going strong in 2013, when it celebrated its 90th annual reunion. [6] Since the 1960s School House has been subdivided into 49A and 49B Hogshill Street, with a new development at one side called School House Close.
Bridport is a market town and civil parish in Dorset, England, 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) inland from the English Channel near the confluence of the River Brit and its tributary the Asker. Its origins are Saxon and it has a long history as a rope-making centre. On the coast and within the town's boundary is West Bay, a small fishing harbour also known as Bridport Harbour.
Beaminster is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England, approximately 15 miles (24 km) northwest of the county town Dorchester. It is sited in a bowl-shaped valley near the source of the small River Brit. The population of Beaminster parish was recorded as 3,177 in the 2021 census.
Netherbury is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It lies within the Dorset Council administrative area, by the small River Brit, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of Beaminster and 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Bridport. The A3066 road connecting those towns lies 0.5 miles to the east.
Loders is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It lies 2 miles (3.2 km) north-east of the town of Bridport. It is a linear village, sited in the valley of the small River Asker, between Waddon Hill and Boarsbarrow Hill. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 518.
Rampisham is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England, situated approximately 11 miles (18 km) northwest of the county town Dorchester. The village is sited on greensand in a valley surrounded by the chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. The parish includes the hamlet of Uphall northwest of the main village.
Stoke Abbott is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Beaminster. In 2013 the estimated population of the parish was 190.
Yetminster is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It lies 4 miles (6.4 km) south-west of Sherborne. It is sited on the River Wriggle, a tributary of the River Yeo, and is built almost entirely of honey-coloured limestone, which gives the village an appearance reminiscent of Cotswold villages. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 1,105.
Admiral Alexander Hood, 1st Viscount Bridport, KB, of Cricket St Thomas, Somerset, was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.
Vice-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, 1st Baronet,, of 37 Lower Wimpole Street, London, was an officer of the Royal Navy. He served as a Member of Parliament for Westminster in 1806.
Sir William Philip Colfox, 1st Baronet, MC, DL, JP was an English soldier, farmer and Conservative Party politician.
Drimpton is a village in the English county of Dorset, situated approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) northwest of Beaminster and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southwest of Crewkerne in Somerset. It lies within the civil parish of Broadwindsor.
Ralph Wightman was an English lecturer, journalist, author, and radio and television broadcaster.
Sir John Norman Toothill CBE was an English electrical engineer who rose to be Managing Director of Ferranti.
Uckfield School, founded in 1718, later called Uckfield Grammar School, grew from a small local charity school at Uckfield into a grammar school with about 160 boys, including boarders. It closed in 1930.
Enniskillen Royal Grammar School, located in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, is an academically selective, co-educational, non-denominational voluntary grammar school. The school opened its doors on 1 September 2016. Two former Enniskillen grammar schools were amalgamated to form the school. It is located on two sites.
Christ Church is a Church of England church in Melplash, Dorset, England. It was built in 1845–46 to the designs of Benjamin Ferrey and has been a Grade II* listed building since 1984. Today the church is part of the Beaminster Area Team Ministry.
Holy Trinity Church is a Church of England church in Salway Ash, Dorset, England. The church was designed by George Crickmay and built in 1887–89. It now forms part of the Beaminster Area Team Ministry.
The Hood baronetcy, of Tidlake in the County of Surrey, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 13 April 1809 for Admiral Samuel Hood (1762–1814). He was a younger son of Samuel Hood (1715–1805) of Kingsland in the parish of Netherbury, Dorset, a purser in the Royal Navy and first cousin of the 1st Viscount Hood and the 1st Viscount Bridport. The baronetcy was created with remainder to his nephew Alexander Hood (1793–1851) of Wootton House, Butleigh, Somerset, and the heirs male of his body.
Beaminster Rural District was a rural district in the administrative county of Dorset, England from 1894 to 1974, covering an area in the west of the county around the small town of Beaminster.