Cowbridge Grammar School

Last updated

Cowbridge Grammar School
Cowbridge Grammar School - geograph.org.uk - 496881.jpg
Address
Cowbridge Grammar School
Church Street

, ,
CF71 7AF

Wales
Information
TypeGrammar School
MottoVigiliis et Virtute (Vigilence and Courage)
Established1608
FounderSir John Stradling
Closed1974
Local authority Vale of Glamorgan
GenderBoys
Age11to 19
Colour(s)Red and black
Second FounderSir Leoline Jenkins

Cowbridge Grammar School was one of the best-known schools in Wales until its closure in 1974. It was replaced by Cowbridge Comprehensive School.

Contents

Founded in the 17th century by Sir John Stradling and refounded by Sir Leoline Jenkins, it had close links with Jesus College, Oxford. The school took both boarders and day boys. Famous old boys include actor Anthony Hopkins, poet Alun Lewis , and TV presenter Patrick Hannan. [1]

The main school buildings were located in Church Street, Cowbridge. Derelict for some years, they have now been converted into residential accommodation. The school also occupied part of Old Hall, now an adult education centre.

History

Cowbridge school, c.1860 Cowbridge free school.jpeg
Cowbridge school, c.1860

Cowbridge Grammar School was founded in 1608 by Sir John Stradling [2] and owned by Jesus College, Oxford, from 1685 to 1918. Sir Leoline Jenkins, Secretary of State to Charles II, purchased the school and bequeathed it to Jesus College in his will. With the introduction of Intermediate schools in Wales following the Welsh Intermediate Education Act (1889), the school refused to join the scheme. This was even discussed in Parliament. [3] It became Cowbridge Comprehensive School in 1973-1974. What used to be the grammar school's main building, dating from 1852, was converted into residential accommodations beginning in 2006 and completed in 2008.

In 1881, Edward Treharne, who represented the school, was chosen to play in the first international game for the Wales rugby union team.

Notable former pupils

Cowbridge school cap Cowbridge Grammar School cap.png
Cowbridge school cap

The following old boys are listed in date order:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alun Lewis (poet)</span> Welsh poet

Alun Lewis was a Welsh poet. He is one of the best-known English-language war poets of the Second World War. His poetry centers around a "recurring obsession with the themes of isolation and death."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cowbridge</span> Human settlement in Wales

Cowbridge is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately 12 miles (19 km) west of the centre of Cardiff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leoline Jenkins</span> English politician

Sir Leoline Jenkins was a Welsh academic, diplomat involved in the negotiation of international treaties, jurist and politician. He was a clerical lawyer who served as Judge of the High Court of Admiralty from 1668 to 1685, and enjoyed a high reputation for judicial integrity. As a statesman he served as Secretary of State from 1680 to 1684.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Morris (1833–1907)</span> Welsh poet (1833–1907)

Sir Lewis Morris was a Welsh academic and politician. He was also a popular poet of the Anglo-Welsh school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Hannan (presenter)</span> Welsh political journalist, author and television and radio presenter

Patrick Hannan MBE was a Welsh political journalist, author and television and radio presenter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Treharne</span> Wales international rugby union footballer

Edward Llewellyn Treharne was a Welsh rugby union forward who played club rugby for Pontypridd and Cardiff, and international rugby for Wales. He was a member of the first Wales international team that played England in 1881. At the time of the game he was still a student at Cowbridge, and later became a medical student at St Bartholomew's Hospital.

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1891 to Wales and its people.

Rev. John Pettingall D.D. was a Welsh Church of England clergyman and antiquarian.

This page is a list of High Sheriffs of Glamorgan. Sheriffs of Glamorgan served under and were answerable to the independent Lords of Glamorgan until that lordship was merged into the crown. This is in contrast to sheriffs of the English shires who were from the earliest times officers of the crown. Sheriffs in the modern sense, appointed and answerable to the crown, were instituted in the county of Glamorgan in 1541.

John Pryce was a Welsh clergyman and writer on church history, who became Dean of Bangor Cathedral.

Walter Rice Evans was a Welsh international rugby union player, who won three caps between 1890 and 1891.

John Walters was a Welsh Anglican priest and poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir John Stradling, 1st Baronet</span>

Sir John Stradling, 1st Baronet, was an English poet, scholar and politician.

Pontypridd High School is an English-medium comprehensive school in the village of Cilfynydd near Pontypridd, in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evan Evans (academic)</span>

Evan Evans was Master of Pembroke College, Oxford from 1864 to 1891, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1878 to 1882.

Evan Seys (1604–1685) was an eminent lawyer of his day who rose to national office under Oliver Cromwell as Attorney General, and served as a member of parliament after the Restoration. From c.1649 until his death he was involved in the politics of his native Glamorgan, and of Gloucestershire. He was a committed and active Protestant and an antiquarian scholar.

David Durell D.D. (1728–1775) was Principal of Hertford College, Oxford, from 1757 to 1775, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1765 to 1768, and a noted Old Testament scholar of his day.

Taliesin Williams was a Welsh poet and author, and son of the notable Iolo Morganwg.

A bibliography of books related to the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales.

Sir Edward Stradling (1529–1609) was a Welsh politician, antiquary and literary patron.

References

Notes

  1. Cobb, Peter (2001). At Cowbridge Grammar School 1949–1966. Cowbridge: Cowbridge Record Society. ISBN   095370291X.
  2. Evan David Jones, F.S.A. "Stradling Family, Welsh Biography Online". National Library of Wales. Retrieved 25 May 2009.
  3. Scourfield, Rob. "Former Cowbridge Comprehensive School, Aberthin Road, Cowbridge - An Historical and Architectural Appraisal" (PDF). Old Girls School Wales.

General references

Principal sources

  • Peter Cobb, At Cowbridge Grammar School 1949–1966 (Cowbridge Record Society, 2001)
  • Iolo Davies, A Certaine Schoole (D. Brown & Sons, Cowbridge, 1967)
  • Richard Lewis, A Certaine Schoole Master: A Portrait of Iolo Davies (Apple Town Publishing, 2012), by an appreciative former pupil. Iolo Davies was the Classics Master, boarding master, last Headmaster, and historian of the school.

Extracts, mainly from (auto)biographies

  • Brian Ll. James & David J. Francis, Cowbridge and Llanblethian, Past and Present (Stewart Williams, Publishers, Barry, and D. Brown & Sons Ltd, Cowbridge, 1979), Chapter IV, pp. 157–65: Reminiscences by M.B. Edwards, former Deputy Headmaster, on the school in the 1920s. See also Chapter III, pp. 54–8, on the founding of the free (later grammar) school
  • Patrick Hannan "Hannibal Lecter's Schooldays" Chapter 2 (pp. 38–52) of The Welsh Illusion (Seren 1999). The author recalls his days as a boarder 1952-59. The chapter title says a lot: he makes too much of Anthony Hopkins' being there as well. The tone is journalistically sensational rather than conveying autobiographical, let alone historical accuracy. It is also unfairly anachronistic, but the most entertaining thing written in the school.
  • L. V. Lester, A Memoir of Hugo Daniel Harper (Longman's, 1896), pp. 8–14: laudatory: see also M. H. Roberts, below
  • M. H. Roberts, Sherborne, Oxford and Cambridge (Martin Hopkinson Ltd, 1934), pp. 19–22: an all too brief glimpse of the social and love life of the young schoolmaster. (The author was Hugo Daniel Harper's daughter. ) Harper himself was the energetically resuscitating master of the school 1847-50
  • Michael Feeney Callen, Anthony Hopkins: A Three-Act Life (Robson Books, 2005), pp. 21–9
  • Quentin Falk, Anthony Hopkins (Virgin Books, 2004), pp. 9–11
  • Glyn Tegai Hughes, Islwyn (Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 2003), pp. 10–12: try out your Welsh
  • John Pikoulis, Alun Lewis – A Life (Seren, 1991), pp. 19–31
  • James Marsden, All My Yesterdays (London: Athena, c 2007), pp. 111–60: reminiscences of his time at the school 1956–60 by its first-ever Biology master

Fiction

  • Alun Lewis, "Chestnuts" (1936) in C. Archard (ed.), Alun Lewis: Collected Stories (Seren, 1990), pp. 289–94. The only fictional treatment yet unearthed of CGS. It gives the texture — coarse — of life in the Boarding House in the early 1930s which was still vivid, even raw, in the recall of the undergraduate author.

51°27′43″N3°27′00″W / 51.462°N 3.450°W / 51.462; -3.450