Sir John Bayley (Wrekin College); Dr J Edward. Cranage (Old Hall School)
Chairman of Governing Body
Richard Pearson
Headmaster
Toby Spence (Wrekin College); Anna Karacan (The Old Hall School)
Gender
Co-educational
Age
11 (Wrekin College); 4 (Old Hall School)to 18 (Wrekin College; 11 (Old Hall School)
Number of students
560 (Wrekin College); 229 (Old Hall School)
Houses
Bayley, Clarkson, Lancaster, Roslyn, Tudor, York. Former houses: Hanover, Norman, Eastfield, Saxon. Windsor, Old Hall houses: Ercall, Leighton, Wenlcok, Cressage
Colour(s)
Wrekin College: The Old Hall School:
Publication
The Wrekinian "Old Hall Reflections"
Wrekin College is an independent co-educational boarding and day school located in Wellington, Shropshire, England. It was founded by Sir John Bayley in 1880. It is now co-located with a preparatory school, The Old Hall School, founded by 1835. The two schools merged their governance and formed one trust in 2007.[1]
Girls were introduced to the sixth form by headmaster Geoffrey Hadden in 1975. It became fully co-educational in the year 1983. There are currently approximately 560 pupils including a number of international boarders. The school admits pupils from the age of eleven.[citation needed]
The high medieval or C16th building which was the original site of the Old Hall School between 1845 and 2007
The Old Hall School
The Old Hall Preparatory School was founded in 1835[2][3] by Dr J.E. (Joseph Edward) Cranage, providing originally for the education of boys only, being described in 1891 as:
one of the most widely known and popular educational establishments for gentlemen's sons in the Midlands[4]
In founding the school, Cranage was inspired by the example of Thomas Arnold at Rugby School,[5] he was aged just nineteen years at the time but had already completed an MA and PhD.[6]
It operated for its first 160 years from a building understood to have been constructed in the 1400s.[7] A chapel was added as a war memorial in 1922.[8] That chapel has since been converted into a residence, but the memorial tablets were moved to the Wrekin College chapel.[9]
The writer Bruce Chatwin attended the school,[12]The London Review of Books published The Seventh Day, practically the last story Bruce Chatwin wrote. The semi-autobiographical account of a “nervous and skinny boy with thick fair hair” who hated boarding school so much he developed a near fatal bout of constipation, the tale was largely based on the writer’s own experiences at The Old Hall.[13]
The Old Hall appointed Ms Anna Karacan as headteacher in 2022, the first woman to hold the role in 188 years of the school to that point.[14]
Merger of the Old Hall and Wrekin trusts.
In 2006, the trust was merged with that of The Old Hall Preparatory School (founded 1845), which moved from its original site on Limekiln Lane to the site of Wrekin College.[15]
The resulting trust is called The Wrekin Old Hall Trust.[16]
In 2023 Wrekin was named as one of The Cricketer’s Top 100 cricketing schools in the country and in 2022 both the Under 16 and Under 13 rugby teams were named county champions.[21]
Cocurricular
A music school was opened in 2020 costing over £2m.[22]
Flags
Wrekin college has a blue flag with a rampant lion and "Wrekin" written on it.[23] It is unclear if the Old Hall has a its own flag.[clarification needed]
Coats of arms
Wrekin college has been granted a coat of arms.[24] The Old Hall School also has a coat of arms.[clarification needed]
Royal visit
Queen Elizabeth II visited Wrekin on Friday 17 March 1967, having opened Shire Hall in Shrewsbury earlier that day. The Headmaster, Robert Dahl (Headmaster. 1952-71), greeted the Queen, and in his study presented a specially bound copy of B.C.W Johnson’s A Brief History of Wrekin College, whilst Head of School, David Franklin (W. 1961-67) was given the honour of presenting a cricket bat for her sons[citation needed].
Old Wrekinian Association
In 1907 the Old Wrekinian Association (OWA) was created by 14 past pupils, it now has almost 6000 members. The purpose of the OWA is to help past students keep in touch with one another and the school. The OWA Record magazine is published twice a year.[citation needed]
↑ Leinster-Mackay, Donald P. (1971). The English private school 1830-1914, with special reference to the private proprietary school. Durham University Thesis.
Shropshire is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England, on the Welsh border. It is bordered by Wrexham County Borough and Cheshire to the north, Staffordshire to the east, Worcestershire to the south-east, Herefordshire to the south and Powys to the west. The largest settlement is Telford, and Shrewsbury is the county town.
Shrewsbury School is a public school in Shrewsbury. It was founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, to reconstitute the town's collegiate foundations of the 6th and 10th centuries which were disestablished in the reformation. Shrewsbury School is one of the seven public schools addressed in the Public Schools Act 1868 and one of the nine schools reviewed by the Clarendon Commission between 1861 and 1864.
Telford is a town in Shropshire, England. It is the administrative centre of Telford and Wrekin borough, a unitary authority which covers the town, its suburbs and surrounding settlements. The town is close to the county's eastern boundary, and near the River Severn.
Newport is a market town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire, England. It lies 7 miles (11 km) north-east of Telford town centre, 12 miles (19 km) west of Stafford, and is near the Shropshire-Staffordshire border. The 2001 census recorded 10,814 people living in the town's parish, which rose to 11,387 by the 2011 census.
Haberdashers' Adams Grammar School is a selective state grammar school for high-achieving boys and girls aged 11–18 with boarding for boys, located in Newport, Shropshire, offering day and boarding education. Current (2021) boarding fees are £12,144 per year and £13,644 per year for overseas students It was founded in 1656 by William Adams, a wealthy member of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers. In January 2018, in the face of opposition from significant stakeholders, the school changed its name to Haberdashers' Adams, replacing the previous name, Adams' Grammar School. From 2024, Haberdashers' Adams has announced that it will be fully co-educational admitting girls into Year 7, the first time in its 400 year old history.
Market Drayton is a market town and civil parish on the banks of the River Tern in Shropshire, England. It is close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is located between the towns of Whitchurch, Wem, Nantwich, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Newport and the city of Stoke on Trent. The town is on the Shropshire Union Canal and bypassed by the A53 road.
Wellington is a constituent market town of Telford and a civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England. It is situated 3 miles (4.8 km) north-west of Telford town centre and 12 miles (19 km) east of Shrewsbury; the summit of The Wrekin lies 3 miles south-west of the town. The population of the town was 25,554 in 2011.
Wem is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, 9 miles (14 km) north of Shrewsbury and 9 miles (14 km) south of Whitchurch.
The Wrekin is a constituency in the House of Commons of the British Parliament, located in the county of Shropshire in the West Midlands of England. It has existed continuously since its creation by the Representation of the People Act 1918, and is named after a prominent landmark hill in the area, The Wrekin. It has been represented by the Labour and Conservative parties since the 1920s, a post held since 2005 by Conservative MP Mark Pritchard.
Founded by King Henry VIII in 1541, The King's School is a state-funded Church of England Cathedral Chorister School located in Peterborough, England. It is the Chorister School for Peterborough Cathedral. Former pupils are known as Old Petriburgians.
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Caldicott Preparatory School is a prep school for boys aged 7–13 in southern Buckinghamshire, England.
The Telford Langley School is a coeducational secondary school with academy status, located in the Dawley area of Telford in Shropshire, England.
Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Academy in Telford, Shropshire, England, is a coeducational secondary school on Ironbridge Road in Madeley which was founded in 1937. It is named after Abraham Darby III and is situated one mile from the Iron Bridge which he built in 1779. In September 2008 the school was converted to an academy through a link to Haberdashers' Adams, and was accepted by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). The school is a subsidiary of Haberdashers' Adams Grammar School in Newport. It part of the HWMAT group of schools. The new-style-academy is sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers'.
Grove School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Market Drayton, Shropshire, England, for pupils aged between 11 and 18. In December 2018, the school converted to an academy as part of the Marches Academy Trust. Mitchell Allsopp was appointed as headteacher in January 2024.
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