Cowbridge Girls School is a former school in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. Designed by Robert Williams and built in 1896, it was the first school for girls built under the

Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889 The Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict c 40) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Background Elementary education had been compulsory in Wales, as in the rest of the United Kingdom, since the introduction of t ...

and has been described as the first secondary school for girls in England and Wales. Unusually for a girls' school of the period it was built with a laboratory to allow the girls to study science. The school merged with

Cowbridge Comprehensive School Cowbridge Comprehensive School is a secondary school in the town of Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, near Cardiff, Wales. The school has approximately 1,500 pupils, 1,200 of whom are in the secondary years and 300 in the sixth-form years studying f ...

in 1974 and the building was used to house the combined school's

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

until 2010. The building was sold to

Hafod Hafod is a district of the city of Swansea, in South Wales, U.K., and lies just north of the city centre, within the Landore ward. Hafod is the home to the Hafod Copperworks, founded in 1810 and closed in 1980 which is now being developed i ...

housing association in 2018 and in 2022 the

Vale of Glamorgan Council The Vale of Glamorgan Council is the governing body for the Vale of Glamorgan, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. It was run by the Conservative Party after the 2008 United Kingdom local elections, taking over the council from no overall contr ...

granted permission for it to be demolished and replaced with a development of flats and houses, despite a local campaign to preserve it.

School

The school, designed by Welsh architect Robert Williams, was built in 1896 as a result of the

. The act provided state-funded

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

(then termed intermediate education) to all girls in Wales and resulted in the construction of 95 schools, of which Cowbridge was the first girls' school. Similar provision in England did not come about until the

Education Act 1902 The Education Act 1902 ( 2 Edw. 7 c. 42), also known as the Balfour Act, was a highly controversial Act of Parliament that set the pattern of elementary education in England and Wales for four decades. It was brought to Parliament by a Conservat ...

. The school opened in September 1896 as the Cowbridge Intermediate School for Girls. It has been described as the first secondary school for girls in all of

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

. It was one of just two girls' secondary schools built under the 1889 act in the

Vale of Glamorgan The Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg ), often referred to as The Vale, is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf to the north, and the Bristol C ...

. Unusually for a girls' school in this period the building included a science laboratory; girls were typically not permitted to study the subject. The building also included hostel facilities to allow girls from outlying areas to stay overnight. The structure was extended in 1909. When the school merged with

in 1974 to become a co-educational facility, the building was retained as the new school's

sixth form college A sixth form college is an educational institution, where students aged 16 to 19 typically study for advanced school-level qualifications, such as A Levels, Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) and the International Baccalaureate Di ...

. The former girls' school has been disused since the comprehensive moved to a new site in 2010.

Redevelopment

The school site was owned by the Sir Thomas Mansel Franklen Trust and sold to the Hafod

housing association In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, Non-profit organization, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost "Public housing in the United Kingdom, social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budge ...

in 2018. In 2018 Hafod submitted a planning application to demolish the school and replace it with a development of 30 flats and 4 houses. The application was held up by concerns raised over ecology, particularly bats, by

Natural Resources Wales Natural Resources Wales ( cy, Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru) is a Welsh Government sponsored body, which became operational from 1 April 2013, when it took over the management of the natural resources of Wales. It was formed from a merger of the Count ...

. In 2019 a group, Save the Old Girls' School, was founded to campaign for the school building to be retained. The group has worked with national campaign

Save Britain's Heritage Save Britain's Heritage (styled as ''SAVE Britain's Heritage'') is a British charity, created in 1975 by a group of journalists, historians, architects, and planners to campaign publicly for endangered historic buildings. It is also active on the ...

to propose an alternative development that would convert the school into 23 flats, with adjacent new builds of 12 flats and 2 houses.

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage s ...

considered granting the structure, which the

Victorian Society The Victorian Society is a UK amenity society and membership organisation that campaigns to preserve and promote interest in Victorian and Edwardian architecture and heritage built between 1837 and 1914 in England and Wales. It is a registered ...

have described as "a beautifully crafted building, solid, handsome and capable of being reused", statutory protection as a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. Cadw found the building met the historic importance criteria for listing but that later amendments, such as modern windows, had reduced its architectural value below the threshold. They also considered that better examples of school structures survive from this period. A petition to save the structure was begun in May 2020 and within six weeks reached the 5,000-signature threshold for debate in the

Senedd The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gove ...

. The debate was held on 16 February 2022 and had the effect of delaying the planning determination date for the

. The Senedd debate concluded with no further action being taken. The planning application was approved at a council planning committee on 8 June 2022.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Cowbridge Secondary schools in the Vale of Glamorgan Girls' schools in Wales Educational institutions established in 1896 1896 establishments in Wales Educational institutions disestablished in 1974 1974 disestablishments in Wales