Cowbridge Grammar School was one of the best-known schools in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

until its closure in 1974. It was replaced by Cowbridge Comprehensive School. Founded in the 17th century by Sir John Stradling and refounded by Sir

Leoline Jenkins Sir Leoline Jenkins (1625 – 1 September 1685) was a Welsh academic, diplomat involved in the negotiation of international treaties (e.g. Nimègue), jurist and politician. He was a clerical lawyer who served as Judge of the High Court of Admi ...

, it had close links with

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship St ...

. The school took both boarders and day boys. Famous old boys include actor

Anthony Hopkins Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor, director, and producer. One of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins has received many accolad ...

, poet Alun Lewis and TV presenter Patrick Hannan. The main school buildings were located in Church Street,

Cowbridge Cowbridge ( cy, Y Bont-faen) is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately west of the centre of Cardiff. The Cowbridge with Llanblethian community and civil parish elect a town council. A Cowbridge electoral ward exists for ...

. 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 Grammar School was founded in 1608 by Sir John Stradling and owned by

, 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. It became Cowbridge Comprehensive School in 1973-4. 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 Edward Llewellyn TreharneHarris (1997), pg 22. (22 March 1862 – 29 December 1904)
Scrum.com was a Welsh

, who represented the school, was chosen to play in the first international game for the

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

team. The Grammar School Old Boys' Association, in conjunction with the school's successor, Cowbridge Comprehensive, held a series of activities in September 2008 to mark the 400th anniversary of "the start of quality education" in Cowbridge.

Notable former pupils

The following old boys are listed in date order *

Evan Seys Evan Seys (alternates: Yevan or Ievan) (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 ...

(1604–1685) — Attorney general to Cromwell; MP for Glamorgan and Gloucester; Recorder of Gloucester; Exclusionist and Proto-Whig *

(1625–1685) — Secretary of State to Charles II; MP for Hythe and for the University of Oxford; Judge of the High Court of the Admiralty; second founder of the school; Principal of Jesus College, Oxford *

John Pettingall Reverend, Rev. John Pettingall Doctor of Divinity, D.D. (1707/8 – 30 June 1781) was a Wales, Welsh Church of England clergyman and antiquarian. Life Pettingall was born in Newport, Wales, Newport, Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire, Wal ...

(1707/8–1781) — Antiquarian and clergyman * David Durell (1728–1775) — Old Testament Scholar; Principal of Hertford College, Oxford; Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford *

George Cadogan Morgan George Cadogan Morgan (1754 - 17 November 1798) was a Welsh dissenting minister and scientist. Life He was born in 1754 at Bridgend, Glamorganshire, the second son of William Morgan, a surgeon practising in that town, by his wife Sarah, sister of ...

(1754–1798) — Scientific writer (notably on electricity); republican and dissenting minister * John Nicholl (1759–1838) — Lawyer and politician: Tory MP, Privy Councillor, King's Advocate, Dean of the Arches, Judge of the High Court of the Admiralty *

William Nott Major-General Sir William Nott (20 January 1782 – 1 January 1845) was a British military officer of the Bengal Army, East India Company in British India. Early life Nott was born in 1782, near Neath in Wales,Lloyd (1958), pg 686. the seco ...

(1782–1845) — General for the East India Company; Commander in the first Afghan War 1838-42; Resident at Lucknow * Evan Evans (1813–1891) — Master of Pembroke College; Oxford and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford * Lewis Morris (1833–1907) — Writer and poet; a founder of the University of Wales; radical Liberal *

Edward Treharne Edward Llewellyn TreharneHarris (1997), pg 22. (22 March 1862 – 29 December 1904)
Scrum.com was a Welsh

(1862–1904) — Pioneering Welsh rugby international and medical man * John Lewis Williams (3 January 1882 – 12 July 1916). Welsh rugby international, died at Mametz Wood July 1916 * (William John) Andrew Jones (1889–1971) — Colonial administrator (Chief administrator of Northern Territories, Gold Coast) *

Glanville Williams Glanville Llewelyn Williams (15 February 1911 – 10 April 1997) was a Welsh legal scholar who was the Rouse Ball Professor of English Law at the University of Cambridge from 1968 to 1978 and the Quain Professor of Jurisprudence at University ...

(1911–1997) — Professor of English Law at Cambridge * Alun Lewis (1915–1944) — Poet and soldier *

Idwal Pugh Sir Idwal Vaughan Pugh KCB (10 February 1918 – 21 April 2010) was a civil servant who was Permanent Secretary at the Welsh Office and distinguished himself as Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and Health Service Commissioner for ...

(1918–2010) — Second Permanent Secretary at Department of the Environment; Ombudsman; Director & Chairman of banks and building societies * J.M.W. Bean (1928–2012) — Mediaeval historian * Thomas Philip Jones (1931–2000) — Deputy Secretary at Department of Energy; Chairman of the Electricity Council; Company Director *

Keith Rowlands Keith Alun Rowlands (7 February 1936 – 18 November 2006), was a Welsh international lock rugby union player and later administrator, who was the first chief executive officer of the International Rugby Board. Playing career Rowlands was born ...

(1936–2006) — Welsh rugby international; First Chief Executive Officer of the International Rugby Board *

Richard Grassby Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...

(born 1936) — Early modern historian *

Hedley Benyon Hedley may refer to: * Hedley, British Columbia, Canada, an unincorporated town * Hedley, Texas, United States, a city * Hedley railway station, South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia * Hedley (band), a Canadian pop-rock band formed in 2003 and name ...

(born 1936) - Former president of Rugby Canada *

(born 1937) — Actor/filmstar * Patrick Hannan (1941–2009) — Journalist, author and presenter * Michael Morgan (born 1942) — Scientist * William Tudor John (born 1944) — Deputy Chairman of Nationwide Building Society since 2007; Chairman of

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, a ...

(Europe) 2000–2008 * David Richard Hughes (born 1951) — Newspaper executive and chief leader writer, ''Daily Telegraph'

External sources

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 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 on 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.

References

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Grammar School A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

Educational institutions disestablished in 1974 Grammar schools in Wales Educational institutions established in the 1600s Defunct schools in the Vale of Glamorgan 1608 establishments in Wales Grade II* listed buildings in the Vale of Glamorgan Grade II* listed schools