Ormskirk Grammar School was a school in

Ormskirk Ormskirk is a market town in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England, north of Liverpool, northwest of St Helens, southeast of Southport and southwest of Preston. Ormskirk is known for its gingerbread. Geography and administr ...

West Lancashire West Lancashire is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The council is based in Ormskirk, and the largest town in the borough is Skelmersdale. At the 2011 Census, the population of the borough was 110,685 ...

, England.

History

It was founded circa 1610 and moved from the original school house at Barkhouse Hill to Ruff Lane in 1850. The architect

Sydney Smirke Sydney Smirke (20 December 1797 – 8 December 1877) was a British architect. Smirke who was born in London, England as the fifth son of painter Robert Smirke and his wife, Elizabeth Russell. He was the younger brother of Sir Robert Smirke ...

designed the original school room and school masters' house which is to the west of the main school building. The school was consistently extended for the next 150 years to extend either side of Mill Street. It was situated in the east of the town, towards the hospital. In the 1960s it had 750 boys and girls, and 850 in the early 1970s.

Comprehensive

It became a comprehensive in the late 1970s, year by year, with around 1,000 boys and girls.

Closure

It closed when the school

amalgamated Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan ama ...

with Cross Hall High School, resulting in the formation of

Ormskirk School Ormskirk School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Ormskirk in the English county of Lancashire. The school caters for roughly 1,400 pupils aged between 11-18. History The school was created in September 2001 by the ...

in 2001 and was largely demolished to make way for housing in 2005 leaving only the original building on Ruff Lane which has now been converted into flats.

Notable former pupils

Julie Conalty Julie Anne Conalty (born 1963) is a British Anglican bishop. Since 19 July 2021, she has been the Bishop of Birkenhead, one of two suffragan bishops of the Church of England Diocese of Chester. She previously served as Archdeacon of Tonbridge ...

Bishop of Birkenhead The Bishop of Birkenhead is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Chester, in the Province of York, England. The title takes its name after Birkenhead, a town located on the Wirral Peninsula Wirr ...

* John P. Marshall, British businessman *

Lee Cain Lee Edward Cain (born 1981) is a British public relations professional and former journalist who served as Downing Street Director of Communications under Boris Johnson from July 2019 until the end of 2020. Education Cain attended Ormskirk Gr ...

, former journalist and

Downing Street Director of Communications The Downing Street director of communications is the post of director of communications for the prime minister of the United Kingdom. The position is held by an appointed special adviser. In September 2022, as part of the incoming Truss minis ...

, 2019–2020 *

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, novelist * Frederick Charles Darwent,

Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney The Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney is one of the seven dioceses of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Created in 1865, the diocese covers the historic county of Aberdeenshire, and the Orkney and Shetland island groups. It shares with the Roman Cat ...

, 1978–92 *

Vickey Dixon Victoria Jane Dixon (born 5 August 1959 in Ormskirk, West Lancashire) is a former field hockey player from England, who was a member of the British squad that won the bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. She competed in two con ...

, hockey player * Arthur Greer, 1st Baron Fairfield,

Lord Justice of Appeal A Lord Justice of Appeal or Lady Justice of Appeal is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the court that hears appeals from the High Court of Justice, the Crown Court and other courts and tribunals. A Lord (or Lady) Justice ...

, 1927–38 *

Tom Middlehurst } Tom Middlehurst (born 25 June 1936, Ormskirk, Lancashire) is a Welsh Labour Party politician and former member of the National Assembly of Wales for the Alyn and Deeside and a former Minister for Post-16 Education and Training. Middlehust is a ...

, Welsh Assembly Member from 1999 to 2003 for Alyn and Deeside *

Helen Hayes Helen Hayes MacArthur ( Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned 80 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman to have w ...

, Labour Member of Parliament since 2015 for Dulwich and West Norwood *

Alyson Rudd Alyson Rudd (born 1967) is a British journalist with The Times who writes about sport, mainly football, and literature in the book club section. She was born in Liverpool in 1963 and grew up in rural Lancashire. She is a graduate of the London ...

, sports

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

with ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' *Professor Edward Peck, academic and Vice-Chancellor

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as a new university in 1992, although its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design, w ...

* Danny Breithaupt, Chief Executive from 2001 of

The Restaurant Group The Restaurant Group plc is a British chain of restaurants and public houses. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange. History The company was founded by Matthew Brown from Chatteris in 1987 as City Centre Restaurants plc with the objective of ...

(Frankie and Benny's) * Alan Cocks, professional footballer

References

* ''History of Ormskirk Grammar School in Lancashire'', David Orritt, 30 November 1988, Carnegie,

External links