Thetford Grammar School is an independent

co-educational school Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24,340 ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, England. The school might date back to the 7th century, which would make it one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom.

History

The school website conjectures its origin traces back to 631,Thetford Grammar School - History
, accessed 17 Aug 2009 and through its Roll of Headmasters to 1114. The Independent Schools Inspectorate assert in their 2012 report that "The school was originally founded in the 10th Century" but without any evidence provided. It appears to have ceased from around 1496 until its refoundation from the will of Sir

Richard Fulmerston Richard Fulmerston (by 1516 – 1567), of Ipswich, Suffolk and Thetford, Norfolk, was an English politician, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Family It is unclear who Fulmerston's parents are, but his father may also have been named Richard Ful ...

in 1566.'Thetford, chapter 23: Of the school and hospital', An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: volume 2 (1805), pp. 128-131. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=78041 Date accessed: 18 August 2009 The refoundation was confirmed by an Act of Parliament in 1610. Part of the school is built on the site of a thirteenth-century Dominican Friary (

Blackfriars, Thetford Blackfriars, Thetford was a friary in Norfolk, England, which belonged to the Dominican Order. It was one of several religious houses in Thetford closed at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The site is now occupied by Thetford Gramm ...

), which may have been built on, and incorporated parts of, a Norman cathedral. This building, now known as "Old School", comprised the entire school for about 300 years, and is where the lawyer Roger North and the political activist

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

were educated. In 1998 archaeologists from the television programme ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...

'' excavated at the school for three days in search of the Norman cathedral of

Herbert Losinga Herbert de Losinga (died 22 July 1119) was the first Bishop of Norwich. He founded Norwich Cathedral in 1096 when he was Bishop of Thetford. Life Losinga was born in Exmes, near Argentan, Normandy, the son of Robert de LosingaDoubleday and Page ...

, which was only located at Thetford for twenty years or so, before relocating to Norwich. They did not find any Norman stone building, perhaps because the short-lived cathedral was a re-used Anglo-Saxon wooden church which has not survived. The school developed rapidly in the 1880s, and in 1888 Thetford Grammar School for Girls was built alongside the existing Grammar School. The school became a

Voluntary controlled school A voluntary controlled school (VC school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a Christian denomination) has some formal influence in the running of the school. Such schools have less autonomy than ...

in 1944, and remained in the state sector until 1981 when it regained its independent status. The original boys' school and the girls' grammar school merged in 1975 to form a new coeducational school. Since 2017 the school has been owned by China Financial Services Holdings, a Hong Kong-based company.

Notable former pupils

Jim Bacon James or Jim Bacon may refer to: *Jim Bacon (politician) (James Alexander Bacon, 1950–2004), Premier of Tasmania, 1998–2004 *Jim Bacon (rugby) James Arthur Bacon (fourth ¼ 1896 – fourth ¼ 1968) was a Welsh rugby union, and professional ...

– weather forecaster *

Francis Blomefield Rev. Francis Blomefield (23 July 170516 January 1752), FSA, Rector of Fersfield in Norfolk, was an English antiquarian who wrote a county history of Norfolk: ''An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk''. It includes ...

– topographer and historian * Harold Chapman – former orthodontist * C. H. Chapman – cartoonist * William G. Clarke (1877–1925) – journalist, naturalist, and archaeologist *

Frederick Charles Frank Sir Frederick Charles Frank, OBE, FRS (6 March 1911 – 5 April 1998) was a British theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work on crystal dislocations, including (with Thornton Read) the idea of the Frank–Read source of dislocation ...

– theoretical physicist * Thomas Howard – Duke of Norfolk *

Allan Noel Minns Allan Noel Minns, DSO, MC, (23 March 1891 – 6 April 1921) was an English medical doctor of African-Caribbean descent who served as an officer in the British Army during the First World War. He was born in Thetford, Norfolk in 1891, the son of ...

– DSO, MC, doctor * Roger North – musicologist, Attorney General from 1688 *

– American revolutionary and author, attended 1744-1749 *

Alfred Neobard Palmer Alfred Neobard Palmer (10 July 1847 – 7 March 1915) was a chemist and local historian. He published several books concerning the local history of Wrexham and north Wales. Biography Alfred Neobard Palmer was born in Thetford, Norfolk, Englan ...

– chemist and historian *

James Pattinson James Lee Pattinson (born 3 May 1990) is an Australian cricketer. Pattinson is considered an aggressive fast bowler. After making his Test cricket debut in late 2011, he played Test and limited overs cricket for the Australia national cricket ...

(1915–2009) – writer of

thrillers Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Suc ...

References

External links

Thetford Grammar School

Profile
on the

Independent Schools Council The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is a non-profit lobby group that represents over 1,300 schools in the United Kingdom's independent education sector. The organisation comprises seven independent school associations and promotes the busin ...

website
Independent Schools Inspectorate Report
{{Authority control Independent schools in Norfolk 7th-century establishments in England Educational institutions established in the 7th century Thetford