The history of Bromsgrove School

The educational establishment now known as Bromsgrove School can trace its origins back to the Free Grammar School, which was founded in 1557 during the reign of Queen Mary. As a charity, the school allowed for 12 boys from the town to be taught, clothed and apprenticed, and others also paid to attend.

For most of the 17th century the school was probably held in the room over the Market House in the High Street. The schoolmasters were usually educated men who had studied at either Oxford or Cambridge.

In 1693, local landowner Sir Thomas Cookes endowed Bromsgrove School with £50 a year. With the support of Cookes and others, the school relocated to a new schoolhouse to the south of the town. This building can still be seen through the gates from the Worcester Road. On his death in 1696, Cookes left £10,000 towards a new college at Oxford University, where scholarships and fellowships would be reserved for boys from Bromsgrove and Feckenham. Thus began the school’s close association with what became Worcester College, Oxford.

The school became fee-paying in the 1820s and thus began significant expansion. In the late 19th century, a gymnasium and laboratory were added, alongside new boarding accommodation. A masters’ common room and school house were built in 1914, followed in 1928 by a school hall and music school instigated by the long-serving headmaster Robert Routh. The 1930s saw a further expansion of facilities, including an art school, biology room and swimming pool. The memorial chapel, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, opened in 1931, replacing the earlier mock Gothic chapel.

With the situation in Europe deteriorating, plans were made to evacuate the school to Wales. Within days of war breaking out, the pupils, staff and equipment decamped to a new home at Llanwrtyd Wells, an amazing logistical operation. They remained there until 1943.

Well-known Old Bromsgrovians include the poet A. E. Housman, businessman Digby Jones, politician Michael Heseltine, actors Ian Carmichael and Trevor Eve, author Nicholas Evans who wrote The Horse Whisperer, John Illsley of the band Dire Straits and many national and international sports people. There have also been five recipients of the Victoria Cross.

Today, Bromsgrove School welcomes pupils from all over the world and is one of the town’s largest employers. It is deeply involved in the local community and hosts arts and cultural events.

Among the latest additions is a Heritage Centre dedicated to preserving and promoting the school’s history. One of its first projects has been to digitise The Bromsgrovian, the school magazine which dates back to 1881.

The history of Bromsgrove School is one of the topics at this year’s Bromsgrove Society Summer School in July.

Former deputy headmaster Philip Bowen will talk on Sir Thomas Cookes, with a guided tour of the school and Heritage Centre in the afternoon. See www.bsoc.co.uk

by Mike Sharpe