ONA History walk

OLD NOVOCASTRIAN HISTORY WALK 2023

Familiar faces from the School orchestra were reunited for the first time in 60 years and friendships forged at the RGS over 70 years ago were joined together again when a group of ONs and former parents travelled back in time to visit the historic sites of the Royal Grammar School

Brimming with facts, dates and a wealth of historical knowledge, David Goldwater (ON 51 – 62) led our party as we uncovered the footprints left by the RGS all over the city of Newcastle since its inception in 1525

St Nicholas’s Churchyard 1525 -1607

Our trail began at St. Nicholas Cathedral Churchyard where the School was first established almost 500 years ago It was Thomas Horsley, the then Mayor of Newcastle, who pledged his legacy to the School. Back then the site was a humble church, rather than the grand Cathedral it is today Thomas Horsley and his wife Johanna are both buried here at the Cathedral.

“To keep a common grammar for the erudition and instruction of all and singular scholars without any favour or any further fee or payment as by the last will of Thomas Horsley. ”

Notable ONs

We made a couple of short stops to pay homage to some notable ONs: Robert Burns Dick (ON 1880 - 84) at Castle Garth, Lord William Armstrong at the Lit & Phil and of course, Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood (ON 1753 - 62) at Collingwood Street

Robert Burns Dick: Architect and city planner who designed many local buildings including the Bridge Hotel, the Laing Art Gallery and Spanish City in Whitley Bay

Lord Armstrong is a recently affirmed ON An inventor, he was most famous for developing the hydraulic system which enabled the Swing Bridge on the Quayside to open. He was also the former President of the Lit & Phil where we stopped.

Collingwood was Nelson’s second in command who completed victory at the Battle of Trafalgar and whose tomb and memorial are housed in St Nicholas Cathedral His name continues to live on at the RGS as one of the School houses.

Hospital of St Mary the Virgin

1607 - 1840

Standing on the busy Westgate Rd next to the Stephenson Monument surrounded by bus lanes, cocktail bars and bustling pavements it was hard to believe that the RGS building stood there for over 200 years from 1607 –1840. The School moved from St Nicholas’s Churchyard to the hospital of St Mary the Virgin whose building stood exactly where the Stephenson Monument stands today

All that’s left of that building now is a lone pillar which goes unnoticed to the passerby but to the ON is another stamp left by our school upon the city

FACT: two of the other pillars from this building now stand on the current School site on Eskdale Terrace. When the Westgate Rd site was demolished in the 1840s these pillars were recovered by the architect who designed the building, John Dobson He then kept them in his own garden for many years until they made their way to the “new” Jesmond site of the RGS in 1924.

No. 6 Charlotte Square

1848 - 1870

During the 1840s the Westgate Rd buildings were demolished as part of the new city development plans including the creation of Central Station, so the School moved to just three rooms within Forth House. Then in 1848, with James Snape at the helm, the school moved to No 6 Charlotte Square and began to flourish again. This is the first home of the RGS to survive until this day.

Rye

Hill 1870 - 1906

In 1870 an imposing and rather impressive new premises opened on land owned by the Virgin Mary Hospital Trust at Rye Hill and the flourishing School moved in

Although that fine building no longer stands, the RGS has left a final historical footprint on the City The entire, original perimeter wall still surrounds the modern college which stands there today.

At the turn of the Century, there became increasing discomfort at the boys having to travel to a largely industrial area . There was pressure to move the school site again A petition led to a branch of the school being established near Jesmond at 1 St Thomas Place and later at 6 Jesmond High Terrace.

Eskdale Terrace

Eventually under the Headship of Samuel Logan, the Eskdale Terrace site of the Royal Grammar School was established. Designed by architect Sir Edwin Cooper it was opened in 1906 by the Duke of Northumberland.

The Royal Charter

Tyne and Wear Museums and Archives

Founded during Henry VIII's reign, RGS is Newcastle’s oldest institution of learning.

On 22nd March 1600, Queen Elizabeth I granted the burgesses of the City of Newcastle The Great Charter. Within the Charter was the direction to incorporate a grammar school in the city, entitled to hold land. This established the School as an autonomous legal entity and institution in our own right.

The school was to be called the ‘Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Newcastle’, though we continued to use the name Newcastle Free School for some time. Eventually we moved to our current title of Royal Grammar School Newcastle.

The original Charter, painstakingly hand etched on goatskin parchment over 400 years ago, now remains preserved in the City’s archives We were given private access to these magnificent historical documents.

Eskdale Terrace, Jesmond 1906 - present

We brought our historical journey to a close, of course, in the present day as we returned the current School site on Eskdale Terrace.

Established here in 1906 under the Headship of Samuel Logan (1883 - 1912) the school has continued to evolve into the 21st Century yet the traditions and values which bore Newcastle’s first institution of learning in 1525 are still baked into every day school life in 2023

The Royal Grammar School Newcastle continues to outperform all other schools across the North East for both academics and co- curricular. In 2023 the RGS achieved record breaking GCSE results and was ranked Number 1 in the North East for both GCSE & A Level results.

Continuing Thomas Horsley’s Legacy

Accessible education has been baked into the ethos of the RGS since Thomas Horsley pledged his legacy for the School in 1525 and it was established a St Nicholas’s Churchyard; the first stop on our walk Horsley’s wish was that a school was set up to make education accessible to all children of the City of Newcastle, regardless of their financial background (of course it was only open to boys at the time!) We are continuing this legacy today through our Bursary Campaign and our Partnerships’ Projects with state schools across the Region Of course the opportunities are now accessible to both boys and girls

The RGS Bursary Campaign enables some of the North East’s brightest children regardless of their socio-economic background to attend the RGS Without this fee assistance, those children would not otherwise be able to attend the School These means-tested Bursary places are highly coveted, and competition is fierce but for those young people who do secure a place the transformational effect on their lives is tremendous Access to an RGS education changes the trajectory of the young person’s life and often that of generations of their family

Since the Bursaries were established in 2002, 447 students have been supported by the Campaign and we currently we have 86 students attending on a Bursary We have an ambitious aim to further increase the number of Bursary students studying at the RGS at any one time to 100 Last year our Partnership s’ Projects have reached over 7300 students and 300 staff in 76 state schools across the region Horsley would be proud!

Bursary places are funded entirely by fundraising and generous donations

Donations can be a one off sum or regular gifts and can range from £10 per month through to transformational one off gifts or legacies

Every penny really does count to these exceptional students so if you can consider giving, no matter what the sum, they and we will be eternally grateful

If you would like to consider donating please visit: https://www.rgs.newcastle.sch.uk/rgs-family/rgs-bursary-campaign and to find out more about the transformational effects of our Partnership work across the region please visit:

https://www.rgs.newcastle.sch.uk/rgs-family/partnerships