School History

SCHOOL HISTORY

Print, c.1860 showing the present School House, erected 1847-1852,

on the the site of the earlier buildings

Cowbridge Grammar School was founded in 1608 by Sir Edward Stradling.

Sir Leoline Jenkins, Secretary of State to Charles II purchased the school and bequeathed it to Jesus College in his will.

The school was owned and administered by Jesus College, Oxford from 1685 to 1918.

The main school buildings were located in Church Street, Cowbridge. Derelict for some years, they have now been converted into residential accommodation.

The school also occupied Old Hall, now an adult education centre. It became Cowbridge Comprehensive School in 1973-4,

"College Cocks, tuppence a box, two for tuppence ha'penny"
"Townies" taunt

Founded in 1608, the " Free School" was situated on a plot of land lying between Rood Street (now Church Street), the Churchyard wall and the south-eastern corner of the Cowbridge Town Wall.

The school house consisted of a school room and a play area. There was accommodation for about a dozen borders. There was no separate dining room, the pupils ate in the kitchen and reached the dormitory up a steep staircase.

From its inception there was an intention to establish a close relationship with the town of Cowbridge.

"That youths might be the better trained in the rudiments of grammar"

Free Education to be provided to " twenty poore children and youthes, sons of the poorer sort of burgesses"

Welcome to Cowbridge 400

400 years of Tradition