Established 1877 Type Grammar school Founded 1877 | Closed 1973 Gender Co-educational Ceased operations 1973 | |
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Founder Walter Bigg / Sidney R. Stephenson Location Station Road
Wallingford
Oxfordshire
England | ||
Wallingford Grammar School was a grammar school in the town of Wallingford, Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire), England, succeeded by Wallingford School when comprehensive education was introduced in 1973.
Contents
History
When Walter Bigg, thought to have been Innkeeper of St Giles in the Fields, a Sheriff of London, Master of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, and MP for Wallingford, died in 1659, he left £10 for the education of six poor boys at a school in Wallingford. The Wallingford Corporation Minute Book shows that the school was active in 1672. The school buildings were at St John's Green from 1717-80, through a lease bought with Bigg's endowment. When the lease ended the school transferred to the headmaster's house, and later the upper room in the Town Hall was used a school room until 1863, when the school briefly closed.
School building
The school was revived under the Endowed Schools Act of 1872, and Wallingford School, which still benefits from the Bigg Charity was formally established when a grammar school building was built on the corner of St George’s Road and Station Road in 1877 by Sidney R. Stephenson. The boys’ and girls’ schools were amalgamated onto one site in 1904.
Boys' school
In 1958 the girls were moved to Didcot Girls' Grammar School, the forerunner of Didcot Girls' School. In 1958, Blackstone Secondary Modern was built near Blackstone Road on St George's Road. It was also known as Wallingford County Grammar School. It had a rowing team.
Dissolution
With the onset of comprehensive education in 1973, this was used as the lower school (taking age 11-13) and the old grammar school was the upper school (taking older children). In 1998 the school was centralised at the old secondary modern site, and the old grammar school converted to apartments.