The intention to establish a ‘free school’ in Northop was expressed in the Last Will and Testament (written on 31st January 1606) of the Reverend George Smith who died on 4 March 1608. The Will was proven on 13 April 1608 and by May 1608 the site on which the Old Grammar School now stands was bought.
Rev’d Smith’s Will stated:
“I am determined by the permission and sufferance of Almighty God, as much as in me lyeth, to erect and maintain a free school, to continue for ever, for the teaching and bringing up in learning of poor scholars and to give some maintenance and relief unto some fatherless children.”
The Will sold off the Rev’d Smith’s estate and £600.00 (a lot in those days) was invested with a group of trustees, one of whom included the Bishop of St.Asaph. From this investment £20 was to be used for paying a schoolmaster at Northop and £10 was allocated for the maintenance of five poor boys from the parishes of Northop, Flint, Whitford, Cwm and St. Asaph.
The selected scholars were to be orphans or fatherless, and to be between the ages of nine and fifteen. Each was to receive £2 for four years. The Bishop of St. Asaph was to have the right of nomination, appointment and dismissal of the schoolmaster, who was to be 'a discreet man, honest and sufficient, as well for his learning as his behaviour.’
The Old Grammar School in Northop is the oldest Grammar School in Wales and now lies unused and empty… what happened to Rev’d Smith’s wish that it be used ‘forever.’
Professor Peter Davey of Liverpool University conducted an archaeological dig at the school in 1975 in which I took part as a youngster with a real interest in taking up a career as an archaeologist, but alas in pre Time Team' days it was a career no one valued then.
What the 1975 dig ascertained by way of minor finds, was that the school had three phases of development over the centuries but the dig revealed little else about the school. We know little of those educated within the establishment over several hundred years except for one or two facts. John Wynne of Soughton Hall, later Bishop of St Asaph and Bath & Wells, was a pupil at the school and in 1832 the school was educating 12 boys.
If only those walls could speak!
#northop #flintshire #northopgrammarschool #archaeologicaldig #history
The Blenheim Boys
‘The devotion and gallantry… are beyond all praise. The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava is eclipsed in brightness by these almost daily deeds of fame.’
Winston Churchill on the Blenheim Crews - Prime Minister’s Personal Minute, M.852/1, 30 August 1941
