Ysgol David Hughes

The former school building in Beaumaris, next to the castle. The 1603 date can be seen above the door

Ysgol David Hughes is the largest Secondary School in Anglesey, Wales. It was founded in 1603, originally as a free Grammar School in Beaumaris. In 1963, with the local authority leading the way in introducing the comprehensive system, the school moved to Menai Bridge as a mixed comprehensive school.

The school is divided into several blocks A-E and has recently built a new sports hall with state of the art fitness room with magnificent views of the Menai Strait and Snowdonia. The facility is open to the public in the evenings. There are roughly around 1250 pupils at the school. The school has a large sports reputation and regularly competes against other schools in the area. The school is located at the top end of Menai Bridge and has views of both the Menai Suspension Bridge and Britannia Bridge. The school has excellent facilities with many classrooms having at least three PCs, every teacher has a laptop (although it is a running joke among pupils that few teachers know how to use them) and most classrooms have brand new electronic white boards. There are laboratories, kitchen and workshops as well as PC rooms in the school.

The David Hughes rugby team is the best on Anglesey.

Founder

David Hughes (d. 1609), the founder of Beaumaris grammar school, was born in the parish of Llantrisant, Anglesey. He may have been the David Hughes of county Caernarvon, b. 1561, who entered Gray's Inn from Magdalen College, Oxford, 28 January 1583 (Foster, Alumni. Oxon.; Gray's Inn Admission Register, 28 Jan 1582-3), but another account of him, claiming to be based on sources not now available, suggests that he was born about 1536 and received no university education.

Settling in Norfolk, he was appointed steward of the manor of Woodrising about 1596. In 1602 he established the Free Grammar School at Beaumaris. His will, dated 30 September 1609, endowed the school and made provision for the establishment of an almshouse at Llannerch-y-medd. The almshouse was actually built at Beaumaris.

Notable former pupils

• Matthew Maynard - cricketer
• Aled Jones - singer and presenter
• Rhun ap Iorwerth - presenter of BBC Wales politics programme Dragon's Eye
• Owain Gwilym - actor
• Dafydd Ieuan - musician and member of the Super Furry Animals
• Cian Ciarán - musician and member of the Super Furry Animals
• Sanddef Rhyferys - prominent political blogger and author of the widely read Ordovicius blog

External links

• School Website

Bibliography

• David Hughes M.A. and his Free Grammar School at Beaumaris, 1864, reissued (ed. by Vaughan Bowen) 1933
• E. Madoc Jones, ‘The Free Grammar School of Beaumaris’ in Trans. Angl. Antiq. Soc., 1922;