Cowbridge Grammar School

Cowbridge Grammar School was one of the best-known schools in Wales until its closure in 1974. It was replaced by a comprehensive school.

Founded in the 17th century by Sir John Stradling and refounded by Sir Leoline Jenkins, it had close links with Jesus College, Oxford. The school took both boarders and day boys. Famous old boys include actor Anthony Hopkins and poet Alun Lewis.

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 part of Old Hall, now an adult education centre.

History

Cowbridge Grammar School was founded in 1608 by Sir John Stradling; owned by Jesus College, Oxford 1685 to 1918. Sir Leoline Jenkins, Secretary of State to Charles II purchased the school and bequeathed it to Jesus College in his will. It became Cowbridge Comprehensive School in 1973-4, and what used to be the grammar school's main building, dating from 1852, was converted into residential accommodation beginning in 2006, and completed in 2008.

In 1881, Edward Treharne, who represented the school, was chosen to play in the first international game for the Wales rugby union team.

The Grammar School Old Boys' Association, in conjunction with the school's successor, Cowbridge Comprehensive, planned a series of activities in September 2008 to mark the 400th anniversary of the start of quality education in Cowbridge.

Notable alumni

The following old boys are listed in date order

• Evan Seys (1604–1685) — Attorney general to Cromwell, MP for Glamorgan and Gloucester, Recorder of Gloucester, Exclusionist and Proto-Whig
• Sir Leoline Jenkins (1625–1685) — Secretary of State to Charles II; second founder of the school; Principal of Jesus College, Oxford
• David Durell (1728-1775) — Old Testament Scholar, Principal of Hertford College, Oxford, and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford
• John Pettingall (1707/8-1781) -Antiquarian and clergyman
• George Cadogan Morgan (1754-1798)- Scientific writer notably on Electricity, republican and dissenting minister
• Evan Evans (academic) (1813-1891) — Master of Pembroke College, Oxford and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford
• William Thomas (Islwyn) (1832–1878) — Methodist minister and Bard (Welsh-language poet)
• Sir Lewis Morris (poet) (1833–1907) — Writer, poet, a founder of the University of Wales, radical Liberal
• Edward Treharne (1862–1904) — Pioneering Welsh rugby international and medical man
• Sir (William John) Andrew Jones (1889–1971) — Colonial administrator, Chief administrator of Northern Territories, Gold Coast
• Glanville Williams (1911–1997) — Professor of English Law at Cambridge
• Alun Lewis (1915–1944) — Poet and soldier
• Sir Idwal Pugh (1918–2010) — Second Permanent Secretary at Department of the Environment; Ombudsman; Director & Chairman of banks and building societies
• Sir Thomas Philip Jones (1931–2000) — Deputy Secretary at Department of Energy; Chairman of the Electricity Council; Company Director
• Richard Grassby (born 1936) — Historian
• Sir Anthony Hopkins (born 1937) — Actor/filmstar
• Patrick Hannan (1941–2009) — Journalist, author and presenter
• William Tudor John (born 1944) — Deputy Chairman of Nationwide Building Society since 2007; Chairman of Lehman Brothers (Europe) 2000–2008
• David Richard Hughes (born 1951) — Newspaper executive and chief leader writer, Daily Telegraph

External sources

• Peter Cobb, At Cowbridge Grammar School 1949–1966 (Cowbridge Record Society, 2001)
• Iolo Davies, A Certaine Schoole (D. Brown & Sons, Cowbridge, 1967)
• Brian Ll. James & David J. Francis, Cowbridge and Llanblethian, Past and Present (Stewart Williams, Publishers, Barry, and D. Brown & Sons Ltd, Cowbridge, 1979), Chapter IV, pp. 157–65: Reminiscences by M.B. Edwards, former Deputy Headmaster, on the school in the 1920s. See also Chapter III, pp. 54–8, on the founding of the free (later grammar) school
• James Marsden, All My Yesterdays (London: Athena, c2007), pp. 111–60: reminiscences of his time at the school 1956–60 by its first-ever Biology master
• Patrick Hannan "Hannibal Lecter's Schooldays" Chapter 2 (pp.38-52) of The Welsh Illusion (Seren 1999). The author recalls his days as a boarder 1952-59. The chapter title says a lot: he makes too much of Anthony Hopkins' being there as well. The tone is journalistically sensational rather than conveying autobiographical, let alone historical accuracy. It is also unfairly anachronistic, but the most entertaining thing written on the school.