Derby School
Derby School was a school in Derby in the English Midlands from 1160 to 1989. It had an almost continuous history of education of over eight centuries. For most of that time it was a grammar school for boys. The school became co-educational and comprehensive in 1972 and was closed in 1989. In 1994 a new independent school called Derby Grammar School for boys was founded.
Origins - around 1160
The school was founded in the 12th century around 1160 by a local magnate, Walkelin de Derby and his wife, Goda de Toeni, who gave their own house to an Augustinian priory called Darley Abbey to be used for the school. Local legend has it that it was the second oldest school in England. However, there is no firm information as to the site of the original school. Recorded in a book entitled "Distinguished Alumni of Derby School" by J.M.J. Fletcher and published in 1872 there is a drawing of "St. Helen's House in Olden Times" on the inside front cover which it is believed was the original house given to the Augustinian friars. Its site eventually became a marble workshop and factory, somewhere on the opposite side of King Street from the new St. Helen's House built in 1766 and 1767.While Derby School was in existence almost continuously for more than eight centuries, it was closed for a few years first between 1536 and 1541 as a result of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and then until its re-founding by Royal Charter in 1554
Magna Britannia says of Derby School -
Further research of Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England published in 1848 finds the following supporting evidence relating to Derby School.
St. Peter's Churchyard School (c. 1554 to 1861)
Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries from 1536 to 1541, which included Darley Abbey, a few years later on 21 May 1554, Queen Mary I by a Royal Charter, and in return for a payment of £260 13s 4d, granted the Corporation of Derby several properties and endowments which had belonged to Darley Abbey, the College of All Saints, St Michael's Church, and some other suppressed chantries and gilds, for the foundation of "a Free Grammar School, for the instruction and education of boys and youths in the said town of Derby for ever to be maintained by the Bailiffs and Burgesses of the same town."This re-founding by Royal Charter of the new Free Grammar School was established in a purpose-built building, now called the Old Grammar School, next to St Peter's Church. In the late 20th century, this building was for some time part of the Derby Heritage Centre and is now a ladies' hairdresser's. The school remained at this site until around 1860 it moved temporarily to a property occupied by the then Headmaster, Dr. Thomas Humphreys Leary, in Friargate. Research is being undertaken in December 2016 to determine the property concerned. Due to the generosity of Edward Strutt, then the owner who had his property up for sale the school was allowed to move into St Helen's House in King Street, Derby in 1861 for a period of two years rent free.
The school held a closed exhibition worth £50 a year at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. At any one time, this could be held by one old boy of the school, who had the title at Emmanuel College of Exhibitioner.
While the astronomer John Flamsteed was at the Free Grammar School in the 1660s, parents were expected to provide boys with books, quill-pens, and wax candles to use when daylight failed. At that time, most masters of the school were Puritans.
St Helen's House (1861–1939)
in King Street, Derby, was built in 1766-1767 as the town house for John Gisborne, an alderman of Yoxall Lodge, Staffordshire, and used to stand in of parkland.The house was purchased by the Strutt family in 1801 and in 1860 Edward Strutt offered to sell the house for £3,300 to the governors of Derby Grammar School. Money at that time was a problem for the school, and so he loaned the property to the school for free, on a temporary basis. The boys only grammar school duly moved in for the beginning of the 1861-1862 academic year and the house was purchased outright in 1863, using £1,300 raised by public subscription and a £2,000 mortgage taken out by Derby Corporation, which was repaid by 1873.
A map of the area around St. Helen's showing the parkland dated 1852 shows that the parkland went down to the river Derwent and also where Belper Road and Bank View Road are now situated.
Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper, the nephew of the philanthropist Joseph Strutt, an old boy of the school.
Under the Rev. Walter Clark BD the school was expanded from a local grammar school into a nationally known public school. Under his leadership, the school building was extended.
Image:DerbySchoolDateStone.jpg|thumb|left|100px|Stone at 'B'-Block On the front of the extension, a stone bears the inscription "Quod faustum fortunatumque sit regiae scholae Derbiensi hunc lapidem initium operis felicissimis auspicus Alberti Eduardi Wal princip inlustrisque coniucis nuper suscepti sua ipse manu locavit Gulielmus Dux Devoniensis A. D. IV kal sext A. S. MDCCCLXXIV Praef Gualtero Clark A.M. Collegii S. Mar. Magd apud Cantabric olim scholar". The royal patronage continued on 14 November 1888, when Derby School received a visit by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII.
The date stone on the boundary wall adjoining King Street outside 'B'-Block reads: "In usum huius scholae A.D. MCMI sepositum P.K. Tollit A.M. Praefecto".
Derby School Chapel
As the school developed further with more pupils, as a result of the building of the Pearson Building, space became a premium. An appeal was made for the erection of a school chapel and thus allowing 'Big School' to be made available solely for educational purposes. In June 1882 a new little iron chapel, often referred to as a "tin tabernacle" was erected adjoining King Street for the cost of £290, which included a sum of £150 being contributed in thank-offerings of £5 each by gentlemen educated at Derby School who had gained scholarships, exhibitions or similar honourable distinctions.The small tin tabernacle design consisted of a 45 feet nave and being 60 feet. 10 inches in length overall. This structure was erected by a local builder at right angles to King Street, and according to two rather oblique references within "The Derbeian", the construction took place before 1891. This tin tabernacle was only ever intended to be a temporary building and, by then, monies were being raised by the trustees for a permanent structure. An Old Derbeian, who was also an architect Percy Heylin Currey was commissioned to design a chapel so that as monies became available it could be extended. The dedication of the chapel, which was built with just four bays, took place in the late 1880s. Subsequently with additional monies donated the fully designed Derby School Chapel was dedicated to St. Helen in 1891. In the next three years additional monies were subscribed to the School Chapel fund and so in 1894 with extra money available the building was extended by the addition of three further bays to the west towards King Street. The completed chapel building was finished in 1894.
From 1966, due to the main school moving to its new buildings out at the Moorway Lane Site in Littleover it fell out of use and for a time was only used along with the Adult Education use that St. Helen's House and the Pearson Building were put to. The structure was seriously neglected and fell out of use entirely during the first 17 years of the 21st century.
Planning permission was granted for the School Chapel, the old wooden Gymnasium, the Woodwork Rooms, and the old Chemistry Laboratory and preparation rooms to be demolished, and this took place in September 2017, aimed at a large redevelopment of the whole site to be called Kings Crescent. The foundation stone of the Chapel was taken away for possible future display. Photographs of the original and completed School Chapels, the Wooden Gymnasium, and the Woodwork Rooms are in the St. Helen's House Gallery.
Overton Hall (1939–1940) and Amber Valley Camp (1940–1945)
A decision was made on 2 September 1939 for the pupils and staff of Derby School to be evacuated immediately away from the town of Derby due to its proximity of the then Derby Electricity Power Station in Full Street in the centre of Derby. This was followed on the following day by the declaration of war on Sunday 3 September 1939. As a temporary measure from September 1939 until June 1940 they first went to Overton Hall in Ashover near Matlock.Once Amber Valley Camp was completed in June 1940 Derby School moved from Overton Hall to the new accommodation at Amber Valley Camp, Woolley Moor some five miles away. The boys walked this distance and subsequently, an annual sporting event "The Five Mile Walk" was inaugurated.
Amber Valley Camp was one of the National Camp Corporation premises. In the 1930s this organisation began to set up wooden buildings on sites in the countryside so that urban children could experience Britain’s national surroundings. 31 similar camps were built in England and Wales and 5 in Scotland.
They proved to be useful in the Second World War as evacuation centres and even in some instances as military camps. After the war Derby Corporation Education Committee used Amber Valley Camp for monthly visits by the town’s secondary school children.
The camp was built with six buildings used as dormitories, there were two ablution blocks, a sanatorium, a double staff bungalow. The dining room allowed 300 pupils to take meals. In addition, there were four classrooms in a block and a further hut was the craft centre. Another block housed a physics lab and a chemistry lab and provided an office for Les Bradley – the Headmaster. Classes were also held in the school hall, the Woolley Moor Methodist Chapel and a nearby public house. The dormitories were called after Derbyshire places, including Wingfield, Melandra, Eyam, Dovedale, Cromford and Bakewell. The only building now left at Amber Valley is the old dining room, which is now the headquarters of the Ogston Sailing Club.