Manchester Grammar School
The Manchester Grammar School is a highly selective private day school for boys aged 7–18 in Manchester, England, which was founded in 1515 by Hugh Oldham. It is the largest private day school for boys in the United Kingdom and has been described as "one of Britain's most prestigious independent day schools", known for its strong academic focus; having educated politicians, leading journalists, diplomats, Nobel laureates, poets, as well as Academy Award and BAFTA award-winning actors and directors.
Originally named 'The Manchester Free Grammar School for Lancashire Boys', The Manchester Grammar School was founded by Hugh Oldham in 1515 adjacent to Manchester Parish Church as a free grammar school and as the first school in Manchester. The school grounds slowly expanded for over 400 years until 1931, when the school successfully raised a sum to move its premises from a now over-crowded site in the centre of Manchester to its much larger present site at Rusholme. In accordance with its founder's wishes, MGS remains a predominantly academic school and belongs to the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
In the post-war period, MGS was a direct-grant grammar school. It chose to become an independent school in 1976 after the Labour government abolished the Direct Grant System. Fees for 2023–2024 were £15,180 per annum.
History
Foundation
The founder, Hugh Oldham, a Manchester-born man, attended Exeter College, Oxford and Queens' College, Cambridge, after having been tutored in the house of Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby. Historical accounts suggest that he was not a particularly learned man, but was in Royal service, being a favoured protégé of Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, mother of Henry VII, and became recognised for his administrative abilities. He was appointed Bishop of Exeter in 1505. His great wealth came from his water-powered corn mills on the River Irk near Manchester, which were subsequently used to fund the school's endowment.On 2 July 1515 he signed an endowment trust deed establishing the Manchester Free Grammar School for Lancashire Boys. A site was purchased in September 1516 and construction took place between April 1517 and August 1518. The combined cost was £218.13s.5d, largely given by Oldham, but with the help of his and the Bexwyke family who had provided an earlier endowment for a school within the parish church. A more elaborate deed in 1525 set the detailed rules for the school until the late 19th century.
The original deed promoted "Godliness and good learning" and established that any boy showing sufficient academic ability, regardless of background, might attend, free of charge. The school was situated between Manchester Cathedral, then a collegiate church, and the church's domestic quarters, subsequently Chetham's School of Music.
Later, Oldham's great friend Richard Foxe, the Bishop of Winchester, wished to found a monastery. Oldham, however, convinced him instead to found Corpus Christi College in Oxford and contributed 6,000 marks of silver. Oldham also had a hand in the founding of Brasenose College, Oxford.
Early history
The original foundation provided a school house in the curtilage of Manchester's Parish Church and two graduates to teach Latin and later Greek, to any children who presented themselves. The school was intended to prepare pupils for university and eventually the Church or the legal profession. Typically, pupils would have stayed for 8 to 10 years before leaving for university. There was often enough money to fund bursaries or exhibitions for pupils.In 1654, the world's first free public library was formed next door to MGS in what had been the church's living quarters. This was facilitated by a bequest from a wealthy businessman Humphrey Chetham, which also served to create a bluecoat orphanage there, schooling 40 poor boys.
By the 18th century, there are thought to have been between 50 and 100 boys in the grammar school at any one time, three or four of whom each year were awarded exhibitions to Oxford and Cambridge. An extra room had been built onto the school house for boys who needed instruction in English before they started Latin, and another master was employed to teach them.
The 1515 building was replaced on the same site in 1776. This was on two levels, an Upper School for the Latin and Greek pupils, a Lower School for the English pupils. Boarding-houses were added and many of the Upper School pupils were boarders from surrounding counties. When De Quincy came as a boarder in 1800, classes were held at roughly 7.00am to 9.00, 9.30 to 12.00 and 3.00pm to 5.00.
By 1808 consideration was being given to moving from the site, as it was becoming insalubrious, but this proved impossible as the deed could not be changed except by Act of Parliament.
Going from the Old Church to Long Millgate ... one is in an almost undisguised working men's quarter, for even the shops and beerhouses hardly take the trouble to exhibit a trifling degree of cleanliness ... is a narrow, coal black, foul smelling stream full of debris and refuse.
Image:Chethams manchester exterior.jpg|right|thumb|Manchester Grammar extension built in the 1870s
A commercial school, in parallel with the classical school, and more suited to Manchester's business climate, was established in the 1830s. By this time the school was getting richer on the proceeds of the mills which provided its funding and had a growing surplus on account. Its 'feoffees' were mostly landed gentry from outside Manchester and they were heavily criticised for running the school to suit the needs of their offspring rather than as originally intended, the poor of Manchester. This led to a long running suit at the Court of Chancery, which eventually promoted the commercial side at the expense of the classical side of the school.
The area around the school continued to change. During the 1840s, Victoria Railway Station was completed opposite the school and the church became Manchester Cathedral. Then, in the 1870s, a new building, the Manchester Grammar Extension, was built, designed by Alfred Waterhouse, and including new classrooms, laboratories and a gymnasium, reflecting the wider curriculum that had developed since the 1830s. It was connected to the original by a first-storey bridge. It was said that the bridge's purpose was not for ease of movement between the parts of the school, but rather to dwarf Chetham's gatehouse both in terms of size and grandeur.
The tenure of Michael George Glazebrook as High Master, beginning in 1888, saw the introduction of three changes according to pupil Ernest Barker: a system of prefects to keep order, the singing of school songs conducted by John Farmer, and the wearing of school-caps and school-hats.
Recent history
By the early 20th century the school was increasingly receiving funding from the state. This was negligible in 1901, fees providing three quarters of the income, most of the remainder being from the foundation. But by 1931, state grants contributed nearly 30% of the total, and the number of pupils had increased to 1,100.In 1930 the school moved out of the city centre to accommodate a growing pupil body and provide a wider range of facilities. The new location chosen was in Rusholme, off Old Hall Lane, where the school still stands today.
Both of the school's earlier buildings lay empty, and while the former was destroyed in the Second World War, the latter, renamed the Long Millgate Building, became a teacher training college in the 1950s. In 1969, Chetham's School of Music was founded and occupied what had been the orphanage. When the teacher training college closed in 1978, Chetham's took over the premises.
After the Education Act 1944, MGS became a direct grant grammar school, which meant that the bulk of funding was provided by government. Entry was by merit and parents were means-tested and fees paid primarily by local education authorities on a sliding scale. Fees paid by parents amounted to less than 20% of the total income. It reverted to independent status in 1976 after the Labour government – in the person of Education Secretary Shirley Williams – abolished the direct-grant funding system. Bursaries continue to support the merit based recruitment system, by abating fees for less well-off pupils.
When the Assisted Places Scheme was rescinded in the late 1990s, MGS set up a "Bursary Appeal". This has accumulated a value of over £17.5m and finances bursaries, given to boys whose parents are unable to afford the school fees. Scholarships are not awarded.
In 2015 the school walked 500 miles to celebrate its 500 years anniversary. Boys and teachers were asked to raise money for the Bursary Appeal and walk a mile each. Over 240 pupils currently receive help from the fund.
Motto, coat of arms and school badges
The school's motto is Sapere Aude, which was also the motto of the council of the former County Borough of Oldham, granted on 7 November 1894. Sapere aude is a quotation from Horace, famously used by Immanuel Kant and also the motto of the Enlightenment.The Senior School badge is an outline of an owl, carrying a banner with the word "dom" on it. This is a heraldic "canting" reference to its founder, Hugh Oldham, and the badge should be read as "owl-dom". This suggests that he pronounced his name, as the local accent in Oldham still tends to do, as "Owdem". Owls are also to be seen in the shield of the Borough of Oldham.
There is possibly a second significance to the "dom" of which Hugh Oldham, as a bishop, would have been very well aware. D.O.M. was and is a standard abbreviation for Deo Optimo Maximo meaning "To God, the Best and the Greatest", a phrase of dedication often required to be written by schoolboys before the Reformation and in Roman Catholic education since, at the head of a new piece of work, a practice continued into adult life by many as they committed a new undertaking into God's hands. This badge replaced the original one when the school colours changed from red, black and yellow to dark and light blue to reflect its connection with the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
The Junior School badge, which depicts the face of an owl, was introduced to blazers and ties in 2008.