Big School

This is the oldest building in Boston Grammar School, constructed between 1567 and 1568, and it comprised the entire school for nearly three centuries. Older alumni will know the building as the Big School, though it has served as the school library since 1961.

16th Century

Following the founding of the school in 1555, premises in Wormgate were used until the corporation provided new premises. On 19 May 1567 it was decided that "ther shall be a new Scholehouse erected in the Hallgarth" and once the decision was made no time was wasted. The building was completed within a year.

In the following April it was reported that just over £195 "one hundryth fower schore fyftene pounds and eleven pence of lawful money of England" had been expended "in and abowte the buyldynge of the new Schoole House, aswell in woodd tymber stone as all so ye workmanshippe..." The final payment, of four pounds for "2000 thatche tile" was "delivered to John Dixon for his Scholehouse" the next October. They built better than they knew. The premises remained virtually unaltered, and certainly not extended, until 1850.

19th Century

In 1850 a lobby and classroom were added at the north end of the Big School (the end closer to what is now Rowley Road).

Six years later, in 1856, another classroom was added at the south end. This second extension was similar in dimensions to the first and was erected by Charity Trustees at a cost of about £160.

In 1862, stained glass figures were installed in the five windows at the north end, following a subscription started by past and present pupils. In the centre is a representation of Elizabeth I, flanked on her right by Burghley and Shakespeare, and on her left by Bacon and Drake.

20th Century

1955 marked the 400th anniversary of the granting of the school charter. To help commemorate this fourth centenary, it was decided to insert ten stained glass panels into the large bay window on the west side of the Big School. These panels illustrated various aspects of the school’s history, symbolically linking the school of 1555 to the present school. Installed in 1956, they were designed by Alfred L. Wilkinson, Secretary of the British Society of Master Glass Painters.

The idea of using the building as the school library was first formally proposed in 1957. Four years later, in 1961, the Big School was converted into its current function as the school library at a cost about £2,000.

In 1968, to mark the 400th anniversary of the building of the Big School, four more stained glass panels were installed, depicting the men after whom the school houses are named: Robert of Muston, William Gannock, John Laughton and Thomas Parry.

In 1996 the library underwent a refurbishment, including installation of a small IT suite.

21st Century

In December 2013 the library suffered flood damage and was closed for a number of months, re-opening in Spring 2014.

Photographs and drawings

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  The library photographed in 1998

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  The library photographed in 1998

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  The Big School, date unknown

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  The Big School, date unknown

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  The Big School, date unknown

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  The Grammar School, 1567 according to the programme for the Pageant of Boston, 1951

See Also

• Letters patent