Enfield Grammar School (EGS) was officially (that is legally) founded in 1558 on the 25th May during the reign of Mary I (Mary Tudor otherwise known as 'Bloody Mary'). The year before in 1557 the princess, later Queen Elizabeth, had spent some days in Enfield in Edward VI's palace near to Enfield; with 'great pomp' she came to hunt in Enfield Chace, at that point well stocked with deer. The school's first known headmaster was William Bradshawe who was head until 1600.
However, before the accepted foundation date the school may have had previous, some argue more obscure, but certainly earlier origins (see Birkett Marshall) since in 1558 the institution inherited part of a charitable endowment called Poynetts, originally established at South Benfleet (Essex) by the will of Robert Blossom (d. 1418). This property had become the endowment of an earlier Enfield chantry-school which precedes and is incorporated into the Grammar School. This would mean the Grammar School's possible origins are around 1398 - 1418 (Plantagenet or Lancaster period). As Dr. Birkett Marshall points out there is evidence a schoolmaster existed in Enfield prior to 1524, based on an account of the funeral of a Sir Thomas Lovell. An older school-house which certainly still existed east of the churchyard in 1572 which seems likely to have have housed the grammar school established in 1558 until the erection in the 1580s of the Tudor building (sometimes referred to as the Old Hall). This was built in the grounds adjacent to Prounces house, bought by the parish in 1516, originally occupied by John Prouns in 1399. The Tudor school building is still currently in use. There were reportedly boarders in this building for part of its history, as reputedly there were much later at Enfield Court (the Lower School).
On the dissolution of the chantries in 1547 the rights to the charitable property passed to the Crown. However, the Court of Augmentations questioned and challenged the King's title so that in 1550 the property was restored. In 1553 Queen Mary relinquished all claims and in 1558 an attempt was made to endow a school with the Poynetts estate. Unfortunately, a proposed trustee died before execution of the the deed, which meant a second deed granted only £6 13s. 4d. just sufficient for the salary of the former chantry priest who established a school, the remainder being used for the relief of the poor. Thus from 1558 a schoolmaster began teaching the children of Enfield's poor Latin and English 'according to the trade and use of grammar schools'. In 1586 William Garrett left £50 to build what is the Tudor schoolhouse, and this money is presumed to have been used to erect the Tudor building which is still in use.
In 1623, when the Prounces estate property was settled in trust, Prounces house became the schoolmaster?s residence. One headmaster, Robert Uvedale, while continuing in his post at EGS much to the consternation of the trustees and some parishioners opened another rival private (fee-paying) boarding-school, the Palace School, in about 1660, which survived until 1896.
Until 1967 EGS remained a grammar school. In that year, it was amalgamated with Chace Boys School to form a comprehensive school which retained the name Enfield Grammar School. The two schools were separated again in 1970, but both remained comprehensive schools. Chace Boys School has since become co-educational and has changed its name to Chace Community School.
See: J.S. Cockburn, H.P.F. King, K.G.T. McDonnell (Editors. A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 1; 1969.
Also: Google scholar.
Location
The upper school buildings are next to the Enfield Town Market Place and St. Andrew's Church, and have been extended several times since 1586. A new hall and further extensions were completed shortly before World War II. [2]
Originally Enfield Town where the school is situated was of some historical significance, being near Edward VI's palace where Elizabeth I lived for a while a a princess, including during the final illness of Henry VIII. Edward was taken there to join her, so that in the company of his sister Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, could break the news to Edward, formally announcing the death of their royal father in the presence chamber at Enfield, on his knees to make formal obeisance to the boy as King [3]. Later Elizabeth held court there when she was queen (this was remembered in the name Palace Gardens that was a street running behind Pearsons department store and is still recalled in the name of Enfield's shopping centre).[4][5]
In 1924, Enfield Court in Baker Street was purchased to accommodate the lower school. For some years, the first year pupils of the grammar school shared it with the first year pupils of Enfield County School, but it is now used for Enfield Grammar School students in years 7 and 8, and its former gardens provide the school with playing fields. The Enfield Loop of the New River passes through the playing fields, and this is the only stretch of the loop without a public footpath on at least one side of it.
Motto
The school motto, which is incorporated in the school badge (apart from that signifying the sixth form), is 'Tant que je puis', which is Old French, and means 'As much as I can'. It was taken from the Uvedale family, because Dr. Robert Uvedale was master from 1664 to 1676.
Houses
The school has a house system, at least for some internal sporting activities. The names of the houses are: Forty, Myddelton, Poynetts, Raleigh, St. Andrew's and Uvedale.
For a significant period, when the school was a selective one up to the end of the 1960s, the houses above were the basis of a wide range of other competitive internal activities such as drama, debating, competitive sports and so forth.
Notable alumni
Derek Austin, Librarian; author; developer of innovative digital cataloguing systems, creator of PRECIS indexing language in 1974 (used worldwide and for the British National Bibliography); Supernumerary Fellow Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. Royal Signal Corps 1941 ? 6. Born 11 August 1921. PRECIS: A Manual of Concept Analysis and Subject Indexing - Jan 1974, Publisher: Council of the British National Bibliography, 551 pages, ISBN 9780900220425
Joseph ?Joe? Ambrose Banks, Professor of Sociology at Leicester University, academic author, January 5 1920 ? November 13 2005.[7]
Frank Bayford pharmacist, English composer, co-founder Compass Composers Association, From 1993 President of Enfield Chamber Orchestra (orig. Enfield String Players) & joint artistic director from 2005.
Bob Cobbing, avant-garde soundtext poet, performer and publisher; manager famous underground Better Books on Charing Cross Road in 1960s; founding member and vice president Association of Little Presses; council member Poetry Society; 1920-2002
Martin Cole, controversial ?sexologist,? directed, produced and performed in the explicit, once infamous educational film Growing Up (1971).[9]
Jim Crace, prize-winning English novelist, former journalist
David Eames, Esquire Bedell to the Chancellor of the University of London, HRH The Princess Royal; formerly Secretary and Registrar of the University's Faculty of Medicine
Peter Joseph Hobbs, marketing manager of BOC Murex, Managing Director 1965 ? 1992 UK subsidiary of the Swedish welding and cutting company ESAB, from 1980 Hobbs fellow of Welding Institute, Cambridge, awarded distinguished service award 1998[10].
Alan Hopes, The Right Reverend, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, Roman Catholic bishop.
Jack Howe, architect (influenced by Walter Gropius), designer: Royal Designer for Industry in 1961; Master of the Faculty of RDIs, 1975-77; President of the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers in 1963-64; recipient Duke of Edinburgh's Design Prize in 1969.
Hugh Jenkins, later Baron Jenkins of Putney, politician, member of National Theatre Board, chairman of CND, elevated to Life Peerage, Lord Jenkins of Putney; July 27, 1908 - January 26, 2004.
Sir Peter Large, Shell executive until 1962, disabled by polio; subsequently Civil Servant; disability campaigner; founded Association of Disabled Professionals, parliamentary adviser; appointed MBE 1974, CBE 1987, knighted 1993 for services to disabled people,; 2004 lifetime achievement award from the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation. October 16, 1931 ? January 13, 2005, aged 73. [11][12]
Tom Latchem, Features reporter, News of the World.
Maddox, L. G. Second-Lieutenant , MC with Bar, 22nd (Queen?s) London Regt.; born Nov 1st 1898; attended EGS 1907 ? Nov 1915. Joined up Feb 1918 ? awarded MC for ?Conspicuous Gallantry and Devotion to Duty? ? killed Combles August 30th 1918. See: Smith, Samuel. (ed.) Enfield Grammar School Book of Remembrance: The Great War, 1914 ? 1919. Enfield: Meyer Brooks, nd.
Sir Alec Merrison, D.L., B.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc., LL.D., F.F.C.M., F.R.S., physicist; Institute of Physics' Charles Vernon Boys Prize 1961; Vice-Chancellor Bristol University (1969 to 1984); Director of Lloyds Bank; Fellow of the Royal Society; High Sheriff of Avon 1986-1987. (b. 20 March 1924 ? 19 February 1989 d.)
Walter George Ridewood, biologist, anatomist after whom a method of cranial dissection is named (1864 ? 1921) [published five important papers on the cranial osteology of teleostean fishes]
Geoffrey Soar, essayist, librarian, former curator Small Press Collection at University College London (UCL) Library
Henry Wells Sullivan, Professor of Spanish Literature, Department of Spanish & Porugese, Tulane University, New Orleans; author; poet; translator of Spaniard Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer?s love poetry; Guggenheim Fellow (1985), Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (1978-80).
Derek Taunt, mathematician, codebreaker (Hut 6, Bletchley Park), successively Lecturer, Director of Studies, Bursar and President, Jesus College, Cambridge.
Lewis Vieusseux, Founder and Principal of Melbourne Ladies? College, Australia, pioneering nineteenth-century educator of women, civil engineer, architect, surveyor.
Alan G. Walker, author; Director of Education at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists; recipient of Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Western England, 2002.
Frederic Wood Jones, Professor of Anatomy Manchester and Melbourne universities, naturalist, anthropologist, public speaker, trustee Public Library, Museum and National Gallery, Victoria, Australia
Secondary transfer
In recent years, because of the local nature of the catchment area used in the selection system, a significant proportion of the school's new pupils arrive at Enfield Grammar from St Andrews CE Primary School, Enfield.
Bibliography
A Short History of the Enfield Grammar School by Samuel Smith, 1932;
A Brief History of Enfield Grammar School 1558-1958 by Leslie Birkett Marshall, 1958
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22124 concerned with history of private schools in Middlesex: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 1; J.S. Cockburn, H.P.F. King, K.G.T. McDonnell (Editors); 1969: 241 - 55.
'Private Education from the Sixteenth Century: Developments from the 16th to the early 19th century', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 1: Physique, Archaeology, Domesday, Ecclesiastical Organization, The Jews, Religious Houses, Education of Working Classes to 1870, Private Education from Sixteenth Century (1969), pp. 241-255. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22124. Date accessed: Friday, October 05, 2007.
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