The First Eccles Grammar School

8 March, 2025. Harry King

The stimulus to writing this account was an e-mail from Peter Jones, who never went to our school, and maybe never set foot in Eccles ! Peter knew, though, that his father did attend the "Eccles Grammar School" -- as far back as 1917 and 1918 (at least). We both soon realized from materials that Peter provided that this was the predecessor school, founded 38 years before the Eccles Secondary School, and 71 years before "our" own EGS ! Peter has very kindly shared some materials in his possession that had been retained by his father. We are greatly appreciative of his interest and generosity.

Our school -- the Eccles Grammar School of our day, going under that name from 1944 -- was a state-administered school, running under the oversight of County (Lancashire) and local government. It had started out in 1911 as the Eccles Secondary School, and though it was state-administered from the start, parents had to pay fees (3 pounds seven shillings and sixpence in 1912) for their children to attend. That practice only got changed after WWII because of a national mandate.

It may be surprising to know that an "Eccles Grammar School" had started its existence in 1873, 38 years before the Eccles Secondary School. It was founded by a Yorkshireman, John Walmsley. This original Eccles Grammar School and the Eccles Secondary School were operating in our town together for just about a quarter century (until the start of WWII), each guided by different goals, and different restrictions of oversight. It is remarkable that the history of this original grammar school has been almost totally forgotten: even the author of the 1967 definitive book on the growth of Eccles, F. R. Johnson, didn't make the slightest mention of it, though many other schools were noted. 1 The only account that has been made of the earlier school seems to have been a talk and accompanying paper (1977/78) to the town's Local History Society by a former pupil, Percy Crossley2. His paper has been invaluable in preparing this account.

John Walmsley, then twenty eight, came into Eccles in 1869 to teach mathematics The Image at a school in Clarendon Road run by the Rev. John Taylor Clegg. The portrait photo shows Walmsley probably in the late 1870's3. In earlier years John Walmsley had trained as a teacher, then graduated with a B. A. from the University of London in 1868 with emphasis in Mathematics. Prior to that, he had already published a mathematics book4. Prior to coming to Eccles, too, he had gained teaching experience as a "Mathematical Master" at an Army School in Woolwich and at the Abington House School in Northampton. Almost immediately after he came to Eccles, he married, and his first children came shortly after that.

Through the encouragement of others, and the backing of Rev. Clegg, in 1873 he founded his own school, the "Western Scientific and Commercial School," in a large house at 38 Wellington Road (at the northwest corner of what is now Albert Road). Soon afterwards the name of the school became "Eccles Grammar School." (The year 1876 is sometimes quoted as the "start" of the school, but its roots more appropriately seem to be 1873.)

The purpose of the school was to "prepare boys for business life." This reflected the changing moods of the time, when new appreciations of science and technology were thrusting to the fore, and the traditional subjects of study in post-primary schools, like Latin, the classics, and religious knowledge, were calling for less demand. The areas around Eccles abounded with men who made money and careers related to science and technology -- cotton mills, iron and steel works, and railways -- and the new large houses around the centre of Eccles and Ellesmere Park, often with servants in-house, spoke to that change. These men wanted their children to be educated for this "new age".

The house/school at 38 Wellington Road is – at least partially – still there. It is still called "Albert House", as it was then. The three photos below show the south face of the house (the front was on the east face) in 2008, 2018, and 2023. The first gives a sense of how it probably had looked in the last decades of the 1800's; the second shows some destruction in progress of the west portion of the house (made to extend the building to include some flats); and the third shows the building after the extension work was completed. The extension piece was appropriately given the name "Walmsley House."

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The Albert House was large enough to accommodate the Walmsley family in one side and to operate the school in the other. The family quarters were in the west side of the house (the section being removed under scaffolding in the middle photo), as attested to by it being given a separate postal address of "40 Wellington Rd" in the 1881 Census. At this date there were eight children in the family. A ninth child was added in 18835.

This first Eccles Grammar School was private, and seems best described as a preparatory school, training pupils in the kinds of skills necessary to prepare them for examinations that would be required to enter some of the white-collar professions, particularly teaching, and business-related work such as accounting6. To that end, too, French and German were taught, presumably as part of a business-related focus. This type of preparatory school is not to be confused with a different (and more common) kind, established many decades before, which prepared students to enter the traditional public schools (and which catered to a more well-to-do clientele, and predominantly required boarded accommodation). Nevertheless, some of the attendees of the Eccles Grammar School gained sufficient qualification to later become admitted to the traditional public schools as well as to universities and the worlds of science and business.

A photo from about 1890 shows pupils -- all males -- with headmaster Walmsley in the centre and a few older-looking persons presumably teachers and likely to be Walmsley's sons7. The photo was taken on the entrance steps of the Albert House school, on its east side. Examining the photo closely, students seem to be from a fairly wide age range, and their dress follows some required uniformity. This photo alone attests to the school's economic successfulness and its ability to attract students even in these early years.

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The School continued to operate in Albert House until about 1890. An opportunity to acquire a more suitable building came when the proprietor of the school at 24 Clarendon Road (the location of Walmsley's initial teaching post in Eccles) decided to close it. Walmsley decided to take it over, and the school moved over to these new quarters. (The April 1891 Census confirms the school's Clarendon Road address.) The building still stands today, and is still named Clarendon House, too8. It is seemingly little altered in its external structure as the photos below show. The older photo (of unknown date) at left indicates how it may have looked in Walmsley's early years there. The two modern photos, front-view and birdseye, show how it looks now. Its substantial bulk can be appreciated, though we see nothing of the extensive open spaces and grounds that were known to be at its rear and side.

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By the time that the school moved to Clarendon Road, many of the Walmsley's nine children were in or close to early adulthood. All were still living with father John and mother Marian in a private wing of the school building. At least four of the children came to serve as teachers in the immediate following years at the school. Three of them came to earn degrees at the University of St. Andrews, and two (George and Arnold) stayed on for decades more.

The very informative article noted earlier2 by Percy Prestwich Crossley, who was a pupil at the school in the 1910's, gives many interesting details about the school and how it was conducted. The school had only six classrooms. An Educational Directory from 1912 records that there were then 80 boys in attendance, ages seven to seventeen. John Walmsley was still headmaster and was being assisted by two of his sons, George and Arnold. There were also "Visiting" teachers for French, German, Singing, Art, Carpentry, and Drill. There was some Boarding (40-75 guineas) and Tuition cost ranged between seven and a half and fifteen guineas9.

The 1914-18 Great War affected the school greatly, many of its former students served in it, and many were killed. John Walmsley remained as headmaster slightly beyond the war, dying in his eightieth year in 1921 after being headmaster for a remarkable forty eight years. He was buried in Peel Green Cemetery and an obituary gave a brief account of his life10. The School continued beyond his death, too, his son George Everhard taking over the Headmastership until the start of WWII, when George was then sixty five, and the school finally closed.

Some Documentary Patrimony

Peter Jones's father, Henry Sydney Jones, seems to have first attended the (old) Eccles Grammar School in 1917 (when he would have been 13), and he was there for two years (at least). Peter remembers his dad's mathematical skills, which led him to becoming an insurance broker, and these skills have apparently passed along to three succeeding generations of the family. Peter has shared with us "School Reports" of two years of his dad's time there. These 7-page booklets list prize- and certificate-winning pupils and explain the kinds of work going on at the school to enable students to get different kinds of certifications. Certification by the "College of Preceptors" -- a body that regulated entrance to teacher training -- was one of the important goals towards which pupils worked.

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The next two small booklets, both from shortly after WWI, relate to the school's commemoration of those ex-pupils who served, and those ex-pupils who lost their lives in that war. The leftmost booklet lists Old Boys of the school who served in WW1, giving name, rank, and regiment. The rightmost booklet is a programme for a ceremony (in September 1922) of "dedication and unveiling" of a Memorial Library to honour 50 ex-pupils ("Old Ecclesians") who gave their life in WWI.

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The final two documents are brimming with information. At the left is Henry Jones's school report for the midsummer term, 1917. He would have been 13 at this time, and was in "Form V". In a class of 21, he was a very accomplished student, and taking a wide range of subjects. At the right (4 pages) are detailed accounts of the fees his parents were being charged in four separate school terms from Easter 1917 to Easter 1918. The main expenses were for books and stationery, the overall fees per term being in a range between 4 pounds and 8 pounds

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Background Reading

The manner in which schools developed in that time period in which the old Eccles Grammar School formed is a most complicated subject. Some background can be found in: (1) "Education in the U. K." by Derek Gillard, 2018. It is freely available online at http://education-uk.org/history/index.html; (2) "The Rise of the English Prep School" by Donald Leinster-Mackay, 1984; and (3) "The Training of Teachers in England & Wales, 1800-1975" by H. C. Dent, 1975.

Reference Notes