Bury Grammar School

BURY GRAMMAR SCHOOLS - THE Bury Grammar School is an old foundation, and possesses a high reputation in the North of England, counting among its former scholars the great Sir Robert Peel, who was a native of the town. The present buildings are old, inconvenient, and altogether unsuited to modern requirements. The governors therefore determined to make an effort to provide new buildings. They were fortunate in obtaining a grant of a considerable sum for the purpose from the Hulme Trustees, who have already made grants for the building of two other similar schools in the locality - namely, at Manchester and Oldham. Six acres of land having been secured for a site in a good situation near the best quarter of the town, designs were obtained for the new buildings. They are intended to accommodate 350 boys and 200 girls in separate departments. On the ground floor are twenty-three classrooms, art-rooms for boys and girls, assembly-hall, chemical and physical laboratories, lecture-room, music-cells, and book-store. Rooms for the head master and mistress arc also provided on this floor, with rooms above for assistant masters and mistresses. On the basement floor are provided dining-halls for each sex, with kitchens, offices, and servants' apartments attached; also gymnasium, workshops, cadet-room, cricket-room, cloakroom, and bicycle-room on the boys' side, and a recreation room, with cloakroom and bicycle-room on the girls' side. At the present time the boys' school only is being built, funds being available for this portion of the scheme only. The contractor is Mr. C. Brierley, of Bury, and the architect, Mr. W. V. Gough, Of Bridge-street, Bristol. [Building News 7 March 1902 Page 343]

GRAMMAR SCHOOL, BURY, LANCASHIRE - The new buildings of Bury Grammar School, which have just been completed, have been erected from the designs of Mr. W. V. Gough, architect, of Bristol. The buildings comprise only part of the whole design which the Governors of the school hope in due course- to carry out. This design shows a quadrangle, embracing separate schools for the respective accommodation of 350 boys and 200 girls; but the completion of the work is not at present feasible, and only two sides and a half of the quadrangle have been erected. The cubic contents of the contemplated schools were stated at 877,456 feet, and the estimated cost was put at £19,280. In the centre of the quadrangle there is to be an assembly-hall, capable of seating about 600 persons. This, and the portion of the school to be allotted to girls, have, however, not vet been proceeded with, and the scheme of the boys' school itself has not yet been wholly realised. The site of the school, with playing; fields, covers about twelve acres. At the main entrance to the buildings there appear on a panel the arms of Roger Kay, founder of the Grammar School, and the dated stone of the original school buildings has been inserted in the central gables of the main frontage. [The Builder 26 December 1903 page 674]

In 1902 work began on the new School buildings along what became known as Bridge Road. The new building housed both the Boys' School and the Girls' School but boys and girls were kept separate. The new Boys' School, housed on the left side of the building, was officially opened by Lord Derby on 17th December 1903 and the Girls' School, housed on the right side of the building, by his son Hon. Arthur Stanley MP on 17th January 1906. On 26th June 1906 the corner stone of a central hall, symbolically linking the two Schools, was laid and The Roger Kay Hall was officially opened with a golden key by Lady Alice Stanley on 7th March 1907. The Roger Kay Crest appears in the stained glass windows of the Hall, as do the Knights of Bury Grammar School. In 1959 an appeal began, to raise the funds to build a new school on the opposite side of The Boulevard (later Bridge Rd). Plans were drawn up and in September 1966 the new Boys' School was opened by Lord James of Rusholme, using a vintage key. The former building was the occupied entiely by Bury Grammar School for Girls.

Reference    Manchester City News 20 April 1901 Page 8 - contracts
Reference    British Architect 26 April Page viii - contracts
Reference    Building News 26 April 1901 Page 580 - contracts
Reference    Building News 18 December 1903 page 826
Reference    The Builder 26 December 1903 page 674