SCHOOLS 



of removing the school from the old building with its one room. A 

 drill hall was temporarily hired and the whole of the old building was 

 handed over to the so-called third grade school. 



It is characteristic of the narrow ideas entertained of what the 

 school should be that the proposal for a site of 8 acres was rejected in 

 favour of one of 2, and that two-thirds of the income from the endow- 

 ment was still spent on the lower school as against one third on the 

 grammar school, thus reversing the proportions of the Elizabethan 

 settlement. Plans for the new buildings were undertaken, but 

 Mr. Plummer was promoted in November, 1878, to Thame school, 

 whither he removed in April, 1 879, taking with him most of the 

 boarders, and receiving the congratulations of the governors on ' his 

 persevering efforts to raise the character of the school.' 



The incoming head master, who has changed Wellingborough 

 Grammar School from a struggling growth into a flourishing and spread- 

 ing tree, was Mr. Henry Piatt, M.A., and now LL.D., of St. John's 

 College, Cambridge. When he took over the school, i May, 1879, it 

 consisted of 7 boarders and 10 day boys. In January, 1881, the new 

 school and master's house were taken possession of by 52 boys, of whom 

 31 were day boys. In December, 1904, the school numbered 328, almost 

 equally divided between day boys and boarders, a number which any 

 Wellingburian of 1875 would have pronounced an absolute impossibility. 

 Under Mr. Piatt there is a staff of 1 3 masters, two of whom have separate 

 boarding houses. The boarding fees are only ;C50» but even with these 

 low fees it is by means of the profits on the boarders that the 

 masters who teach the day boys are paid, since there is in fact a loss 

 on every day boy, the tuition fee of ^7 a year being less than half the 

 actual cost of the education given. 



The first block, in the Queen Anne style, of red brick with stone 

 dressings, was planned ' with not less than two class-rooms ' for 1 20 boys, 

 60 of them to be boarders. The governors' ideas as to space required 

 were limited, but the recreation grounds have now been extended to 

 30 acres. 



Since the first block of the new buildings was occupied, in 1881, 

 there have been added a school sanatorium (1885); 6 J acres more land 

 purchased; an additional boarding house called, 'Game's House '^ (1888); 

 chemical and physical laboratory and science and art lecture room (1891); 

 new sanatorium and large additions to the schoolhouse, completed at the 

 head master's expense (1895); the school hall, 73 J feet long by 30 broad, 

 and 3 adjoining class-rooms erected (1895) by public subscription 'in 

 commemoration of the great successes gained by the school in public 

 examinations during the sixteen years' head-mastership of Dr. Piatt ' ; 

 and a new physical laboratory (1902), towards which ;(^200 was granted 

 by the Northamptonshire County Council. 



The numbers in the school have risen, taking five-year periods, as 

 follows: in 1884 there were 56 boarders and 41 dayboys; in 1889, 



' After the late Mr. W. H. Game, second master from 18S3 to 1895, who first occupied the house. 



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