A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



The bishop, however, especially reserved to himself in the person of his 

 Official ' the examination and approval (examinacionem et approbacioneni) of the 

 said master appointed by the convent.' At the same time the archdeacon 

 was to suspend any school collated to anyone in prejudice of the rights of the 

 said religious, compelling obedience by excommunication which ' we order 

 and command shall be published and declared by you the said archdeacon or 

 your official.' 



The exact place where the Gloucester Grammar School was held has 

 been ascertained. In the rental of Gloucester, 1 now among the town 

 muniments, made in 1455 by a canon of Llanthony, is the following entry 

 under ' Old Smyth Strete.' ' The prior of Llanthony holds in fee there a 

 curtilage with a tenement where the school* is held with its appurtenances 

 and contains in front [ ].' But here follows a blank never filled 



in, for the length of the frontage ; the MS. in this, as in many other 

 cases, never having been completed as regards the measurements of the 

 tenement. 



We can fix the spot more exactly in the 'Rentall* of 1535, also pre- 

 pared by a canon of Llanthony, ' Sir ' David Mathew. 



Old Smithestrette or the Scholhowse lane Is on the west side of the strett called 

 Sowzyate street extending from hence downe to the Barelande. 



Gorlor.e extendyth from Trinitie churche into olde Smith strete and lyeth in length 

 North and sowzte. 



Old Smyth street or the schole howse lane 



Memorandum the old scole howse, because he lyeth vacante, sum tyme in holdinge of 

 Sir William scolemaster, folio xxxij 3 et numero lxv to ; and it is now of value by yere but 

 xiiij. \\\]d. 



John Dyme occupieth a small tenement on the same syde of the stret between a 

 tenement of John Okolte and a tenement perteynynge to Seynt Thomas service in the 

 churche of the Trinite, sumtyme Nicholas Hope folio xxxiij et numero lxvi' ; and shulde 

 paye by yere vij;., now he payeth vs. 



The school, therefore, was on the right-hand side of the Schoolhouse 

 Lane, now called Long Smith Street, going down it from Southgate Street, 

 just above Gore Lane, which, like Kensington Gore in London, took its 

 name from its shape, being narrow at one end and widening out to the other, 

 and is now called Bull Lane. 



Where the school had been moved to in 1535 does not appear. It is 

 just possible that it had ceased, owing to the competition of the new Crypt 

 School. But in that case we must antedate that school and assume (which is 

 rather improbable) that it had been going on before a licence in mortmain 

 had been obtained and before its formal foundation in 1537, and from shortly 

 after the will of its founder in 1529. At all events the old school is thus 

 shown to be nowhere near Llanthony Abbey itself, nor in or near St. Peter's 

 Abbey, in no way therefore monastic, but in a central position in the middle 

 of the town for which it catered. 



: Edited for the Corp. by W. H. Stevenson. (John Bellows, Glouc. 1890.) Corp. Rec. No. 1365. 



1 ' Prior Llanthon in feodo tenet ibidem unum curtilagium cum tenemento ubi scole tenentur cum 

 pertinenciis. Et continet in fronte.' Mr. Stevenson wrongly translated ' where a school is held.' It should 

 be as given in the text, ' the school.' 



1 This refers to some earlier rental not now forthcoming unhappily. 



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