A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



white stone quoins and mullions. The most conspicuous feature is the Large 

 Hall, 1 40 ft. long by 50 ft. high and 50 ft. broad. But it was unfortunate 

 that a very large part of the 20,000 of the original building was lavished on 

 this hall, just at the time when the more advanced schools had already 

 abandoned the massing of battalions of boys in big schools for the division of 

 them into quieter and more easily taught squads in separate class-rooms. 

 There were only three class-rooms to begin with. In 1892 the city gave 

 2,000 of the money coming to it for technical education under the Local 

 Taxation Act, 1890, out of which three more class-rooms and two Science 

 Lecture theatres and a Physical Laboratory were added. These are now 

 adequate for the 200 boys in the school, but by no means adequate for the 

 400 boys contemplated, and who in due course of development may soon be 

 expected to arrive. 



The weight of debt for the buildings was lightened by a scheme of 

 17 November, 1888, which appropriated some 6,000 from various obsolete 

 charities to the school ; and the income was increased by a scheme of 

 1 6 May, 1893, wm ch appropriated the unused payment every fourth year of 

 104 from Sir Thomas White's charity. The total income from the endow- 

 ment at the present time is just under 2,000 a year. 



In 1883 Dr. Caldicott retired to the vicarage of Shipston, Worcester- 

 shire. He was succeeded by Robert Leighton Leighton, probably the first lay 

 head master since the days of Edward VI. From Manchester Grammar 

 School he won an exhibition at Balliol College, and took first classes in 

 classics, both in Moderations and Final Schools. He had been eight years 

 head master of Wakefield Grammar School when appointed. The most per- 

 manent memorial he has left behind him is the enlargement and laying out 

 of the school playing fields, which till his time were unused and uncared for, 

 effected by means of a subscription of 2,408 which he raised in 1891-2. 

 One of the governors, Mr. O. Hosegood, being skilled in the matter, took 

 charge of the culture of the ground. Now the cricket pitch is said to be 

 excellent, and the games and sports are effectively organized. 



Mr. Leighton also greatly modified the curriculum. He specialized 

 classics and mathematics, establishing parallel VI and V Forms in each subject; 

 and attempted a commercial department, in which French and German were 

 substituted for Latin and Greek. But this proved a failure. The grant of 

 200 a year by the city in 1892 under the Local Taxation Act, 1890, 

 enabled the teaching of science to be properly organized for the first time 

 under a special science master. The laboratories then built, considered 

 excellent at the time, are now being ' modernized ' and remodelled. A car- 

 penter's shop is in process of erection. The list of University successes 

 gained by the boys from Bristol Grammar School was well maintained under 

 Mr. Leighton. He retired at the end of the summer term 1905, and is 

 living at Cambridge. 



The present head master is Mr. Cyril Norwood. He was at Merchant 

 Taylors School, and scholar of St. John's College, Oxford, where he obtained a 

 first class in both Moderations and Final Schools. Having headed the list of 

 candidates for the civil service in 1899, he abandoned an Admiralty clerkship 

 in 1901 for an assistant mastership at Leeds Grammar School, and was elected 

 head master at Bristol in May, 1906. 



378 



