Village literacy in medieval England was most usually passed on to small groups via the local clergy. A paid teacher, Richard Johnson, gave lessons in the Yorkshire parish of Normanton at least as early as 1548.
In 1592, John Freston, a barrister who lived in the ancient adjacent village of Altofts bequeathed sufficient funds in his will to “purchase and procure a plot of ground in Normanton and there erect, edify and build a convenient home for a free grammar school, there to be kept for ever with all other convenient rooms and mansions for the necessary uses and habitations of a schoolmaster ...” It was stipulated that the school was to be free for 30 poor children who lived in the parishes of Normanton (All Saints) and Warmfield (St Peter). The annual salary of the school master was a fixed part of the bequest.
John Freston, who had been born in Altofts in 1512, was laid to rest within his parish church of All Saints, Normanton on 20th January 1594.
By 1736, one Richard Perkin was teaching 35 children to read and write in the school that he had founded.
William Lorriman, aged 27, succeed Perkin in 1760 and was mentioned extensively in Archbishop Drummond’s Visitation Returns of 1764. Lorriman continued to teach until his death in 1806. Some time during Lorriman’s 46-year stint, an endowment by Elizabeth Levett paid for a schoolmistress to teach eight poor girls reading, writing and sewing.
Lorriman’s successor was James Godfrey, who was born around the time of his predecessor’s accession to the post. Godfrey also died in harness, in 1823 aged 63. He was followed by Benjamin Robinson who taught until 1836. Joseph Abbott, son of school master Joseph Abbott of Ackworth — was appointed in April 1836 at the age of 20.
Abbott’s endowment salary was nominally the same as that of the very first master appointed to Normanton Grammar School more than two centuries earlier. Not only had he to teach children of both sexes, but buy school materials and maintain the school buildings from his income. Little wonder, therefore, that he looked for additional opportunities for remuneration. Hence he became clerk to various township offices, a collector of union rates, of land taxes, tithes and much more. Census returns record that as well as being a school master, he was also a maltster (in the ale-brewing trade). Soon after his appointment he started taking fee-paying pupils.
In 1839 — the year of his marriage — Joseph Abbott was teaching 48 boys and five girls, with a further 28 girls in the Foundation School next door. Fees for the boys were five shillings per quarter for reading, but if they required writing, arithmetic and geography then the cost went up to 13 shillings per quarter.
By 1844 Abbott’s profits were more than four times his original Freston endowment income. He was paid for one pupil from Liverpool to live at the school for twice his Freston annual endowment.
In 1846 another benefactor, Sir Edward Dodsworth, died and Abbott lost funding that had been given to the school for the education of eight poor children. The school trustees were asked for more money. That was allowed, but only on condition that Abbott taught 10 free pupils for the same remuneration per pupil as before.
In 1850 the Vicar of Normanton, William Mason, opened a rival school. Abbott was forced to reduce his fees to match those of his rival. Nevertheless, he lost 20 of his pupils and felt forced to ask Richard Cobden MP to raise the matter in the House of Commons. The rival school closed down soon afterwards.
Abbott died in 1887. After an evening of drinking with the landlord and landlady at the nearby White Swan Inn, he returned home and was subsequently found dead at the bottom of his cellar steps. Many of his papers are kept in the Sweeting Collection, whose records are held together with the John Goodchild Collection in Wakefield.
Joseph Abbott’s death brought about closure of the school and loss of the endowment. By then, it was said to have deteriorated into little more than “a third grade school, providing the basis for a clerk’s education.” Care of the school buildings was entrusted to the vicar, who let them out for rental.
By 1891, however, a committee had been set up to revive the school. Thomas Ward bequeathed £1,000 and it was found that there was money still available from John Freston’s will.
At an initial public meeting it was agreed to re-establish Normanton Grammar School and appoint its very first body of School Governors. Fund raising added another £2,000. In October 1897 the Earl of Crewe formally opened the newly-built school for 80 boys on land at Church Lane. The first Headmaster was C.W. Atkinson, a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge – which had also benefitted from Freston endowments.
About eight years later, in 1905, the endowment had risen to £500, and the school now had a gymnasium, laboratory and workshop. The number of pupils had risen to 71 and the first issue of a school magazine, The Frestonian, was published.
After the departure of Mr C.W. Atkinson in 1905, his assistant, Mr C.E. Brittain, was appointed Headmaster. Unfortunately, at the outbreak of the First World War he was on holiday in Germany and was interned. Upon resumption of his post in Normanton, Mr Brittain continued until his death in 1931. He was succeeded by Mr J.A. Holden, who also died in office in 1955. Mr H. Harris followed until his departure for another career in London in 1958. Mr J.A.L. Hamilton was appointed Headmaster in 1959.
In 1965 the Grammar School was amalgamated with Normanton Girls’ High School, situated next door, which had opened in May 1912 under the auspices of the same governing body.
The two schools were transferred to Favell Avenue in 1977, and amalgamated with Normanton County Secondary Modern School. Thereafter, it was no longer a grammar school of old.