John Hampden Grammar School

 

The school has been an important part of education in High Wycombe and beyond for almost 120 years. It was originally set up to support the local furniture industry, before becoming a technical school and finally becoming a grammar school in 1984. There can be few schools in the country who can claim to have founded two girls schools and a university.

 

 

 

In the early 1890s a fund was set up to raise money for an Art and Technical school in High Wycombe to help support the traditional skills in the town of cabinet making, carving and polishing. Early donations to the fund included a grant of £575 from the School of Art in Kensington Gardens and a further donation from Buckinghamshire County Council's education fund which had benefited from proceeds derived from an unpopular tax imposed on wines and spirits.

 

To make up the shortfall needed to pay for the building the schools' trustees and general committee ran a three day fair in the grounds of Wycombe Abbey, the home of the then Lord Carrington. The fête took place in July 1892, with Lady Carrington arriving by a special train from Paddington. The Great Western Railway also ran excursions from Maidenhead, Thame, Aylesbury and Chinnor and the revelries were led by the band of the 17th Lancers. By the end of the event the committee had raised £800.

 

The school was originally built on 530 square yards of land in Frogmore Gardens, known now as Frogmoor, purchased from Lord Carrington for £325. The building work cost £1,964 and when the school opened there was still a shortfall of £230, some of which was met by a further bazaar.

 

In 1901 the trustees allowed girls to be taught in separate classes and teachers and this arrangement continued until 1906 when the girls moved to buildings in Benjamin Road ultimately becoming Wycombe High School.

 

The Science and Art School were limited to evening classes only until 1919, but after the First World War the courses were supplemented by special tuition for ex-soldiers and sailors who had become disabled in the war.

 

  

 

In 1919, the majority of departments from Frogmoor were moved to the empty grammar school building which had been vacated by the Royal Grammar School in Easton Street, High Wycombe, when the latter moved to its present site to the north of the town. The Frogmoor school continued to be used after the move to Easton Street and was finally sold in 1928. In 1920, day time technical classes in metalwork and woodwork were introduced - the first in the country. The schools changed their names to Wycombe Technical Institute and tuition was offered in most subjects (except French).

 

The school motto 'Quit Ye Like Men', adapted from I Corinthians 16 v13, was adopted in 1924. It remained the motto even during the co-ed period - girls were admitted in 1925 mainly to study commercial subjects. In 1944, following the introduction of the new Education Act, the Institute became the town's new technical school taking children at 13 plus. By 1954, the combined school and further education centre had become vastly over-subscribed and unwieldy.

 

Consequently the High Wycombe College of Further Education was set up on its present site (now Bucks New University) although the final separation of students didn't come about until 1963.

In 1956 the girls transferred to the old Wycombe High School buildings in Benjamin Road to form Lady Verney High School.

 

 

 

John Hampden and Marlow Hill  

 

 

The boys remained at Easton Street as Wycombe Technical High School for a further 10 years before moving to the present site at the top of Marlow Hill in 1966. The name was changed to John Hampden School in 1970 and John Hampden Grammar School in 1984.

 

 

More recent developments gave the school a new façade in September 1995 and the following January work was completed on a sixth-form block to provide specialist teaching rooms, private study rooms, a common room and a new library. In 2006 a new classroom block, used mainly for mathematics teaching and a sports hall were opened by Bob Wilson. This in turn allowed for an extension of the music department and development of a music studio. In 2011 work started on a food technology room, which is due to be completed in the early summer.

 

There have only been six headmasters in the history of the school. The management of the original schools was vested in the trustees who in turn entrusted day-to-day control to art master Henry Bayfield and committee secretary WT Pycraft. The first headmaster W J Stamps ARCA was appointed in 1911. His successor was Mr Arthur Gardham BSc. who joined in 1913 and won the MC with the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War. The former army captain is remembered by old boys as a man of military bearing with a waxed moustache who held a daily roll call on the Fives Court when he inspected shoes, hands and nails. After the sudden death in post of Mr Gardham at the age of 51, the governors appointed Mr W J Davies BSc. In his wake came Harold Ward in 1963 who was succeeded after retirement in 1982 by Mr Andrew MacTavish. The present headmaster, Mr Stephen Nokes, was appointed in 2000.