Our History
The Great Yarmouth Grammar School Foundation (GYGSF) is a Trust that has its origin as far back as the foundation of the town grammar school in 1551. That school was established in Great Yarmouth with the support of the bailiffs, aldermen and councillors and had its first home in the Market Place in the town centre, a site that is now occupied by the Priory School.
The Foundation had early benefactors from the townspeople that enriched it for many years to come. The income from eighteen houses in the town was part of the Foundation’s assets. In 1650, a prominent townsman, Mr Edward Owner, started a charity for the School, raising £1,500 himself and £8,500 from other sources. In 1872, the Grammar School, having moved premises, was established in Trafalgar Road and was opened by the Prince of Wales.
In 1905, the Governors of the School began to plan for a new building and acquired a freehold site between Salisbury and Beaconsfield roads. This was obtained by exchanging their own freehold in the Market Place with the corporation, to create a new Great Yarmouth Grammar School building. This was opened in 1910, having been paid for by the school Foundation governors. Upon the opening of this new school, the Grammar School Foundation Governors established the Girls High School in their former Trafalgar Road buildings. The Boys Grammar School and Girls High School were administered by a single board of governors
In the mid-1960s, the Girls High School moved to the Lynn Grove site in Gorleston, when the Foundation exchanged its Trafalgar Road land for a substantial part of the land at Gorleston on which the Girls High School was established. It then became known as Gorleston Grammar School. Both schools became part of the town comprehensive system in 1982, becoming Great Yarmouth High School and Lynn Grove High School. The two schools also lost their sixth forms at that time, with the East Norfolk Sixth Form College opening to take students from across the borough and further afield.
GYGSF
Great Yarmouth Grammar School Foundation
Registered Charity No. 325136
Designed and Developed by Luke Orriss© 2025 GYGSF. All rights reserved.
GYGSF