The Crypt School is a grammar school with academy status for boys and girls located in the city of Gloucester. Founded in the 16th century, it was originally an all-boys school, but it made its sixth form co-educational in the 1980s and moved to a mixed intake from year 7 in 2018, thereby becoming the only fully coeducational selective school in Gloucester. The school was founded in 1539 by Joan Cooke with money inherited from her husband John.
Contents
History
Founders
John Cooke (d. 1528) was a wealthy brewer and mercer of Gloucester, one of the city's earliest aldermen, serving as sheriff in 1494 and 1498. He held the office of mayor four times, in 1501, 1507, 1512 and 1518. He was a significant benefactor in the city during his life, but it was his will that started the process for the establishment of a grammar school in Gloucester. The scheme was given effect by his wife Joan Cooke, who survived him by 17 years, dying in 1545. It was Joan therefore who created the tripartite deed of 1539, deemed to be the founding charter. The school remains today the most ancient in Gloucester. A full account of the couple and their good works is described in the book by Roland Austin published in 1939 "Crypt School". A portrait of the pair painted some years after Joan's death is extant. It shows John in his mayoral robe, shaking hands with Joan and it is in the collection of Gloucester City Council.
Site
In the school's 500-year history it has been in three different locations in the city of Gloucester. The original school was part of St Mary de Crypt Church in Southgate Street and the schoolroom has survived. In 1889 the school moved to Greyfriars, known better as Friar's Orchard, and in 1943, to its site at Podsmead on land given to the school by Joan Cooke in 1539.
Status
Despite attempts to change the school, notably in the 1960s with the move to comprehensive schools, the Crypt remains a selective grammar school. In 1987, there was the admission of girls in the sixth form entering in at the age of 16, and the transition towards a fully coeducational school began in 2018. Since April 2011, the school has been an academy independent of local authority control. The school has been fully co-educational since 2018.
Primary school
In May 2018, the school announced plans to create a primary school, linked to the secondary school being built on the current Podsmead site. The new primary school would, unlike the secondary school, be unselective and would be a free school.
Notable alumni
Alumni of the school are known as Old Cryptians.
Religion
Michael Wrenford Hooper, Bishop of Ludlow from 2002 to 2009
John Moore (1730–1805), Archbishop of Canterbury
John Paddock (8 August 1951 - 5 June 2023), Dean of Gibraltar (2008-)
Robert Raikes (1736–1811), publisher and founder of Sunday School Movement
George Whitefield (1714–1770), a leader of the Methodist movement
James Frederick Wood, Archbishop of Philadelphia between 1860 and 1883
James Roose-Evans, theatre director and priest
Sports
John Gordon A'Bear, international rugby union player with the British and Irish Lions, and Gloucester's youngest captain
Charlie Hannaford, England rugby union international
Grahame Parker, cricketer
Wayne Thomas, professional footballer (Doncaster Rovers)
Percy Stout, England rugby union international
Eric Stephens, rugby union player
Academia
Ernest Baldwin, professor of biochemistry at University College London from 1950 to 1969
Peter Bayley, professor of English at the University of St Andrews from 1978 to 1985, and the first Principal of Collingwood College, Durham in 1972
Derek Brewer, professor of English at the University of Cambridge from 1983 to 1990, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1977 to 1990, and president of the English Association from 1982 to 1983 and 1987 to 1990
Thomas Edward Brown (1830–1897), poet, scholar, and head-master
H. D. F. Kitto, classicist and professor of Greek at the University of Bristol from 1944 to 1962
Arts
Capel Bond, organist
Ian Dench, musician, best known as the guitarist from EMF
Michael John Hurd, composer
William Ernest Henley (1849–1903), poet and editor
Anthony Calf, actor
Politics
Harold Collison, Baron Collison CBE, general secretary of the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers from 1953 to 1969
Robin Day (1923–2000), journalist, broadcaster and political commentator
James Bruton, member of Parliament for Gloucester for the Unionist Party in 1918 and 1922
Other
Ian Bailey
Saajid Badat, British terrorist