| Admin History | The school dates its foundation to a school for poor children run by Abingdon Abbey at St Nicolas' parish church, founded before 1100, and endowed in 1256, when it was based in Stert Street. It was re-founded by the charitable gift of John Roysse of London, mercer, in 1563, in a building south of the Abbey gateway. It was known as Roysse's School from this date until the 1960s. An additional benefaction was made by Thomas Tesdale, one of the 1563 scholars, to provide an Usher (or master) to teach six poor boys, and for 13 boys from Abingdon to study at the University of Oxford, the latter becoming Pembroke College, Oxford, which retained links with the school until 1854. A benefaction by William Bennett paid for six poor boys, known as Bennett Boys or Gown Boys. The Tesdale Usher and Bennett Boys were selected by the Master and Governors of Christ's Hospital, Abingdon, and the headmaster by the mayor and aldermen of Abingdon. By the time of John Lempriere, a classical scholar who was headmaster 1792-1809, most of the pupils were fee-paying.
A new school building was erected near Albert Park in 1870, and a new Scheme of Government was adopted in 1879.
In the 1960s the school dropped the Roysse's name, becoming Abingdon School. At this date many pupils were state funded, but when the Direct Grant Scheme was abolished in c.1975, like a number of other ancient grammar schools, Abingdon chose to become an independent school.
In 1998, it merged with Josca's, a preparatory school in Frilford, which became a junior branch under the name of Abingdon Preparatory School, with both schools governed by the Abingdon Foundation.
The school has its own archive. |