My Ooooooold School: Preston Grammar School
The cache, a custom-made bottle-top micro, is hidden close to this school which was one of the most ancient schools of Lancashire, founded before 1358, which gave fee-paying boys a classical education. An Assize Roll of that year mentions the 'Schoolmaster of Preston' and it is recorded that Richard Marshall, a clergyman, held office as school-master in 1399.
About 1479 Helena Houghton founded a chantry in the Parish Church, one condition being that the priest was to be 'sufficiently learned in grammar' to teach in the 'free grammar skole'. At the Suppression of Chantries, the school survived.
In 1666 the corporation built a new school at Stoneygate behind the Preston parish churchyard on the Syke Hill municipal land which served for the next nearly 200 years. A 1686 account describes it as a 'large and handsome schoole house' and in 1824 it is described as 'two good school rooms, one above and one below'. No trace of the school buildings remain at the site, a cobbled area on the north east side of the south end of Stoneygate. No information is available on the site of the pre-1666 building.
At the beginning of the 18th century the Preston Free School was taught by a master and usher who were nominated by the Mayor and Council. About 1728 a house was built near the school for the Headmaster. In 1823 there were 36 boys in the School.
By 1841, its then locality had become 'one of the very lowest parts of the town'. The
corporation therefore moved the school to new premises erected in Cross Street adjacent to Winkley Square in Preston town centre next to the Literary and Philosophical Institution with both being designed by architect Mr John Welch. Private shareholders provided funds for its construction. It was not until 1860 that Preston Corporation bought the school for £1,527 and 10 shillings.
On 19 April 1913 it relocated to Moor Park, Preston's largest and oldest park which had opened in 1867.
In 1969 the school together with the neighbouring Park School built in 1908 (one of the pioneer grammar schools for girls) school closed to become part of the Sixth Form College amidst much public protest.
The Moor Park Business and Enterprise School now occupies the buildings of Preston Grammar School. See here for a more detailed history of the school up to the 1960s and some interesting old photos.
I attended the school from 1961-68 (see here for 1965 photo of the whole school) - I am 19th from the left on the 2nd row down (see gallery for snip from the photo)!
Note: please take care to watch out for muggles when undertaking your caching operations and to replace the cache properly concealed - hopefully as it was found - thanks!