History of the School
By the terms of his will made in 1828, the Right Honourable Robert Ward ordained that a sum of £1000 should be "expended in building and endowing a School-house for the education of boys in Mathematics, Astronomy and Navigation". In 1856 the school the school was opened under the name of Bangor Endowed School.
The first building occupied by the school was the "Old School House" in Front Street, now Main Street. It was a picturesque cottage type building on the site of the present Bank of Ireland at the corner of Central Avenue. Here the work of the school was carried on until 1901.
The school then became nomadic for a time, using various buildings, including one house in Princetown Road and another in College Gardens (part of Seacliff Road) which later became the Ballyholme Hotel.
The present school buildings in College Avenue date from 1906, thanks to a bequest from the late W. K. Crosby. In 1914 the adjoining Headmaster's residence was added to the east of the building. No further change took place until after the Second World War when the Headmaster's residence was incorporated into the school as additional classrooms and offices.
At some stage, probably quite early, the school became known as Bangor Grammar School.
By the end of the 1930s numbers were approaching two hundred. Thirty years later they were almost six hundred. To meet ever increasing demand for places the Board of Governors embarked on an expansion scheme which was completed in 1961. Further expansion took place in 1966 and 1972 and still the demand for places grew. The present population is 923 boys in the secondary department and 150 girls and boys in the preparatory and pre-preparatory departments.
The school is proud of the distinguished achievements of many of its former pupils - in sport, in business and, not least, as a Nobel Laureate.
In 1987 the Clarke Hall, a full-sized sports hall, was built, providing facilities for a whole range of indoor sports. This was followed in 1990 by the Wilkins Centre, a design centre which housed the Technology and Art Departments.
At the same time as these major developments took place, a Study Room and a Common Room were provided for the Sixth Form and a spacious Music Suite was completely refurbished.
In 1995/96 new classroom accommodation was built for the History, Mathematics and Geography departments. This was followed by the construction of two large purpose built computer suites equipped and networked.
The latest addition is a £1.7 million Science and Technology building, officially opened in January 2002. The state of the art facilities provide a superb teaching and learning environment, equipped to the very latest specification. This new development facilitated the relocation of the Business Studies Department to refurbished accommodation in the Wilkins Centre and the extension of the Art Department provision in the same building.
Towards the end of 2003, the school's provision for ICT was enhanced by the addition of well over 130 new networked computers and associated peripherals.
The Crosby Building, which is the oldest part of the school, was totally refurbished and modernised internally to provide bright, spacious and well equipped classroom space together with two new drama studios.