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Summary

The King's School was originally founded in 14th century by Bishop Grandisson for eight choir boys and a master. Following the dissolution a new school was founded by Henry VIII. The school closed in 1881 and the buildings demolished. A new school was established by 1896 at The Priory and in 1912 moved to its present location.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SY09NE/17

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• SCHOOL (XIV - 1301 AD (Between) to 1400 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, SY09NE6 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV102873.

There are now no visible remains of King's School. The site is occupied by a garden. The building was demolished in 1884.

Lysons, D. + Lysons, S., 1822, Magna Britannica. Devonshire (Monograph). SDV323771.

Dalton, J. N., 1917, The Collegiate Church of Ottery St Mary, 74-75 (Monograph). SDV102603.

Tapley-Soper, H., 1942-1946, The birthplace of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 198-199, Pl. (Article in Serial). SDV102875.

The associated schoolhouse, pulled down in 1884, is considered to be the birthplace of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, not the vicarage as is generally supposed (citing notes left by Rose-Troup).

Andrew, S., 1968, The King's School, Ottery St Mary, 354-357 (Article in Serial). SDV102872.

The King's School was founded in the 14th century by Bishop Grandisson for eight choir boys and a master. The choir were housed in one of the college buildings. The college was dissolved in 1545 and Henry VIII established a free grammar school. This was rebuilt after a fire in 1581. The school closed in 1881 as it was in a bad state of repair, and sold to the vicar for £640. In 1894 The Priory was bought by the school governors and a new school was established there. A new school was built on a new site in 1912 (Thorne Farm).

Weddell, P. J., 1987, Devon Religious Houses Survey: Ottery St Mary, 11-12 (Report - Survey). SDV366679.

The Kings New Grammar School was founded by Henry VIII in 1545. Although called new, it was a continuation of the choristers school which had formed part of the Collegiate Church founded in the 14th century.
The school appears to have been badly damaged by fire and rebuilt in 1587. John Coleridge was appointed schoolmaster here in 1760 (he also became vicar in 1781). However, when Revd George Coleridge was appointed master in 1794 he found the school to be in a ruinous state, the schoolroom used for keeping rabbits and poultry. The school closed in 1881.
The property was sold in 1884 and the buildings demolished not long afterwards. The school reopened in 1896, in a house called The Priory in Cornhill. It moved to its present location in 1912.

Steinmetzer, M., 2015, Grandisson Court, Ottery St Mary (Report - Watching Brief). SDV359619.

Archaeological monitoring and recording was undertaken by Oakford Archaeology on land at Grandisson Court, Ottery St Mary, Devon (SY 0984 9552), in October 2015 during the redevelopment of the site. A number of medieval buildings, part of the collegiate school and later King’s School, existed within the boundaries of the site from the 14th century. All of these had been removed by 1883 and replaced by a house in the 1920's. During the development late 19th century robber trenches associated with the south range of the King's School were uncovered. Immediately to the west the remains of a large pit (see MDV115264) were exposed. The infilling was dated to the late 16th-early 17th century. This is significant as they represent the first excavated evidence of the medieval school buildings.
The excavations for the new extension entailed the demolition of the existing extension and the removal of the footings. The new foundations measured 35m in length by 0.7m wide and entailed excavation to a maximum depth of 1m below existing ground level. The area was located to the east and south of the existing house.
Natural subsoil (105) was exposed at a depth of 0.6m below current ground level. The earliest deposit in the sequence related to an early buried soil and comprised mid reddish brown silty clay (101/104). The former soil was overlain by a mid-brown silty clay based deposit (109)containing slate and limestone fragments and cut by robber trench 102 and pit 106.
Robbing activity 102 (Fig. 10-11, Pls. 1-6) lay at a distance of approximately 2.5 metres to the south and east of the house. It was exposed over an area measuring approximately 7 metres by 4.5 metres and consisted of a roughly E-W robber trench and shallower robbing of internal floors. This was filled by a homogeneous mid reddish brown silty clay (103) containing large amounts of lime mortar, lime mortar with plain lime wash, waterworn pebbles, slate fragments, clam and oyster shells, limestone and Otter conglomerate fragments and late 18th – 19th century brick fragments. No finds were recovered from this feature. Within the footprint of the former extension very little survived. A small area of demolition material (115) consisting of light yellow lime mortar survived either side of a later foundation.
A thorough inspection of the eastern boundary wall was undertaken during the works and areas of original medieval fabric and later additions identified (Pl. 8). The remains of a blocked doorway were identified, while the southern section of the wall had been largely rebuilt and subsequently heightened. Unfortunately the building break identified coincided with the location of a modern drain. It should be noted however that no robbing activity was identified to the north of the drain, suggesting that the building never extended north but returned on the line of the modern truncation.
The remains of a roughly E-W aligned robber trench [102] was uncovered. This seems to represent the rear wall of the medieval collegiate and later King’s School. This was built some time after the establishment of a collegiate church for secular priests by Bishop Grandisson in 1335. It remained in use throughout the next two hundred years and following the dissolution of the college in 1545 was re-established by Henry VIII as a grammar school. It was finally sold in 1883 and the buildings were demolished shortly after. The robber trench and demolition deposit covering the internal space of the school building are likely to date to this period. The large pit is likely to have been located within an ancillary building shown on the mid-19th century plan of the school and may have served as a latrine. It was not fully excavated but the fills identified would suggest that the later stages of infilling denoted by the fills represent a period of deliberate backfilling dating to the late 16th or 17th century.
The excavations have provided a significant exposure of elements of the collegiate and later King’s School. Although substantial features, a full understanding of the date, profile, extent, and inter-relationships is hampered by a number of factors, notably the extensive truncation caused by the 19th century demolition construction of the current house in the 1920’s, which has resulted in only parts of features and deposits surviving. Nevertheless, the investigations have provided a useful level of information regarding the extent and scale of the school building in this area, and an indication of the general level of survival of archaeological deposits. In addition to providing the first exposures of the school house, thereby allowing a refinement of its position to be made, the identification of a large pit infilled in the late 16th – 17th century represents new information.

Ordnance Survey, 2025, Mastermap 2025 (Cartographic). SDV366286.

Marked as 'King's School (site of)'.

Cornish, Rev. F, F., Unknown, Notes on the Church & Parish of Ottery St Mary, 48-49 (Monograph). SDV322719.

There is little known of the early history or fortune of the king's school from its foundation in 1545 until the year 1639. The school seems to have attained its height of prosperity, in point of numbers, in 1662-1699; been in a ruinous state c.1819; but returned to its former use soon afterwards under a scheme granted by the charity commissioners in 1883, but school was closed and the site and buildings sold (NMR citing Cornish).

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6975 - Monitoring and Recording, Grandisson Court, Ottery St Mary (Ref: 15-05)
• EDV2416 - Devon Religious Houses Survey

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