Tour of Guildford
Royal Grammar School
Holy Trinity Church
The Royal Grammar School was founded in 1512 by the will of Robert Beckingham, a wealthy
London grocer who left lands whose income was to be used to fund a school at Guildford,
which would cost nothing for boys to be able to attend. The school was
refounded in 1552 as King Edward VI's Grammar School and was built on the present site
between 1557 and 1586.
One of the school's old boys,
John Parkhurst (who became Bishop of Norwich), left all of his latin books to the school in
1575. It contains mainly 16th Century religious books and is one of few remaining
chained libraries
in the country. The oldest book is a copy of Diomedes'
"De arte grammatica"
printed in Venice in about
1480. It also has a copy of Sir Walter Raleigh's
"History of the World".
It is believed that boys at this school invented the game of cricket! An entry
in the Guildford court book of 1598 is thought to be the first mention of the game in the
English language. In a local court case of a land-owner's dispute, an old boy
named John Derek gave evidence to say that he and his fellow scholars
"did run and play cricket on the plot of land"
in about
1550. Instead of stumps they used a three legged stool, like one used for
milking, which was called a "cricket".
Borough Boundary Stone
An old Borough Boundary Stone (21) can be seen half buried in front of the new buildings, marked with a G and dating from 1761 or 1762.
Until a series of 19th-20th century enlargements, the Borough of Guildford consisted of little more than the High Street and adjacent roads and lanes, and a small area around St Nicolas' church and Millmead on the other side of the river.