Great Yarmouth schools

The Norfolk Record Office (NRO) holds the following records, unless otherwise specified.

Town schools

The Grammar School

Great Yarmouth Grammar School was founded in 1551. It occupied part of the site of St Mary's Hospital, on the east side of the Market Place. 

It lapsed in 1757 but was re-founded in 1862.

• For admission registers 1863-1959 and other records, see D/ED 9 and Y/ED 163-268

Children's Hospital

The Children's Hospital was founded in 1634, also on part of the St Mary's Hospital site.

It was a charity school for the training of poor children.

• For admission registers 1682-1887 and other records, see Y/L3; Y/ED 163-6

The Bluecoat Charity School

This was founded by Yarmouth Corporation in 1713.

• For admission registers, 1713-68, 1850-89 and other records, see D/ED 19; Y/ED 269-320

The Friendly Society School

Great Yarmouth Friendly Society was instituted in 1769. In 1793, it established a school for the support of 10 boys.

• For admission registers, 1793-1840 and other records, see Y/L 6/1-5

Yarmouth Gaol

For the schoolmaster's journal, 1853-62, see Y/L 2/60.

Church schools

In the 19th century, most schools were founded and run by religious groupings, either the Church of England or Nonconformist churches.

• For references in Norwich Diocesan Society records, see list DN/NDS
• For building grant plans, see P/BG
• For the Yarmouth Priory National School, see PD 28; DCN 59/44
• For British School managers' minutes, 1897-1906, see Y/TC 86/11
• For references in Free Church records, see lists FC

School boards

School boards were set up after the 1870 Education Act. They did not aim to replace Church schools, but to supplement them in the provision of elementary education for everyone.  

Yarmouth School Board included Gorleston and Southtown.

Runham Vauxhall had its own board at first, even though there was only one school there. The Yarmouth School Board took it over in 1890.

• For Yarmouth School Board minutes, 1875-1903, with other records, see Y/ED 1-5 and Y/TC 78/1-5
• For Runham Vauxhall School Board minutes and other records, 1876-90, see Y/TC 79

Great Yarmouth Borough Council

The borough council education department took over the functions of the school boards in 1903 and had responsibility for education in the borough until 1974.

• Education committee minutes, 1903-65, see Y/ED 6-47,495-502
• Records of individual schools transferred by the education committee, see Y/ED 329-870
• Records of individual schools transferred by headteachers, see Y/ED S/1-115 and D/ED 9, 19, 20
• School of Art committee minutes, 1854-94, see Y/TC 86/5
• Technical education committee minutes, 1897-1903, see Y/TC 3
• East Anglian School for the Deaf and Partially Sighted, 1912-c1985, see Y/ED 121, 321-3, 828-846; Y/ED S/76,7; Y/TR 278; C/ED 37
• Gorleston Remand Home, 1934-40, see Y/ED 325-8
• Melton Lodge Orthopaedic School, 1929-60, see Y/ED 414-7
• Juvenile Instruction Centre for Girls, 1935-37, see Y/ED 413a

Norfolk County Council

Great Yarmouth lost its county borough status following local government reform in 1974 and responsibility for education passed to Norfolk County Council.

School records transferred by the county council include the pre-1974 records inherited from Great Yarmouth Borough Council (C/ED).

The NRO has a card index to its school records. This is the easiest way to discover if records of a particular school have been deposited.

Yarmouth schools listed in the index (apart from those already mentioned above) are:

• Alderman Leach Secondary
• Church Road Infant
• Claydon Secondary (formerly Gorleston Girls Secondary)
• Claydon High
• Cobholm Junior
• Edward Worlledge Infant, Junior and Senior
• Greenacre Infant, Junior and Senior 
• High School
• Hospital Secondary School
• Nelson Junior
• Northgate Infant
• St Andrew's Infant
• St George's
• St James'
• St John's
• St Mary's
• St Mary's Roman Catholic
• St Nicholas' (Priory)
• St Peter's
• Stradbroke Infant and Junior
• Styles Secondary
• Trafalgar Road Board School