You can blame it on Henry VIII. Before his dissolution of the monasteries, the youth of Spalding received their education from the local priory, but with no royal funds forthcoming to provide a replacement, it fell to “charitably disposed persons” in the community to establish a school.

Following the example of John Harrox in Moulton in 1562, John Blanche and John Gamlyn left land in Spalding, and Gamlyn also procured “letters patent” from Queen Elizabeth I to establish the Queen Elizabeth Royal Free Grammar School of Spalding in 1588. There was, however, no building, so the school began in the upper floor (now demolished) of the St Thomas’s Chapel in the Parish Church, and remained there for nearly 300 years.

Those years were not free from adversity. There were several lawsuits and legal actions, one of which led to a resourceful governor securing further “letters patent” to support the school, this time from Charles II.

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