Hidden Horsham - Collyers

Above the main entrance

Collyer's sixth form College is located in Hurst Road. It started out as a boys' school in 1541 in Denne Road, near St Mary's Church in but its history began in 1532

The benefactor who funded the original school was Richard Collyer who died in March of 1532 having written his will in January of the same year. Collyer was a wealthy merchant and and Mercer of considerable assets and his will left instructions for a school in Horsham where 60 boys could be educated at no cost

...to kepe a Free Scole in Horsham in the Countie of Sussex where I was borne...for threescore poor children

In his will Collyer left his money to his two children but they died before reaching adulthood therefore so the school bequest took effect. Following the example of fellow mercers Collyer had put this clause in place to prevent the government from taking his estate should his beneficeries not be able to

Collyer's will requested that a trust be set up by the Mercers Company to build and run the school. The school still uses the Mercer's motto 'Honor Deo' ; hour to God. One of his two large London houses, 'The Sunne in the Parish of Our Lady at Bowe', was to be sold to pay for the school. Another house, 'The Gilden Key' in Cheapside, was given to the Mercers to pay for a foundation to fund the ongoing management

Collyer purchased the Key for £100 [2007: £38,644.35] from William Wetendale of Peckham in 1520, it was valued in 1540 at £640 [2007: £260,116.47]. Although burned down by the Fire of London in 1666 the site remains today where Queen Street meet Cheapside

In return for this gift the school was required to 'pray for the soules of me Richard Colyer and Kateryn and all Christian soules with De Profundis at the debting of the said scole' but this was not possible until the first school was built in Denne Road in 1540. The money came when the sale of the Sunne realised £8 6s. 8d [2007: £3,386.93]

Perhaps one of the more notable employees of the school was William Pirie. He was the the headmaster between 1822 and 1868 who was said to have been paid a salary of £100 [2007: £8,237.07]. Pirie invested in a row of 14 Victorian terraced cottages on the site of Piries Place and is remembered today in the sculpture featuring him in his cart pulled by a donkey

The Denne Road school house as drawn by Howard Dudley in 1836. There are other images of the school by Miss Augusta Hurst (1840) and in The Stranger's Guide to Horsham (1890)

In 1892 the school moved to its current premises. The new building has an engraved stone above the main entrance door with Collyers name mispelled: 'Grammar School, founded by Richard Collier, AD 1532'. Local builders Joseph Potter was paid £5,795 [2007:£451,564.33] and the school opened to 48 pupils on the 2^nd of May, 1893. Around the left hand side of the building is the foundation stone with the inscription:

This foundation stone
was laid
25^th July 1892
by Ralph Charlton Palmer esq,
Master of the Mercers Comp^y
Charles J. Robinson _Vicar Chairman
Arthur Vernon. Architect

The house system in was established in the Spring term of 1923 by the headmaster Rev. W M Peacock and is still in place today: Denne has changed to Collyers and have the colour light blue, Mercers are Oxford blue, Hurst are red and St Leonards are green. Peacock also initiated the Founder's Day celebration with the first one taking place on the 24^th of June 1924. Prize giving and events involving former pupils took place

The Hurst Road school house in a Valentine Postcard (1906)

Former students from the school are known as Old Collyerians and include Simon Nye and Harry Enfield in their number. In 1945 the estate of a Old Collyerian's was left to the school. Dr William West Duckering's estate was used to build Duckering Hall in 1963

A wealth of information about the school can be found in A history of Collyer's School 1532-1964 by A N Willson who entire teaching career was at Collyers, this book being written as he approached retirement

Reproduced courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection. Horsham, Grammar School 1929

The building was listed by English Heritage as recently as 1974. As can be seen in the two photographs above the bell tower to the left has been removed

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