The King's School

In 1335 Bishop John de Grandisson bought the manor of Ottery St Mary from the Dean and Chapter of Rouen who had owned it since 1061. He obtained a royal licence from Edward III to found his College of Secular Canons and established a choir school in Ottery St Mary in 1335 for eight boys and a Master of Grammar. The school did not start very promisingly in 1337 with the members of the choir-school being accused of “dissolute and insolent behaviour in the parish”. Flogging was the order of the day, Bishop Grandisson being something of a disciplinarian, but as this did not work the boys were heavily fined for every day’s absence from the choir. For over two hundred years the canons carried out Bishop Grandisson’s instructions and the choir school boys were educated. During these two hundred years the English long-bowmen fought and won the battles of Crecy (1346) and Agincourt (1415), parts of England were ravaged by the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) and the Welshman Henry Tudor restored some peace and order before passing the throne to his son Henry VIII. Eventually the Reformation reached the College and in 1545 it was dissolved. However upon some whim or persuasion he was prompted to establish a free grammar school.- hence “The King’s School”. The site occupied by the school today on the outskirts of Ottery St Mary dates to 1912.