John Speed's Map of Newcastle, 1610. RGS is labelled as letter C on the map - 'Grammer Schole'. Courtesy of Newcastle Libraries, Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/newcastlelibraries/25960907400.
St Nicholas’ Church (Newcastle Cathedral)
Our earliest school was part of Newcastle Cathedral. Before becoming a cathedral in 1882, it was known as the Church of St. Nicholas. It was common for schools to be founded within churches during the Reformation.
The Hally House
The school building was situated separately from the main church on the north-east side of the churchyard. It was referred to as the “hally” house (local dialect for ‘holy’ house). The school itself was also known as the “Hye School” at this time. This building was in place before 1545, when Thomas Horsley’s legacy gift would have come into effect. So, there is some evidence to suggest there may already have been a school in the church before Horsley’s endowment became available.
Illustration of Newcastle Cathedral, published in Eneas Mackenzie, History of Newcastle Vol I, 1818. RGS Archives [Ref: C13/23].
A ‘Hally’ Snapshot
According to AR Laws, no description survives of the school as it was then. The school would have looked out onto the churchyard, which would not have had the rails surrounding it that it does today. This was a very central and busy part of the town, a convenient location for the middle-class of Newcastle to send their (male) children to school.
Royal Charter
In 1600, the school became a royal foundation as part of the Great Charter, which Queen Elizabeth I granted to the town. We then became the “Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth in Newcastle-upon-Tyne".
Illustration of the interior of Newcastle Cathedral, published in Eneas Mackenzie, History of Newcastle Vol I, 1818. [RGS Archives, ref: C13/23]
Postcard of St Nicholas' Church in 1715. [RGS Archives, ref: SUR/125]
Relocation to the Hospital of St. Mary the Virgin
The school remained in the churchyard until 1607, when the Corporation decided to move it to the nearby buildings of the Hospital of St. Mary the Virgin. The churchyard building remained in place, was repaired, and continued to house a Writing School. The Writing School existed alongside, but separate from, the Grammar School, teaching writing and arithmetic. Later, this school moved to the Hospital buildings on the Westgate.
Postcard of Newcastle Cathedral, 1903 [RGS Archives, ref: SUR/125]
Enduring Ties
The schools’ links with the Church of St. Nicholas remained strong even after the move to the Hospital. Attending church on Sunday was compulsory for the boys. A gallery was built especially for the schoolboys to use in 1620, with the arms of the Merchant Adventurers on the front, in memory of Thomas Horsley. They used the gallery for over 170 years until it was removed in 1783.
Illustration of St Nicholas' Church from the south, 1826. From Walter Scott, The Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore and Legend (1889) [ref: C17/9] ©RGS Newcastle
The Changing Role of the Churchyard Building
It is unclear how long the old building remained in place, but J.B. Brodie noted in an article for the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle that it had been pulled down and rebuilt. It was used by numerous businesses afterwards, as well as the library of the Literary & Philosophical Library for a period. Its exact location in the city as we know it today is difficult to ascertain, but it was possibly the building now identified as No.7 St. Nicholas' Churchyard.