Byrchall High School

Byrchall High School
Byrchall High School
Address
	Warrington Road; Ashton-in-Makerfield, Greater Manchester, WN4 9PQ; England
Coordinates	53°28′53″N 2°38′27″W / 53.4813°N 2.6409°W
Information
Type	Academy
Motto	LIVE TO LEARN, LEARN TO LIVE!!
Established	1588; 436 years ago
Local authority	Wigan
Specialist	Mathematics and English
Department for Education URN	138699 Tables
Ofsted	Reports
Head teacher	A.R. Birchall
Gender	Mixed
Age	11 to 16
Enrolment	1131
Former name	Ashton-in-Makerfield Grammar School
Website	http://www.byrchall.wigan.sch.uk

Byrchall High School is a secondary school and specialist mathematics and English school with academy status, in the Ashton-in-Makerfield area of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester.

Admissions

It has a mixed intake of both boys and girls aged 11–16. The current pupil population is approximately 1,200. The current headteacher is Alan Birchall. Byrchall High School is one of three secondary schools in Ashton, the other two being St Edmund Arrowsmith Catholic High School, next to Byrchall High School, and Cansfield High School.

The school is situated between the A49 and the M6 on the southern edge of the Wigan borough, neighbouring St Helens.

History

Grammar school

The school was founded in 1588 as Ashton Grammar School by Robert Byrchall on land donated by wealthy local land owner William Gerrard. The original building in Seneley Green is now Garswood Library. Through the school, Ashton-in-Makerfield Grammar School Old Boys F.C. (now known as Ashtonians AFC) entered the Lancashire Amateur Football League in 1951.

After the Second World War a prisoner-of-war camp for Germans, POW Camp 50, operated at its site. One of its inmates was footballer Bert Trautmann who was confined there until 1948.^[1]

In 1960, Lancashire Education Committee proposed to amalgamate the school with Upholland Grammar School when the school had around 450 pupils. The school was administered by Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council from April 1974. By 1973 the school had 700 pupils and 800 by 1975.

Comprehensive

It became a comprehensive school in 1978.

Academy

The school became an academy on 1 October 2012.

Alumni

Ashton-in-Makerfield Grammar School

Sir George Bishop CB OBE, Chairman from 1972-79 of Booker-McConnell, President from 1957-58 of the International Sugar Council, President from 1983-87 of the Royal Geographical Society
Prof Rodney Robert Porter FRS, biochemist, won the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the structure of antibodies, Whitley Professor of Biochemistry from 1967-85 at the University of Oxford
Sir John Randall FRS, physicist who invented the cavity magnetron, currently found in microwave ovens

Byrchall High School

Jane Bruton, Chairman in 2007 of the British Society of Magazine Editors, and Editor from 2005-15 of Grazia and from 2001-01 of Eve
Lemn Sissay, BAFTA-nominated writer and broadcaster
Kym Marsh, award winning actress, presenter and singer.

References

^ James, The Official Manchester City Hall of Fame, p. 135.

OFSTED Report

External links

[hof_135-1] James, The Official Manchester City Hall of Fame, p. 135.

[1]

v t e Schools in Wigan
Secondary schools	Abraham Guest Academy Atherton High School Bedford High School Byrchall High School Cansfield High School Dean Trust Rose Bridge Dean Trust Wigan Deanery High School Fred Longworth High School Golborne High School Hawkley Hall High School Lowton CE High School Outwood Academy Hindley St Edmund Arrowsmith RC High School St John Fisher RC High School St Mary's RC High School St Peter's RC High School Shevington High School Standish Community High School The Westleigh School
Special schools	Newbridge Learning Community Oakfield High School and College
FE & sixth form colleges	St John Rigby College Wigan and Leigh College Winstanley College
Defunct schools	PEMBEC High School Wigan Grammar School Wigan UTC

Authority control databases
International	VIAF
National	United States