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Adams' Grammar School (often abbreviated as AGS) is a British selective boys' grammar school in Newport, Shropshire, offering day and boarding education.〔(www.adamsgs.org.uk )〕 Founded in 1656 by William Adams, a wealthy member of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers (one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City of London), it is now one of the country's top performing schools and was rated by the Ofsted as a Grade 1 outstanding school.〔(Ofsted Report )〕 ==History== Adams' was founded in 1656 by Alderman William Adams,〔(www.british-history.ac.uk )〕 a wealthy City of London merchant and haberdasher, who was born in Newport and whose younger brother Sir Thomas Adams became Lord Mayor of London. Adams had no children and never married, so therefore decided to leave a bequest for the foundation of the school, which was first opened on 25 March 1656, during the politically unstable and volatile period of the English Interregnum. Having received permission from Oliver Cromwell to found the school, Adams sought to further ensure the school's continued existence by appointing the Master and Wardens of the Haberdashers' Company as governors in perpetuity.〔(www.haberdashers.co.uk )〕 As one of the few schools founded during the Interregnum period, the school's articles of foundation were reconfirmed by Act of Parliament in 1660, upon the Restoration of the Monarchy; a copy of which is held in the school archives. Adams endowed the school with a large agricultural estate at Knighton in Staffordshire,〔(www.haberdashersarms.com )〕 providing income for future generations, as a result of this Knighton was exempt from all land taxes until 1990. This estate was eventually sold off in several portions over the course of the twentieth century, and the proceeds of the final sale were used by the Haberdashers' Company to purchase Longford Hall as a boarding house for the school. The grammar school was initially endowed with 1,400 books just after its foundation, this at the time represented one of the largest libraries in England, the average Oxbridge college then having only circa 1,000 books. Only seven of these 1,400 books are still in the school's ownership, with the rest having been sold at various times when the school has suffered financial hardship. Adams' developed slowly, and did not expand beyond its original building, now known as ''Big School'', until the turn of the last century when ''Main School'' (also known as the ''S-Block'') was built in the 1920s. Over the course of the next 90 years Adams' expanded rapidly, acquiring a number of buildings on Lower Bar in Newport for use as boarding houses; this in turn greatly expanded the school's town centre site. In the 1960s a new science block, connected to Main School was built, whilst a senior boarding master's house was created on land adjacent to Big School. During this period the school also acquired a new gymnasium, which was subsequently converted into a theatre in the mid-2000s. After a brief spell as a grant-maintained school in the 1980s, Adams' again faced threat of closure or conversion to co-educational comprehensive status in the early 90s; this was avoided by a successful campaign, organised by parents and governors, against the wishes of Salop County Council. In the late 1990s and 2000s Adams' again began to flourish after having been awarded voluntary-aided status; throughout its history the Haberdashers' Company has been key in supporting the school and providing financially for many of the more ambitious construction projects. The 1990s saw the construction of the Wood and Taylor Centres for the study of Design Technology and Maths, whilst with the coming of the 2000s the school began to raise funds for he construction of a new state-of-the-art Sports Hall and Fitness Suite. Perhaps the most important development in the school's recent history came in 1993 when girls were admitted to the sixth form for the first time, thus ending Adams' long tradition of educating boys only. In 2002 a history of the school by former headmaster David Taylor and his wife was published. The late 2000s saw the school celebrate its 350th anniversary (in 2006), completion of a new science block and conversion of the former gymnasium into a performing arts centre (this, in turn, was converted into a Sixth Form Centre, which opened in 2013). The music department was condemned in 2006; The Coach House, on Salters Lane, which backs onto the school grounds, was acquired by the Haberdashers' Company and converted into a new music department, which opened in 2013 alongside the new Sixth Form Centre. During World War I, 362 Old Novaportans served in the Armed Forces of whom 45 died and 77 survived wounded. After the War a memorial fund was set up to assist the sons of alumni, whose appeal raised £1,000, and a tablet listing those who died was unveiled in Main School building in 1921. In 1948 the Old Boys' Club erected another tablet alongside this to those who died in World War II. Both memorials are now displayed in the School Library. Under the headmastership of the Revd Samuel Lea, the school survived turning down the services of Dr Samuel Johnson, who was later to be the pre-eminent scholar of the 18th century. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Adams' Grammar School」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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