Grove Park County School for Boys, Chester Road
Founded in 1895 from the school, which had previously been known as The Groves Academy, Grove Park provided grammar school education to a high standard for boys from Wrexham and the surrounding area. Originally, the school was housed in the old Groves Academy buildings. The sale of the old Grammar School buildings to W.B.C. provided the basis of a fund with a total of £11,500 that led to the construction of new red brick buildings facing Chester Road, which were opened in 1902.
By this time girls, albeit in small numbers, were also being educated at Grove Park. In 1939 the girls moved out into a new, purpose-built school on the opposite side of Chester Road.
In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s there were large extensions built in the form of a new gymnasium, science block and additional classrooms. A new domestic science block was built in preparation for the introduction of comprehensive education throughout Denbighshire in 1972 when the school became a mixed-sex comprehensive.
The new school retained the name Grove Park until its closure in 1983 when its pupils and staff were absorbed into the Groves High School. The buildings were then empty for some years before being used as part of the NEWI School of Art. With the transfer of resources between NEWI (now Glyndwr University) and Yale Sixth Form College in the early 1990’s, the Grove Park School site was absorbed into the new Yale College (now Coleg Cambria).
Headmasters:
1895— William James Russell
1913— Frank P. Dodd
1931 — J. R. Edwards
1935 — D. J. Lloyd
1946 — Jonathan Jones
1950 — E. Haddon Roberts
1966 — Nathaniel White
1969 — John H. Marwood (acting headmaster)
1970 — Neville H. Newhouse
1978 — Jim Bevan
Grove Park County School for Girls, Chester Road
Founded in 1896 as part of the Grove Park School for Boys, the school was accommodated in the old Grove Park School buildings. By 1925 the school had some 300 pupils who were accommodated in the north end of the school, close to Grove Park Road.
In 1939 the school moved into new, purpose-built accommodation on the opposite side of Chester Road and by the end of the Second World War had 580 girls on the roll. By the late 1960’s it was obvious that comprehensive education was coming to Denbighshire and, despite strong campaigns to maintain single-sex schools in Wrexham, Grove Park County School for Girls was amalgamated with Grove Park County School for Boys in 1972 and two new mixed comprehensive schools emerged.
The old ‘ Girls School ‘ was originally designated Park Avenue Comprehensive but this was eventually changed to Bromfield High School. In 1983, Bromfield High School merged with Grove Park School to become The Groves High School, both
Accommodated on the former Grove Park County School for Girls site.
Headmistresses:
1896 Miss Annie Jane Jones
1925 Miss Alicia Gower Jones
1944 Miss Margaret M. Copland
1965 Miss Violet Brown
Bromfield High School, Pen y Maes Avenue
In 1972, following the adoption of comprehensive education by Denbighshire County Council, Grove Park County Grammar School for Girls merged with Grove Park County Grammar School for Boys to form two new mixed-sex comprehensive schools — Grove Park School and Bromfield High School.
Bromfield was accommodated in the buildings of the former girls school and served the Chester Road, Maes y Dre and Queens Park areas.
Head teachers:
1972 Miss Violet Brown
1978 Thomas Davies
Source: The Encyclopaedia of Wrexham by W. Alister Williams
Many thanks to Gary Lee for the use of his pictures.
