Weymouth College

Weymouth College is a further education college located in Weymouth, England. The college has over 4,000 students, studying on a wide range of practical and academic courses in many subjects. The college is part of The University of Plymouth Colleges network.

Until recently, the college had a second site on Newstead Road.

There was a private school (Eng: "public school") of the same name from 1862 to 1940 in Weymouth.

History

Grammar school

This site was opened in 1913 as Weymouth Secondary School, which in 1927 became known as Weymouth Grammar School. In 1939, the school began sharing this site with South Dorset Technical College. In the 1960s, the school moved to new premises in Chickerell Road, leaving the technical college with sole use of the site. The grammar school was co-educational with around 1,050 boys and girls administered by the South Dorset Divisional Executive of Dorset Education Committee.

Merger and formation

1985 saw the creation of the modern Weymouth College, with the merging of the technical college with Weymouth College (the former Weymouth College site became known as the Cranford Avenue campus).

Weymouth College (public school)

Weymouth College was a public school in Weymouth, Dorset, England, from 1863 to 1940. It closed during the Second World War because of the risks from its proximity to naval bases at Weymouth and Portsmouth, and the boys and some staff moved to Wellingborough School in Northamptonshire. A new house was formed at Wellingborough to accommodate the 33 pupils who moved, and Weymouth House still exists; since 1989 it has been the girls' house of the school.

Weymouth College aimed "to provide for the sons of gentlemen a classical, mathematical and general education of the highest class".

The building was designed by George Rackstraw Crickmay in 1864. Pevsner described the building as "The High Victorian style in a very debased form", and the chapel, 1894-96 as "really no better". In 1972 the building was in use as a College of Education. It is now a residential conversion. Some of the chapel furnishings are in St Aldhelm's Church, Spa Road, Weymouth

Former pupils

Notable former pupils include: