Byrchall High School is a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

and specialist mathematics and English school with academy status, in Ashton-in-Makerfield within the

Metropolitan Borough of Wigan The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest town, Wigan, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Atherton, Greater Manchester, Atherton, Ashton-in-Ma ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of 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

s 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 Haydock in the borough of 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 Gerard. 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 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

a prisoner-of-war camp for Germans, POW Camp 50, operated at its site. One of its inmates was footballer

Bert Trautmann Bernhard Carl "Bert" Trautmann (22 October 1923 – 19 July 2013) was a German professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Born in Bremen in 1923, he joined the Jungvolk, the junior section of the Hitler Youth in August 1933. Trautmann ...

who was confined there until 1948.James, ''The Official Manchester City Hall of Fame'', p. 135. 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

Seneley Green Grammar School

* Saint Edmund Bryan Arrowsmith, (1585 – 28 August 1628)

Ashton-in-Makerfield Grammar School

* Sir George Bishop CB OBE, Chairman from 1972-79 of

Booker-McConnell Booker Group Limited is a British wholesale distributor, and subsidiary of Tesco plc. In January 2017, it was announced that the British multinational supermarket retailer Tesco had agreed to purchase the company for £3.7 billion. It was con ...

, President from 1957-58 of the International Sugar Council, President from 1983-87 of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

* Prof Rodney Robert Porter FRS, biochemist, won the 1972

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...

for discovering the structure of

antibodies An antibody (Ab) or immunoglobulin (Ig) is a large, Y-shaped protein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily which is used by the immune system to identify and neutralize antigens such as bacteria and viruses, including those that caus ...

, Whitley Professor of Biochemistry from 1967-85 at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

* Sir John Randall FRS, physicist who invented the

cavity magnetron The cavity magnetron is a high-power vacuum tube used in early radar systems and subsequently in microwave ovens and in linear particle accelerators. A cavity magnetron generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons wit ...

, currently found in

microwave oven A microwave oven, or simply microwave, is an electric oven that heats and cooks food by exposing it to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range. This induces Dipole#Molecular dipoles, polar molecules in the food to rotate and ...

Byrchall High School

* Jane Bruton, Chairman in 2007 of the

British Society of Magazine Editors The British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME.market) is a professional association of print and onlinBSME.MARKETeditors in the United Kingdom. Established in 1981, the BSME.market has 148 members. Its annual awards—the BSME.market Awards and t ...

, and Editor from 2005-15 of ''

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'' and from 2001-01 of ''

Eve Eve is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral traditions and there ...

'' * Lemn Sissay,

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

-nominated writer and broadcaster *

Kym Marsh Kimberley Gail Marsh (previously Ryder, Lomas and Ratcliff; born 13 June 1976) is an English actress, television presenter and singer. In 2001, she won a place in the band Hear'Say as a result of appearing on the reality television series ''Pop ...

, award winning actress, presenter and singer.

References

OFSTED Report

External links

School Website

EduBase
{{authority control Educational institutions established in the 1580s Secondary schools in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan Academies in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan 1588 establishments in England Ashton-in-Makerfield