Buxton College

Buxton College was a boys' grammar school in Buxton, Derbyshire whose site has been expanded since 1990 to be used as the fully co-educational comprehensive Buxton Community School.

The school was founded in 1675 by an amalgamation of various legacies of an earlier date together with subscriptions taken then. Its motto was Sic Luceat Lux Vestra - "Let your light shine forth."

The original school building was probably in Buxton next to St Anne’s Anglican Church on Bath Road. The school was placed in chancery between 1791 and 1816 and reopened in the, disused, St Anne’s Church. In 1840 it was moved to premises in the Market Place and in 1867 a School House at the corner of Market Street and South Street was built either in place of, or in addition to, the Market Place school. In 1873 it was determined by the charity Commissioners that the school should be classified as a grammar school. After its foundation the school appears to have been under the control of a number of different trusts, the latest one known was a scheme approved by the Queen in Council at Balmoral on 23 October 1876, giving the trustees authority to acquire land for new school buildings 'for not less than 80 scholars' and after re-organisation it then moved as the Buxton Endowed School to new premises opened on 27 September 1881 built on land off Green Lane (near the entrance to Poole's Cavern).

The new building in 1880–81 was by William Pollard of Manchester in the Gothic style. It had a small boarding house, by 1890 under the Headmaster Dr R. Archibald Little 1888–1910 the number of boarders had increased to 33. Many alterations and additions were made to the buildings during 1891–92. A chemistry laboratory which remained in use through to the 1970s, a workshop and a gymnasium. The original laundry was converted into a dining room and both it and the dormitories on the two floors above it were extended to double their length. In 1898, the school added a sanatorium at the rear of the headmasters house. The Assembly Hall was built during 1899–1900 and at the same time the old Schoolroom was divided into three much needed classrooms and a corridor giving access to them and the hall was constructed. By 1900 there were nearly 100 boys of whom 60 were boarders. By 1910 there were still over 70 boys but the number of boarders had dropped to 26 and the position of the school was precarious.

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