The Clavian

Bury Grammar School

The school crest, (known as The Irwell Duck)
Motto	Latin: Sanctas Clavis Fores Aperit (The key that opens sacred doors)
Established	c.1570
Type	Independent day school
Religion	Church of England
Headmaster	Mr D P Cassidyl
Chair of Governors	Gillian Winter
Location	Tenterden Street Bury Greater Manchester BL9 0HN England 53°35′28″N 2°18′13″W / 53.591026°N 2.303593°W / 53.591026; -2.303593Coordinates: 53°35′28″N 2°18′13″W / 53.591026°N 2.303593°W / 53.591026; -2.303593
DfE number	351/6008
DfE URN	105373 Tables
Capacity	778
Students	511
Gender	Boys
Ages	3–18
Houses	Derby, Howlett, Hulme, Kay
Publication	The Clavian
Pupils	Clavians
Old Boys	Old Clavians
Website	Bury Grammar Schools

Bury Grammar School Boys is an independent' day school in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, that has existed since c.1570. It is now part of a group of schools for Pre School, junior, senior and sixth form studies.

The headmaster of the boys' school since 2013 has been Richard Marshall. The previous headmaster, Rev'd Stephen Harvey, left after 7 years to become Canon Residentiary at Newcastle Cathedral. The headmaster is a member of the HMC. The current school fees are £10,440 p.a. for senior pupils and £7.758 p.a. in the junior school.

There is evidence that a grammar school attached to Bury Parish Church existed as early as 1570 but the school was certainly well-established by 1634 with Henry Dunster as its fourth recorded headmaster. Former headmaster, Rev'd Henry Bury, who was by then "aged eighty nine yeares or thereabout", wrote his will in that year. In it, he not only left the sum of twenty shillings to Dunster ("that studious and painfull minister") but also an endowment of £300 to the "ffree school" at Bury "for and towards the yearlie mentayninge of a school maister there, for to teach their children."

Rev'd Roger Kay had gained his BA in 1688, his MA in 1691 and had become a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He also later became Rector of Fittleton in Wiltshire and was a prebendary of Salisbury until his death. In 1726, he left money in his will to support the library at St John's College, but also a substantial part of his estate to re-founding his alma mater in his home town of Bury. The building in which Kay's newly re-founded school educated the boys of Bury still stands today, known as the Blackburn Hall, in The Wylde behind the Parish Church. (The hall is named after a former Rector of Bury, Ven. Foster Blackburne MA(Oxon), who was also Archdeacon of Manchester and Chairman of Governors of Bury G S. Archdeacon Blackburn was credited with producing the lyrics for a school song. It is not used as the official school song today.)