Ysgol y Berwyn

Ysgol y Berwyn is a high-school situated in the town of Bala, in Gwynedd, north Wales.[1]

According to the latest Estyn report, 79% of pupils are from Welsh-speaking homes.[2]

In 2017, 80% of pupils achieved 5 or more GCSEs at grades A*-C.[3]

In September 2019, a new 3-19-year-old school opened on site under the name 'Ysgol Godre'r Berwyn'.

History
Neuadd y Cyfnod, Bala - geograph.org.uk - 432755

The free grammar school founded at Bala in the County of Merioneth by Rev Edmund Mayrick was originally intended for poor boys in 1712. Some sources put the foundation date as 1713–4. Meyrick was Chancellor of St David's Cathedral and diocese and therefore able to endow the new school with £15, and 5 acres of land near the town worth a rentcharge of £15 pa. Rev Thomas Charles (1755-1814), of whom a statue stands outside the school, was an advocate of foreign missionary proselytising the gospel with the British and Foreign Bible Society which he had founded. He lived at Bala, but on his death the property was donated to the grammar school in his will.

Boys were admitted aged 7 for about four years. The three R's was taught and reading down the church catechism of prayers. Boys usually went on to become apprentices and were presented with clothes at Christmastide. The Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford held the right to appoint the Master. They also donated money for the construction of a new house for accommodation.

In 1820, Master Rev Humphrey Lloyd was also vicar of the parish. The present building was constructed in 1851 and modelled very much on Jesus College, its financial and academic patron. In the 1930s Ysgol Tytandomen was in a Welsh-speaking area of Wales.

The Hall was replaced in 1964, when a wooden panelling commemoration was erected to the dead of the Great War. It was built in the mock Tudor Gothic style of slate quoins dressed with sandstone. The original building put up two chimney stacks to service the open fire grates. The elevation was divided into three main parts left, central and right. The school hall to the left flanked the central entrance hall, and a range of storeys to the right. A gabled bellcote arch opening over the entrance with a Latin inscription dated 1851. Mullioned windows in a decorative lozenge pattern included above light mullioned windows to bring in more light through the windows for the pupils to read right up to the eaves. There was ventilation in the roof. The hall range was flush had 2 storeys and 3 bays. Gable ends lent themselves to additions.

In 1868 the school's endowment was £80. There were six scholarships available to Jesus College, Oxford. Other charities provided £30 pa. The left wing had 12 sash windows on the ground floor. On the north-east side there were coped walls. In 2001 the Victorian school building received Listing Status Grade 2 because it was a fine example of Tudor Gothic architecture of the mid-nineteenth century, Neuadd-y-Cyfnod as it is now known in Welsh has a valuable forecourt, piers and railings preserved. The latter is vital to the impression because so many school railings have been removed. The school is now called Ysgol Y Berwyn; the modern school has a strong connection with Bangor University.

Notable Alumni
  • Thomas Edward ELLIS (1859-1899), Welsh statesman and Liberal MP, educationalist who supported Home Rule and free schooling, as well as leasehold enfranchisement for Wales. Supported intermediate school system and County Councils for Wales. Junior whip (1892-4), Shadow Chief Whip (1895-99).
  • D.R. Daniel
  • W.T. Phillips, Headmaster of Bala Grammar School.
  • Thomas Charles (1755-1814), poet and educationalist, founded The Sunday Schools in Wales
  • Sir Rees Davies CBE (1938-2005), historian of Wales
  • Sir Ifan ab Owen Edwards (1895-1970), Welsh academic, writer and film-maker
  • Sir Owen Morgan Edwards (1858-1920), Welsh historian, writer and educationist
  • Edward Ernest Hughes (1877-1953), Welsh historian
  • Robert Thomas Jenkins (1881-1969), historian and academic
  • David Evans Jones (1870-1947), a missionary
  • John Edward Jones (1905-1970), a politician Plaid Cymru organizer
  • John Hugh Jones (1843-1910), Welsh Roman Catholic priest, translator and tutor
  • Owen Thomas Jones, poet and educationalist and Welsh-speaker
  • Lieut. Arthur Glynn Lewis IAR, killed in action 10 July 1917.
  • Ifor Owen (1915-2007), Welsh language writer and illustrator.

Teachers
  • Rev Edmund Meyricke, priest and Chancellor of St Davids, said to be founder of Bala Grammar School
  • John Gwyn Griffiths (1911-2004), Welsh poet, Egyptologist, Plaid Cymru activist Latin teacher and Conscientious Objector taught Latin at Bala.
  • W.T. Phillips, Headmaster of Bala Grammar School.
  • David Tecwyn Lloyd (1914–92), educationalist, poet and Welsh-speaker

Further reading
  • ‘Prize Day at Bala Grammar School’, The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard (www.newspaper.library.wales)
  • P.J. Wallis, A Sketch of the Grammar School at Bala, 1713-1893
  • Malcolm Seaborne, Schools in Wales, 1200-1500: A Social and Architectural History, Gee & Son, Denbigh, 1992.

References
  1. "Ysgol Y Berwyn". My Local School. Welsh Government.
  2. "Ysgol Y Berwyn | Estyn". www.estyn.gov.wales. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  3. Morris, Josh (24 August 2017). "One in three get five top GCSE grades at Ysgol Y Berwyn in Bala". Denbighshire Free Press. Retrieved 28 October 2018.

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