Giggleswick School

In 1499, Giggleswick School was founded on half an acre of land leased by the Prior and Convent of Durham, to James Carr, the chantry priest at the parish Church of St Alkelda, to enclose and build, at his own expense, one 'Gramar Scole'. By 1512 the school consisted of two small, irregular buildings, next to the parish church. The school was run by the chantry priests until Edward VI dissolved the position. The school was saved by the petition of the King's Chaplain, John Nowell, and in 1553 it received its royal charter. The charter granted land and endowed it with the title: The Free Grammar School of King Edward the VI of Giggleswick. There is some evidence that there was a school on the same site from an earlier date. Giggleswick was one of 27 schools listed in the Public Schools Yearbook of 1889, and has claims to be one of the oldest public schools, although claims vary depending on the criteria used. In 2012 the school celebrated its 500th anniversary with numerous events throughout the year, including a ball, an outside concert and fireworks display.

IndyCar & W.E.C. Driver James Jakes was educated at Giggleswick

The school continued in its original location until 1867, when it moved out of the village centre up the hill to its present location. At this point, a major expansion of the school and its facilities began. Boarding accommodation was added, playing fields were laid out, and new classrooms built.

The only remaining part of the second school, the covered courtyard, was converted into a shooting range, used by the school's Combined Cadet Force contingent and by units of the Territorial Army (Army Reserve).

In 1934, the school was enlarged by the addition of a preparatory school, Catteral Hall for pupils aged 7–13, a new boarding house was created from the Georgian Beck House in the village (Style House), and in 1966 another boarding house, Morrison, was opened. In the 1970s the school became co-educational, the first public school in the north of England to do so. In the late 1990s a pre-preparatory school, Mill House for children aged 3–7 was opened in the grounds of Catteral Hall, and more recent expansion at the school has created a library, dining hall, sports facilities and science laboratories and refurbished the boarding accommodation.

In the 2000s, Giggleswick School (senior, 13–18), Catteral Hall (prep, 7–13) and Mill House (pre-prep, 2–7) were reorganised to create Giggleswick Junior School (2–11) and Giggleswick School (11–18) under a unified Giggleswick brand.

Giggleswick is one of only 18 schools to possess a Royal Marine cadet force, which became affiliated with HMS Bulwark in the autumn of 2004.

Pupils from the school (and pupils from Cranleigh School and Charterhouse School) operate the manual scoreboards at the Open Championship golf tournament. These pupils receive recognition on television each year from golf broadcaster Peter Alliss, on both the BBC in the UK and on ESPN and ABC in the United States.

In September 2014 a new headmaster (Mark Turnbull) was to replace the then current headmaster Geoffrey Boult who was retiring after 14 years at the school.

• David Chapman (scientist), FRS, Physical Chemist.
• Rev. Robert Noel Douglas played cricket for Surrey and Middlesex.
• Ronald Eyre Theatre director, writer and actor.
• Russell Harty, a BBC2 chat show host in the 1980s from Blackburn, taught English at the school, notably to Richard Whiteley. Harty and Whiteley entered television at the same time in the late 1960s.
• John Langhorne (senior) was mathematics and writing master for thirty years, leaving in about 1859.
• William Wyamar Vaughan. Headmaster, a position he later held at Wellington and Rugby schools.
• David E. W. Morgan (Modern Languages and Careers for 38 years).
• Charles Francis Mott became Director of Education at Liverpool.

Allegedly the Three Peaks Walk was invented in July 1887 by two masters at the school: D. R. Smith and J. R. Wynne-Edwards (father of Sir Robert Wynne-Edwards – see OG's above).