The Crypt School

John Cooke (d. 1528) was a wealthy brewer and mercer of Gloucester, one of the City's earliest aldermen, serving as sheriff in 1494 and 1498. He held the office of mayor four times, in 1501, 1507, 1512 and 1518. He was a great benefactor of the City. His will started the process in motion for the establishment of a grammar school in Gloucester, and the scheme was finally given effect by his wife Joan who survived him by 17 years, dying in 1545. It was Joan therefore who created the tripartite deed of 1539, deemed to be the founding charter. The school remains today the most ancient in Gloucester.[1] A full account of the couple and their good works is contained within the book by Roland Austin published in 1939 "Crypt School". A contemporaneous portrait of the pair, John in his mayoral robe, shaking hands in union, is held within the collection of Gloucester City Council.[1]

In the school's 500-year history it has been sited in three different locations within the city of Gloucester. The original school was part of St Mary de Crypt Church in Southgate Street and the schoolroom can still be seen there.[2] Later, in 1889, the school moved to Greyfriars, known better as Friar's Orchard,[3] and in 1943, to its present site at Podsmead. The site on which the modern school is situated is land given to the school by Joan Cooke in 1539.

Despite attempts to change the school, notably in the 1960s with the move to comprehensive schools, the Crypt remains a selective grammar school. In 1987, there was the admission of girls in the sixth form entering in at the age of 16, and the transition towards a fully coeducational school began in 2018.[4] Since April 2011, the school has been an academy independent of local authority control. The school has been fully co-educational since 2018.[5] the

In May 2018, the school announced plans to create a primary school, linked to the secondary school being built on the current Podsmead site. The new primary school would, unlike main school, be unselective and would be a free school.[6]

• Michael Wrenford Hooper, Bishop of Ludlow from 2002–9
• John Moore (1730–1805), Archbishop of Canterbury
• John Paddock (b. 1951), Dean of Gibraltar (2008-)
• Robert Raikes (1736–1811), publisher and founder of Sunday School Movement
• George Whitefield (1714–1770), a leader of the Methodist movement
• James Frederick Wood, Archbishop of Philadelphia between 1860–83
• James Roose-Evans, theatre director and priest

• John Gordon A'Bear, international rugby union player with the British and Irish Lions, and Gloucester's youngest ever captain.
• Charlie Hannaford, England rugby union international
• Grahame Parker, cricketer
• Wayne Thomas, professional footballer (Doncaster Rovers)
• Percy Stout, England rugby union international

• Ernest Baldwin, professor of Biochemistry at University College London from 1950–69
• Peter Bayley, professor of English at the University of St Andrews from 1978–85, and the first Principal of Collingwood College, Durham in 1972
• Derek Brewer, professor of English at the University of Cambridge from 1983–90, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1977–90, and President of the English Association from 1982–3 and 1987–90
• Thomas Edward Brown (1830–1897), poet, scholar, and head-master
• H. D. F. Kitto, classicist and Professor of Greek at the University of Bristol from 1944–62

• Capel Bond, organist
• Ian Dench, musician, best known as the guitarist from EMF
• Michael John Hurd, composer
• William Henley (1849–1903), poet and editor
• Anthony Calf, actor

• Harold Collison, Baron Collison CBE, General Secretary of the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers from 1953–69
• Andrew Henderson, Ambassador to Algeria since 2007
• Robin Day (1923–2000), journalist, broadcaster and political commentator
• James Bruton, member of Parliament for Gloucester for the Unionist Party in 1918 and 1922.

• Saajid Badat, British Islamist Terrorist