Abergele Central School, records of

Scope and Content

Abergele Central School opened on 11th October 1938.

After the 1918 Education Act made secondary education up to the age of 14 compulsory many pupils were educated in enlarged primary schools or had places at the County Schools which were established for secondary education. A County school had been established in Abergele in 1899 and this became known as Abergele Grammar School in 1945. Up until 1938 any children of secondary age (14) who did not have a place at the County school were educated at an enlarged Abergele National School which had been established in 1869.

In 1938 Denbighshire Education Authority established Central Schools and the Abergele Central School was opeded on 10th October in a large well equipped new building which was to have a technical education bias and cost £21,000 to build.

Its first head teacher was T. Ceiriog Williams and on the first day there were 119 students on roll. T Ceiriog Williams left in 1941 and was followed by W.R. Owen, John Edwards and A.C. Davies over the war years. On 1st October 1946 E Wynne Williams became head teacher and was in post until the school's closure in 1967.

As a result of the 1944 Education Act the school was renamed as a Secondary Modern School. A newspaper cutting from the Abergele Visitor in July 1945 in the school's log book refers to Abergele Modern Secondary School (page 112). The school was renamed again in 1949 as Dinorben County Secondary School. Numbers on roll increased steadily and by September 1941 there were 311 students on roll.

Dinorben County Secondary School closed in July 1967 but a new school Ysgol Emrys Ap Iwan was formed with an amalgamation of Dinorben and Abergele Grammar School to become a Comprehensive school with 670 pupils on roll. The new school used the sites of both former schools and this school still exists today. It is also known as Emrys Ap Iwan Foundation School.

Location-

Faenol Avenue, Abergele.

This collection consists of two log books.

Secondary material-

'Abergele: The Story of a Parish' - Ellis Wynne Williams, 1968

'The War Years Personal Memories of Pensarn and the Abergele area, 1939-1945' - Robert J Griffith.

http://www.emrysapiwan.conwy.sch.uk/School/History/

Access Information

All school records containing personal or sensitive information are closed for 75 years. This includes log books, admission and attendance registers and some minute books.

Archivist's Note

No accession on record.

Geographical Names