Richard Pate founded his Schola Grammatica in the High Street in 1572 and it opened its doors to pupils in 1574.  The original building was demolished in 1886 and replaced by a new building designed by Messrs Knight and Chatters costing £11,000.

Here is the new school described in an extract from the Cheltenham Grammar School magazine, April 1889:

The new school is nearly finished now; the windows are being put in, and the first coats of plaster have been laid on the walls and by next term we shall all be enjoying the change from improvised school rooms at the Presbyterian Chapel to the large classrooms opposite.

Everyone can see the outside now and so it is not very necessary to describe it but from an outside view it is not easy to realise the number of rooms there really are.

The school is..... arranged in blocks. The front building occupies the whole length 117 feet which was formally divided between the old Schola Grammatica and the Headmaster's house and is set back 12 feet from the street line. The general elevation of the building is 44 feet but the tower is 12 feet higher and is surrounded by an embattled turret. At the base of the tower is the main entrance, on the first floor above it there is a pretty oriel window which lights what is to be the boardroom, while at the same elevation there is a niche to receive a canopied statue of the founder, outside...the spiral staircase, which leads to the top of the turret. On the right of the tower there are two 5-light windows, one of which will light the committee room, the other the library: the windows on the other side of the tower are those of the assembly hall, the largest room in the new school, 68 feet x 32 feet and 27 feet high, which stretches from the tower to the oriel on the left hand and provides accommodation for 300 persons. Behind the front building there is a space averaging 30 feet and then connected by wide corridors with the tower there are two floors stretching back to a considerable depth.

On the ground floor there will be five ordinary classrooms each 24 feet x 22 feet besides accommodation for the caretaker and a dining room for boys who live at a distance from the school. The chemistry and art rooms occupy the floor above. There is a room 46 feet x 22 feet for drawing and three classrooms, of the same dimensions as the downstairs rooms, and (shut off by doors from the corridor leading to them) there is the laboratory, one of the best and largest rooms in the building, a chemical lecture room and a preparation room.

The ventilation and heating of the buildings will be on the principle adopted for the new public library: the air will be warmed by hot pipes and carried off by flues, one of which is in the turret and the other in the central part of the building behind.

The playground will extend right back to Saint Margaret's Road, that’s taking in what used to be the headmasters garden. No arrangement has been made for fives courts yet, but no doubt this will be considered by the governors after we have got into the new buildings.

We also found this poem in the magazine written by A.C.J (not yet identified - can you help us?):