| Administrative History | In August 1855 the Clay Cross Company school was erected in the town centre (Market Street), for senior boys, senior girls and infants. An additional branch for infants was opened by the Company at Danesmoor in 1869. The town centre school continued to be owned and administered by the Company until 1892, when it was acquired by the Clay Lane School Board.
In September 1893, a 'higher grade' school was opened at Clay Cross by the Clay Lane School Board for the further education of the more advanced children from the elementary schools controlled by the School Board. During its first two years, the school was controlled by the Head Master and Head Mistress of the Clay Cross senior elementary schools for the boys and girls respectively. Mr Frederick Cowling was appointed as Head Master in 1895 and the school became a separate institution preparing pupils for the examination of the Science and Art Department. In 1897 the school was reorganised as a School of Science (Div A) and so it remained until 1904 when the Derbyshire Education Committee made application for its recognition as a higher elementary school. Recognition was withheld by the Board of Education but the school continued under the Board's regulations for higher elementary schools. Recognition was received in January 1918, and the school became the Clay Cross County Secondary School. This school eventually moved to Tupton Hall, which opened on 8th October 1936, and became Tupton Hall Grammar School.
At this time the Clay Cross town centre school (built in 1855, then called Clay Cross Council School) comprised Infants, Juniors, Senior Boys' and Senior Girls' departments. When the Secondary School moved to Tupton Hall in 1936, the vacant building was occupied by the Senior Boys' department, which took in boys of 11 years upwards. In September 1962, the Senior Boys' and Girls' departments merged to become the Clay Cross Secondary Modern School. This was an interim step towards the reorganisation of secondary school provision in the area whereby all seniors would be transferred to the Tupton Hall Grammar School site, which would then cater for all children of secondary age in Clay Cross, Ashover, Stretton, Tupton and Wingerworth. The Secondary Modern School at Clay Cross closed in 1969. |
| Custodial History | Records deposited with Derbyshire Record Office by Tupton Hall School between March and April 2004. |