On the 11 January 1811, an advertisement appeared in the Chelmsford Chronicle:
“EDUCATION: CHIPPING ONGAR, ESSEX. R. STOKES respectively acquaints his Friends and the Public, that his Academy for the Board and Education of twenty young Gentlemen, will open on Monday, 21st instant. Terms, Twenty Guineas per Annum.”
Among the pupils in 1846-47 were Nathaniel and Walter Barlow, sons of Dr. Nathaniel Barlow of Blackmore. In September 1847 Walter wrote to an elder brother Alfred,
“Tomorrow and the following day we are going to have two lectures on Electricity and Galvanism by Mr Thornthwaite, a lecturer from London. We have 41 young gentlemen, 3 of which are day boarders and I weekly boarder…”
In 1878 William Clark was the headmaster, There were 130 boarders. In 1899 the headmaster was Oswald Clark, M.A. At the 1911 census there were 164 children at the school. In the following year the principals were O.W. Clark, M.A., and Benjamin Brucesmith, LL.D. In 1926 the principal was Percival H. Bingley. By 1937 P.H. Bingley and Thomas A. Owen were joint principals.
Ongar Grammar School closed in 1940. In 1936 Essex County Council opened a secondary school in Fyfield Road.
There is an excellent history of the school in the ‘Aspects of the History of Ongar’, published in 1999.