‘History of Burton upon Trent’ was published by William Wesley in 1848. It contained a brief account of the Grammar School in Friars Walk. Of particular note was how little it offered the town given that the income from endowed lands at that time amounted to £452 which was a significant sum:

The masters are appointed by the Trustees. The Headmaster receives for his stipend two thirds of the rents of the School Lands, and the second Master one-third. The former also has £3, and the latter £6, as noticed in the list of charities. The Scholars are limited to sixty; they are taught reading, writing and arithmetic by the second master, and about twenty are instructed by the Headmaster in Latin and the classics.

The School is free to sons of the inhabitants of Burton, and all such are admitted on application to the master, as vacancies occur, but with a preference to those who apply for admission into the classical section of the school.

The Headmaster is Reverend J.F. MacMichael. It is to be regretted that with such an income as £450 per annum, so little benefit is derived by the town from this institution. Placed on a more popular footing, the school might afford a good education to nearly all the youth of the town.

Allsopps’ School in New Street was endowed in 1728, by Richard Allsopp, for the education of thirty poor boys. This endowment consists of two pieces of land, containing upwards of nine acres at Goose Moor and Horninglow.