The foundation of The Boys Grammar School in Soham dates back to 1686, when an award dated April 26th 1686 mentions 116 acres on Soham Moor for the raising a Town stock and for Raising a revenue for a schoolmaster. And by 1706 a schoolhouse had been erected on a 1/4 acre site West of Churchgate Street at its North end. The original school building, a long one with projecting ends, built of brick and a tiled roof, and may have had glazed windows, also included a dwelling for the schoolmaster, this building was reconstructed in c.1847 to the older seven-bayed rear wing, gabled to the north, partly occupied by the schoolmasters house, was then added a four-bayed wing stretching towards the street, it was built in grey brick, partly dressed in red, whose upper floor contained a high schoolroom.
From its earliest period it was styled as a Grammar School, but by 1713 it was known as a free or charity school, in 1847 a new scheme was approved where 50 boys were to be taught free, the others paying school pence. In 1873 50 of the 185 pupils were still taught free, a new scheme of 1878 diverted it towards providing a middle-class type of education, it was to take boys aged 7 to 15 years of age, initially 60 day boys and 10 boarders, to be admitted after examination with a preference, that continued in later schemes until 1916, for sons of villagers. A few scholarships were available after two years attendance, pupils had to pay fees, more for the boarders, by 1900 the school was again styled a Grammar School, in 1916 it became under the control of the County Council and became officially known as the Grammar School, taking in free pupils once again, in 1926 the building was sold, the school moving to Beechurst in Sand Street. The building still standing today had been converted into small shops in private ownership, but does not look to be very well looked after, it is now used as flats.

The photo on the left shows the rear of the School, and is an edited photo of  the photo on the right of what the building could look like.
The photo to the right is how it looked the last time we checked.

Rear of the School, edited photo of the one of the right.

The image on the left shows The Grammar School plan of 1842.
The photo to the right shows the rear of the School, and how it looks now.