"[5] Rev'd Roger Kay had gained his BA in 1688, his MA in 1691 and had become a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge.

[6] In 1726, he left money in his will to support the library at St John's College, but also a substantial part of his estate to re-founding his alma mater in his home town of Bury.

[6] The building in which Kay's newly re-founded school educated the boys of Bury still stands today, known as Blackburn Hall, in the Wylde behind the Parish Church.

)[8] The school outgrew its premises and, in 1903, the boys moved into the completed half of a new building on Tenterden Street, with playing fields across Bridge Road.

The new buildings, of Accrington brick, were designed in a simple Neo-Renaissance style by William Venn Gough.

One writer noted in an early edition of "The Clavian" that "the young folks of Bury refused to recognize our right to the ground".

The two schools, whilst remaining separate entities, shared the same building until the erection of a more modern facility for the boys across Bridge Road in the 1960s.

The school celebrated the 250th anniversary of its re-founding by Roger Kay with a visit from Prince Philip on 19 November 1976.

Since the CCF (founded 1892)[11] is attached to the Lancashire Fusiliers, a regiment with the Freedom of the Borough, the cadets are permitted to march with "swords drawn, drums beating and colours flying".

This rara avis, which in days gone by was found on the banks of that clear and crystal stream from which it takes its name, was celebrated for its pilfering habits.

The engraving represents the identical duck, which, it is supposed, abstracted the key from the lock of the Sacred Door; it subsequently alighted on the Island where, quite overcome by the weight of its burden, it was captured in a fainting condition and borne off to the Grammar School, where it immediately expired, still however gripping the key with a death-like tenacity.

So struck were the assembled trustees by the determination of the noble bird, that they forthwith resolved that the present arms should be adopted.

Henry Dunster was a pupil of Bury Grammar School, and then a student at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Boys in the prep school, housed in its own building across Tenterden Street, study the subjects of the National Curriculum – the core subjects of English, mathematics and general science, together with art, DT, geography, history, ICT, French, music, PSHEE and RS.

[32] PE and games lessons are part of every boy's timetable, but there is a range of opportunities for extra curricular sport in the school.

Dramatic productions include both junior and senior plays, and musical productions; such performances are often produced in conjunction with the girls' school, and in recent years have included Guys and Dolls, Les Miserables, Little Shop of Horrors and Jesus Christ, Superstar.

)[46] The OBS today still organises an annual dinner, held at the school on Founders' Day each year.