At that point, the house was a junior school that was funded by a bequest from Charles Williams.

The school was designated a Grade II* listed building in 1951.

[2] The bequest was for "30 boys and 20 girls of the poorer sort", but the trustees reduced this to 20 boys and 10 girls.

[3] John Newman, in his Gwent/Monmouthshire volume of the Pevsner Buildings of Wales series, describes the school as "educational bounty on an exceptional scale for the 18th century".

The layout (a half H) become a model for later schools in Wales.