[3] For its home he gave the school his manor house at Holt, which he had bought in 1546 from his elder brother Sir William Gresham.

[4] The founding of Gresham's was connected to King Henry VIII's suppression of the Priory of Augustinian canons at Beeston Regis in June 1539.

[4] The founder endowed Gresham's generously, placing its property in trust with the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers of London, and full estate records dating from the school's foundation are held at the Guildhall Library.

[3] Sir John Gresham's endowments included his freehold property in Holt and Letheringsett, his wood and land called Prior's Grove, his manors of Pereers and Holt Hales, "with all and singular to the same belonging, situate in Holt, Sherington, Letheringsett, Bodham, Kellinge, Wayborne, Semlingham, Stodrye, Bantrye and West Wickham, in the said county of Norfolk", and also tenements called 'The White Hind' and 'The Peacock' in the parish of St Giles's Without, Cripplegate, in the City of London.

[8] On Christmas Day 1650, Thomas Cooper, a former usher of Gresham's, was hanged for his part in a Royalist rebellion on behalf of Charles II.

[3] In 1729, the Fishmongers' Company presented the school with "...a valuable and useful library, not only of the best editions of the Classics and Lexicographers, but also with some books of Antiquities, Chronology, and Geography, together with a suitable pair of globes".

[5]: 575 In 1836, the 'Wardens and Commonalty of the Art and Mystery of Fishmongers of the City of London' held an insurance policy for 'Other property or occupiers: Free Grammar School Holt Norfolk (Rev Benn.

[4] Herbert also notes that the officers of the court of the Fishmongers' Company include "a steward of the Holt free school, in Norfolk".

[4] John William Burgon, in The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham (1839), after listing the estates with which Sir John Gresham endowed the school, says Had the trustees of this school been formerly distinguished for the same vigilance which characterizes their representatives at the present day, it would not have been our painful duty to state, that of the extensive demesnes with which Holt grammar-school was endowed by its founder – sufficient, had they been properly managed, to have set it on a level with the first establishments of a similar nature in England – there remains at present but 162 acres (0.66 km2) of land.

[15] Burgon goes on, however, to add Notwithstanding every disadvantage, this school, liberally conducted, and regulated by salutary statutes, is in a flourishing condition at the present day, and educates fifty free-scholars; to any one of whom removing to either of the universities, an annual exhibition of 20l.

is allowed... Holt school... is an ornament and a blessing to the county, and reflects much credit on the trustees and its worthy principal—the Rev.

[16] In 1859, the Gresham Grammar School was closed while its site was substantially rebuilt and converted,[3] providing accommodation for boarders.

[22] Under Howson's successor as headmaster, J. R. Eccles, Gresham's appears to have been one of the first schools in England to abolish corporal punishment.

"[25] A new school library, designed by the architect Alan E. Munby, was opened in 1931 by Field Marshal Lord Milne.

[3] Martin Burgess's memories of Gresham's during the freezing months of January to March 1947, the coldest British winter on record, are quoted at length in I Will Plant Me a Tree (2002).

[35] Notable Old Greshamians include the poet W. H. Auden, the composer Benjamin Britten, James Dyson the founder of Dyson company, the fourth President of Ireland Erskine Hamilton Childers, the KGB informant Donald Maclean (spy), Sir Alan Hodgkin, Lord Reith, Olivia Colman, and mass murderer Jeremy Bamber.

The Prep school has over two hundred children between the ages of seven and thirteen and takes full and weekly boarders as well as day pupils.

While only limited choices between courses need to be made for GCSE, in the sixth form at A-level pupils choose three or four subjects, and most combinations are possible.

There is a wide range of other school sports, including badminton, soccer, squash, golf, martial arts, swimming, sailing, cross country running, shooting, and canoeing.

In rifle-shooting, Gresham's has been one of the top ten schools in England since about 1955, and Glyn Barnett won a shooting gold medal in the 2006 Commonwealth Games at Melbourne.

In the field of winter sports, the 11th Earl of Northesk took an Olympic medal for tobogganing (then called 'skeleton') in 1928. Notable mountaineers have included Tom Bourdillon, Percy Wyn-Harris, Peter Lloyd, and Matt Dickinson.

[44] However, there had been little progress by October 1913, when the plans by the architects Sir J. W. Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton were for a two-storey building seating about 600, with a high bell tower.

The last words stand for "the gift of J. R. Eccles", who at the time was second master, later headmaster, while the first eight are the last line of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem Ring Out, Wild Bells (1850).

[50] Old Greshamians include several bishops, David Hand, Archbishop of Papua New Guinea, and John Bradburne, a candidate for canonisation.

[52] Gresham's has a long military tradition, from Sir Christopher Heydon, who took part in the capture of Cádiz in 1596, to Tom Wintringham, commander of the British Battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, and General Sir Robert Bray, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

Activities include shooting, expeditions, combat manoeuvres, ambush and continuity drills, signals training, orienteering, climbing, kayaking, line-laying, first aid and lifesaving, motor mechanics and hovercraft construction.

[3] The chairman of governors (currently Paul Marriage)[55] was until recently always a past or present prime warden of the Fishmongers' Company.

[56] During the celebrations of the school's 450th year in 2005, the establishment was announced of a Foundation to focus on encouraging legacies and donations for scholarships, bursaries and specific major projects.

A Director of Development and External Relations has since been appointed, as part of a programme of reaching out to Old Greshamians, and gatherings are planned around the UK and overseas.

[41] The Manuscripts Section of the Guildhall Library in the City of London holds the following Gresham's School records:[61] Norfolk Record Office also holds some Gresham's accessions,[62] including a bundle of correspondence relating to the school from 1799 to 1810 between the Fishmongers' Company and Adey & Repton, including copies of statutes.