The rigours of the English Civil War put strain on the teaching at the school, especially as boys were more inclined to watch Oliver Cromwell pass through Hitchin.

This allowed the students to become lazier than under Patricke, and the Trustees at the school were forced to endure a testing period.

After Stone's death in 1691 Sir Ralph Radcliffe employed a new Headmaster – Thomas Cheyney – who invoked discipline and original Latin.

The matter went to a "Chancery suit", and in the end the defence were defeated by a strong argument for putting Finch in the job, with Lawrence proved incapable of teaching.

The Reverend Richard Finch retired in 1720, having created a storm by teaching the boys too well and raising them far above their working-class backgrounds.

The School entered into debt after the Chancery suit of 1709, and after the death of James Lawrence in 1741 a London lawyer called Dodson seized property for debt repayment, became receiver of the trust property and appointed a new Headmaster – John Lyle – to teach at the salary of £17, a very low sum at the time for a Master.

When protests broke out about this, the Lord Chancellor ruled in 1750 that Dodson had to be paid a further £63 in debt repayment with his understudy John Lyle to resign and a new Headmaster – Richard Snell – to be appointed.

But in 1779, Snell was deemed incapable of the "Duties and Business of his place" by the Board of Trustees, and a new Master, William Reynolds, was chosen.

One unfortunate incident occurred in that same year, when Paynes Park was deemed not to be a part of the Boys' School.

The succeeding Headmaster was the Reverend Joseph Niblock, writer of The New Improved Classical Latin and English Dictionary in 1825.

As a result, some students received terrible progress ranks but excellent conduct marks.

When a severe 'crime' was committed the School became a Court of Justice, with culprits becoming 'the accused' and taking evidence on oath.

However thanks to an anonymous letter sent to Niblock, the Reverend determined that Goodwin was an impostor, and expelled him for a breach of rules.

The new Trustees passed a new set of rules for the School, including a leaving age of 15, a minimum entrance age of 8, twice school yearly examinations and most importantly, an immediate payment of £500 by any incoming Headmaster into a bond as insurance against discharge or death.

Seen as a "Blockhead", he soon resigned in 1838, passing power to the last Free School Headmaster John Sugars.

Natural Science, Drawing and English Grammar were among the subjects to be compulsory teaching for the School.

Thanks to donations from several wealthy families, including Seebohm's, the Scheme decided to purchase land known as the Woodlands in Bancroft.

Parents removed students if discipline was implemented, set homework was not completed and attendance was poor.

Jabez King came to the Headmaster's job in January 1898 with just 24 pupils in the School and full permission to do whatever it would take to repair the situation.

Occasionally the Headmaster would make several students swap a lesson of Scripture for an hour of cleaning out the chicken coops and the cow sheds down by the entrance from Bancroft.

While letters from Old Boys in the fight were placed in the School Chronicle, a prefect system became prominent in 1915, and funds for the war established.

The Work and Conduct Cup – now retired and replaced by the Times Shield – was awarded to the House with the least deductions.

With the advent of the Second World War, the arches in the new North Court were sandbagged, with discounts on food and milk established and eating habits changed with the addition of compulsory non-meat meals such as spaghetti cheese.

However, after only three years, he resigned at which point the current head teacher, Mr Bennett, took over in January 2024 [5] - though he did so after half of a school year of logistics, during which time deputy heads Mr Ajagbonna & Monks acted as stand-in co-heads.

All of the students would go to St Mary's Church, accompanied by their teachers, and listen to a large service.

It began in 1890 when it was held at the Bedford Road football field, including the Hitchin Volunteers.

Medals were engraved with Hitchin Grammar School-The War 1915 and distributed by the Lieutenant Colonel of the Scottish Signals Service.

In 1924 the Victor Ludorum Cup was first awarded, to the boy who gained the most points on Sports Day.

In 1948 the javelin and discus throwing were introduced to the event, followed by the shot put in 1952 and hop, step and jump in 1958.

Dolden in 1953, Sports Day was moved to May, a Victor Ludorum Cup was introduced for the intermediate years (14–16), the novelty races were scrapped completely, the tug-of-war was dropped as the finale and the Hitchin Town Band stopped playing at the event, making it school-only for the first time since 1899.