What became Ilkeston Grammar School was established as a pupil teacher centre whose main claim to fame was that author D. H. Lawrence studied there.

[2] The new Ilkeston County Secondary School (capacity – 250 pupils) was opened on 25 June 1914 by King George V when he visited the town accompanied by Queen Mary.

The King pressed a button whilst standing in the market place which opened the school gates (a good half-mile away and well out of sight), an explosive charge relaying the success of the operation back to the assembled crowds in the town centre.

Mr Cox had been involved in education in Egypt and the Sudan, and his gentlemanly but authoritative air and good manners earned him much respect.

Anyone would think it was only discovered last year ... so far as I know, early man evolved without the benefit of constant sex education, films about growing up ... and the dubious luxury of pornography, and what is more, I am sure they were not under the impression that they owed their existence to the services of a kindly stork'[5] Mr Cox stayed as headmaster until 1978.

The original, core buildings have an unusual layout that consist of "classrooms round an open quadrangle with a central domed hall" according to Pevsner.

[6] This oldest part of the school was designed by County Architect Mr Widdows, who saw it as resembling 'an eastern fortress'.

Aerial views (see Google Earth) show a virtually identical ground plan, though New Mills has pitched roofs with dormer windows.

with its unplastered internal block walls and outside plastic cladding, though controversial, at least provided the school with its first purpose-built gymnasium and changing rooms.