[5] With the purchase at Woodhouse Grove in Apperley, near Bradford, the decision to found the school was made by ballot at the Wesleyan Conference of 1811, still under Clarke.

[6] It initially provided an education for the sons of the itinerant ministers in service of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in the north of England.

The school opened on 8 January 1812 under the headship of John Fennell as first master and with an initial roll of twenty seven pupils.

The school also had a local management committee and there were frequent conflicts with conference over duplicated but differing decisions relating to teacher selection, staff salaries and building expansion needs.

[8] The school was refounded on 21 September 1883, the "New Foundation Day", to admit boys from a wider spectrum of backgrounds.

The Grove received its first pupils as a Methodist middle class boarding and day school under a new policy laid down by the Wesleyan Conference.

During the Second World War, and under direct grant funding after the Education Act 1944, the school expanded, with boarding pupils placed and paid for by London County Council and the East Riding of Yorkshire authority.

[citation needed] For several years, HM Inspector of Schools had recommended that Woodhouse Grove make better provision for younger pupils.

[13] Initially, Brontë House had no kitchen facility of its own and the children were escorted back and forth in all weathers to the Grove for their lunches and dinner.