The History of St. Bees School encompasses more than four hundred years of British history. It was founded in 1583 as a Free Grammar School by the dying Archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund Grindal, who refused to resign his position until Elizabeth I agreed to sign the school into existence. After extremely modest beginnings, the school gradually expanded over the years despite its remote location in St. Bees, the most westerly point of Northern England. Despite the best attempts of Grindal to give the school a secure financial grounding, the finances have always been characterised by "boom and bust" peaks - for many years the school effectively ran on mining royalties and after these dried up the school had to be rescued from closure by a syndicate of its former pupils. Many Old St. Beghians