Ystradgynlais & District

Working out the exact organisation of Gurnos School, and the various establishments on the site at any one time, has been a confusing endeavour. It would seem that the school was initially set up as a Primary School, but by December 1948 it also housed a Secondary Modern School (for boys) which was to endure until the reorganisation of secondary education in Ystradgynlais was completed in 1954, when all secondary education in the town was merged into Maesydderwen School.

The term 'Gurnos County Primary School' is used in the December 1948 edition of the Secondary Modern's magazine 'Y Gurnosydd' where it states:

Mr Charles Edwards, the first Headmaster of Gurnos County Primary School, and Mr Ernest Williams, B.A., who succeeded Mr Edwards as Headmaster in 1943... gentlemen are now in retirement

We know from our page on Gurnos Infants School that Elsie King was Headmistress there from 1924 until her retirement in December 1953. Although we don't know who was Headmistress immediately afterwards, we know that in June 1959 Dorothy Phillips became the new Headmistress of Gurnos Infants School

From this, one is tempted to imagine that the role of Headmaster initially referred to the Junior School, or that it referred directly to the Junior School, with some overview of the Infants School under its own Headmistress. Quite possibly the position of Headmaster merged that of the Junior School and the Secondary Modern School between 1948 and 1954, whereafter it referred solely, again, to the Junior School and an overview, maybe, of the Infants School.

The Headmasters

CHARLES EDWARDS
Headmaster of Gurnos County Primary School from its foundation (listed as 1911) until his retirement in August 1942.

ERNEST WILLIAMS
Headmaster of Gurnos County Primary School from August 1942, potentially until the creation of Gurnos Secondary Modern School, which may have been in 1948.

HORACE MORGAN
Headmaster of Gurnos Secondary Modern School from late 1948, and still in place in 1953. He was the first Headmaster of the Gurnos Secondary Modern School, and given that the school was dissolved in 1954 probably its only headmaster.

JOHN MORRIS
Headmaster of Gurnos Primary School by 1955, and still in place by Saint David's Day 1973.

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