In Charles Williams' (1633-1720) 1717 will, £4,000 was left to found a charity school for thirty boys and twenty girls in Caerleon-on-Usk, with this school built in 1724 (inscription also dated 1724). The present Endowed School building is situated on the corner of Broadway and High Street, and the endowment was invested in land to support the school. A separate infants department was created in 1864. In 1948, following the 1944 education act, the Caerleon Endowed School became part of the state system as a Voluntary Aided School, whereby the local authority pays fully for the running costs of the school. In practical terms, the separate Boys' and Girls' schools ceased to operate and three separate schools were formed: The Endowed Infants' School, the Endowed Junior School, and the Endowed Secondary Modern School, with pupils from the later transferred in 1964 to the new Caerleon County Secondary Modern. Charles Williams Infants and Juniors Schools amalgamated in 2014 to form the current Charles Williams Church in Wales Primary School. Apart from the extension attached to the original school in 1907-9 and some windows, the building has been little changed.

The original building is rendered throughout, probably over local rubble stone and has Welsh slate roofs with red tile ridges (re-roofed sometime in C20). The 1907-9 extension is in rockfaced squared random rubble with red brick and Bath stone dressings, roofs as before. The plan is based on the late C17 country house with hall and two crosswings, like Tredegar House. Each wing has two storeys and dormers. Semi-circular headed windows and a C19 central porch between wings with C19 forecourt railings (RAJ 8/2/01, based on CADW listing description 1974). Grade II* Listed.

Sources: CADW listing description 2984; Charles Williams Church in Wales Primary School, GB0218.CEB69, Gwent Archives; 'Charles Williams Church in Wales Primary School Manual and Domestic Block', Heritage Impact Assessment Rev.1, prepared by Austin-Smith: Lord (19 January 2024)

Updated by M. Powel, RCAHMW. April 2024.