Denbigh Board School was built in 1877 and later became the Frongoch Girls School. Board schools were created by Local County appointed boards of education with the intention of filling in the gaps between the denominational voluntary and public schools. They came from the passing of The Elementary Act of 1870 which made it possible to compel parents to send their children to school through giving school boards the powers needed to introduce new by-laws making school attendance compulsory. The act also made it possible for locally appointed school boards to raise funds through taxation in order to fund the schools. Despite the by-laws and provisions to force attendance, there were many loop-holes which took a long time to be closed, and even in 1899 the minimum leaving age was still only twelve years old.

Around the same time, it was recommended that schools should introduce extra rooms for extra classes; these came to be known as the Classroom. When Classrooms were created it was common to find them divided from the original Schoolroom (i.e. the room that was used as the School, as before the addition of Classrooms the entire school was taught in the same room) by glass partitions, this was because qualified teachers were few and far between and so classes were often taken by inexperienced Classroom Assistants and having a glass partition allowed the Headmaster to keep an eye on them.

From the plans by R. Lloyd Williams of Williams and Underwood a local Denbigh Architectural firm it is possible to see how the School was laid out. Due to it being built in 1877 it was built to the newer recommendations and features two smaller Classrooms, connected via moveable partitions to the larger Schoolroom, these can be seen towards the right hand side of the plan. The pupils are separated out onto dual desks which in turn are laid out in a grid pattern.

The Board School was located on Lon Goch or Red Lane which is now known as Grove Road. The school was moved from this location to a new site on Rhyl Road where it shares land with the Welsh language primary School, Ysgol Twm o'r Nant and the Special Educational Needs (SEN) School, Ysgol Plas Brondyffryn. It is now a mixed school, no longer catering only for girls.
Since moving to new premises the old school building has been taken over by the Local Authority and has been used as a Magistrates Court since 1985.

D.Jones RCAHMW 16/08/2012

References:

Malcolm Seaborne, 1992, `Schools in Wales 1500 ? 1900: A Social & Architectural History

Robson, School Architecture, op. cit., ch. IX-XI