William Palmer and the history and evolution of Unified Seevic Palmer's College

Pictured: The entrance to the Palmer's Campus of Unified Seevic Palmer's College. The college was founded as a charity school in 1706 by William Palmer, evolving throughout the centuries to become the college it is today.

Unified Seevic Palmer's College, or just USP College as it is more commonly known, is a general further education college serving the county of Essex in England. It is one of the oldest educational institutions in the entirety of Great Britain, having been founded in 1706 as a tiny charity school for ten poor children in Grays. It has evolved through the centuries, becoming an esteemed grammar school and two nationally prestigious public schools, before finally transforming into the large college of over 4,000 students that it is today.

William Palmer and his school

USP College was founded in 1706 by its namesake William Palmer, a wealthy merchant and esquire who served as King Charles II's sheriff of Essex and the lord of the manor of Grays Thurrock. Interestingly, Palmer was an acquaintance of the leading contemporary historian and politician Samuel Pepys, who mentions him in his diary on 15 August 1663:

So by water down to Deptford, taking into my boat with me Mr. Wm. Palmer, one whom I knew and his wife when I was first married, being an acquaintance of my wife's and her friends lodging at Charing Cross during our differences. He joyed me in my condition, and himself it seems is forced to follow the law in a common ordinary way, but seems to do well, and is a sober man, enough by his discourse. He landed with me at Deptford, where he saw by the officers' respect to me a piece of my command, and took notice of it, though God knows I hope I shall not be elated with that, but rather desire to be known for serving the King well, and doing my duty.

Palmer, who was born in 1633, was 73 years old and approaching the end of his life. With no heirs to inherit his wealth, Palmer decided to leave some of his wealth to his subjects in Grays. He set down a trust deed in 1706, in which he instructed the creation of a charity school to educate "ten poore children" of Grays to "read and write and cast accounts and instruct them in the Latin tongue". In his deed, he established the William Palmer Trust to build, fund and run the school and represent it as its legal entity, endowing it with much of his wealth and property, including profitable premises in the City of London.

As specified in Palmer's deed, the school would take the form of an elementary charity school. 10 poor children aged 7 to 12 who lived in the ancient parish of Grays would be selected by the parish churchwardens to attend free of charge. Though the deed did not necessarily set out a religious character for the school, enrolment would be conditional on the attendance of church every Sunday, while schoolmasters would have to swear an oath on God, thus reflecting the prominence of religion in society at the time. As the instruction of Latin was specified in Palmer's deed, the school also acquired the status of grammar school.

Pictured: The Coat of Arms of William Palmer. This was later adopted by Palmer's schools in 1935. It is still used by Unified Seevic Palmer's College today.

Palmer was careful with his deed and dictated that there be 12 trustees, chosen from "men of good position or with business experience", to run the school. The same deed specified that the power to appoint the headmaster of the school would be reserved for the individual "who for the time being shall be owner [...] of the said late Mansion house wherein the said William Palmer did lately live"; in other words, Palmer left this power to whomever he chose as his successor as the lord of the manor of Grays Thurrock, whose residence was inherited through the office. Thus, the William Palmer Trust was managed from its foundation in 1706 until the middle of the 19th century by a succession of persons belonging to leading families, owning land or residing within a dozen miles of Grays.

Palmer also took great care into the construction of a suitable schoolhouse for his school, as he viewed the comfort of those who were to occupy it as of the utmost importance. Lest the headmaster or scholars shiver in the winter, he stipulated in his deed a chimney. And lest they suffer from cold feet, Palmer stipulated that the floor be raised at least a foot above the ground. Palmer also insisted that the schoolhouse face the parish churchyard, perhaps to encourage the scholars to behave and to remind them of their final goal in life, given the deeply religious society of Palmer's time.

Pictured: An 1807 engraving by the artist Edward Gyfford depicting the schoolhouse beside Grays Parish Church. Note that there is some artistic licence on the part of Gyfford. The schoolhouse was indeed near the church, as Palmer decreed that it face the parish churchyard, however it was not as close to the church as depicted here.

Nonetheless, the schoolhouse was quite small, given Palmer's expectation that only 10 poor children be educated at the school. Palmer himself worked on constructing the schoolhouse and in his will in 1709 provided for the trustees to finish it should he die before its completion.

In the same will, Palmer turned his attention to providing an accommodation for the school's headmaster. He decreed the construction of a house of residence for the headmaster on the junction of Grays High Street and Orsett Road, "wherein [they] shall dwell gratis". Palmer also worked on this before it was completed by the trustees after his death in 1710. Today, the site of the house is now occupied by the large Queensgate Centre and several shops.

The charity school for "ten poore children"

Unfortunately, most records of the school before 1786 have been lost to time. The curriculum

of the school at that time is not known, and little is known about its headmasters either. What

is known is that the first headmaster, Richard Butler, was dismissed in 1706 for failing to affirm the oath. Butler's successor Samuel Wright served until 1732, when Reverend John Walker took over until his death in 1754. He was then succeeded by Benjamin Wells, who died in 1780.

It is thanks to Wells' successor John Horncastle, who took over in 1780 or 1781 and led the school until his death in 1815, that we have surviving records of the institution during this period, including an invaluable copy of William Palmer's original trust deed which founded the school, without which we would not know the contents of the deed or how the school was founded today.

According to Horncastle's records, the school under his headship educated between six and 10 endowed pupils at any given time. Interestingly, it also appears that the school took on some additional fee-paying scholars during this period, as a letter by the parish vicar from 1808 states that there were 12 children attending the school, and that some of them were paying fees to do so. However, it is not known how long this practice was enforced, or how many places were paid rather than chosen by the wardens. There was also no legal basis for this practice at the time, though it did foreshadow the future of the school.

Initial expansion and relocation

Over the next 50 years, the school continued to expand under the headship of Horncastle's son William, who remained in office until 1848. By 1836, the trust had turned a profit and increased its endowment from 10 poor children in Grays to 20, with more children possibly attending through paid places. However, the school also failed to meet the requirements of William Palmer's original trust deed, with pupils only being taught how to "read and write and cast accounts only [with] no instruction whatever in the Latin tongue".

In 1844, the trustees moved to address this problem. They petitioned the Court of Chancery to intervene against William Horncastle and issue a new trust deed which would give them more powers over the headmaster and reinforce the requirements of the school as ordered by William Palmer in 1706. The Court agreed and issued a new deed with these provisions. However, it also required the school to educate 35 endowed poor children rather than 10 or 20, with it expected to eventually educate 50 in the future.

With the new trust deed, it soon became clear that the existing small schoolhouse near the parish church would not be able to host such a large number of students, and it was decided to move the school to a new, larger building beside the headmaster's house on Orsett Road. In 1848, Horncastle retired and the school's new building was erected there. This became known as the Second Palmer's School. The old schoolhouse, or First Palmer's School, was acquired by the local railway company and at some point demolished.

Pictured: A drawing of the Second Palmer's School and the adjoining headmaster's house on Orsett Road, Grays. The buildings were demolished in 1947. Today, it is the site of the large Queensgate Centre and several shops.

Transformation into fee-paying private schools

After Horncastle's retirement and the relocation of the school, there was a rapid succession of headmasters until the appointment of John Miles Rigge in 1858, who served until 1893. His tenure is noted for wide-ranging changes to the school and the trust. The school was legally allowed to take on fee-paying pupils from 1856 while remaining as a charity school with free endowed places, with the first legally enrolled fee-paying students joining under Rigge. This led to a massive surge in the number of pupils at the school, with the large majority of pupils now paying fees, and the school buildings were enlarged to facilitate this.

It was at the same time that the Industrial Revolution started to necessitate a change to schooling across Britain. New schools were being founded, while the existing endowed schools were brought to Parliament for review. The trust made lucrative profits from its properties in London with industrialisation, prompting the trustees to consider investing these new profits into transforming the educational provision at the school to cater to the new middle class. Meanwhile, new elementary schools in Grays were built and opened in New Road in 1870, so there was no longer a local necessity to maintain the existing charity school as an elementary school.

In response to these factors, the trustees petitioned the Endowed Schools Commission in 1871 to implement a new scheme of governance for the trust to transform the school into a fully fee-paying private school. The Commission in turn convinced the trust to agree to a new scheme where it would invest its profits into the reorganisation of the school into two fee-paying private secondary boarding schools for boys and girls. Thus, the new scheme was agreed and the school was reorganised into Palmer's Endowed School for Boys and Palmer's Endowed School for Girls from 1874 and 1876 respectively. A new building was erected at the junction of Southend Road, Whitehall Lane and Chadwell Road known as the Third Palmer's School, with the girls' and boys' sharing this building. The old buildings, meanwhile, remained in use as private housing and a greengrocers, before finally being demolished in 1947.

Pictured: The Third Palmer's School at the junction of Southend Road, Whitehall Lane and Chadwell Road, Grays.

The new scheme replaced the 12 trustees with 16 governors, including the vicar of Grays Parish Church, the parish churchwardens, a justice of Orsett Petty Sessional Division, the chairman of the Orsett Board of Guardians, four governors elected by parents, two from the boys' school and two from the girls' school, and eight co-opted governors including the headmaster.

Although the girls' and boys' school shared a building and a governing body, they were initially quite separate in character. The boys and girls were segregated into two different parts of the building, as was the norm for such arrangements at the time. While Rigge remained headmaster of the boys' school, the girls' school had its own headmistress, Harriette Beck, who served until 1906.

The scheme stipulated that Palmer's Endowed School for Boys take at least 40 boarders and 100 day pupils while Palmer's Endowed School for Girls take at least 25 boarders and 50 day pupils, or 65 boarders and 150 day pupils combined. As both schools were private boarding schools, almost all pupils would pay fees. However, the governors were expected to offer some free or discounted scholarship or exhibition places to academically gifted children who exceeded in an entry exam. They were also obliged to offer some places to day pupils. The curriculum, meanwhile, was broadened to meet the expectations of a secondary education offer.

Under this arrangement, the girls' school had a limited curricular provision. Because of a lack of facilities, physical education was not taught, and there was also no school uniform. Rigge, meanwhile, concerned himself with the boys' school achieving the status of public school, an elite designation for the most prestigious and esteemed private schools in the entire country. To this end, a new distinctive blue uniform for the boys' school was adopted, with blue breeches, yellow and white stockings and a blue jacket and hat. This effort led to the boys' school being recognised as one of England's famous "bluecoat schools". Both the boys' school and the girls' school focussed on the intake of boarding pupils, with the vast majority of pupils on both sides boarding, with very few day pupils.

Pictured: An example of one of the Palmer's Endowed School "bluecoat" uniform jackets.

Other public school traditions were also adopted at Rigge's behest. Pupils who attended for free on a scholarship or exhibition were made to do chores and manual work around their school, though they were also offered free clothing, food and other expenses. A harsh, strict regime of discipline was also implemented, accompanied by an archaic honour system for the boys. The boys' school was made to act as if it was in a different world from Grays, with little interaction between most pupils and the local community as boarders were unable to leave the school grounds during term time. Rigge also insisted that pupils and staff address the school not by its legal name of Palmer's Endowed School, but as Grays College, in the same style as established public schools like Eton College and Winchester College.

Further reorganisation and expansion

However, not all aspects of Rigge's vision could be achieved. The reorganisation of Palmer's into two private public schools was controversial with many local residents of Grays, who viewed the change as taking away money left for the poor children of the town and giving it to rich children from outside Grays, contrary to the original wishes of William Palmer. The dispute came to a head in the 1880s after the rapid growth of the town following the advent of the railway and Tilbury Docks led to the formation of the Local School Board for Grays, which sought to address the new high demand for schooling in the town by demanding that the trust offer more places to local children free of charge to deal with the demand and population growth.

In 1891, the government intervened and held negotiations between the Local School Board, the trust and the Local Town Board (the forerunner to the local council). Some members of the school board called for a more moderate settlement, asking for the trust to pay for more free places at the schools. However, more radical members led by local councillor Herbert E. Brooks and his father Edmund Brooks argued for the sale of the Third Palmer's School with the proceeds used to pay for the education of the rest of Grays, threatening the very existence of Palmer's.

During the negotiations, Essex County Council organised a conference between Palmer's governors and board representatives where the county council offered to grant new funding to Grays for the provision of technical education, a brand new innovation at the time, on the condition that this new provision be offered at Palmer's. More negotiations followed suit, with the government dismissing Brooks' proposal to sell off Palmer's.

Eventually, a settlement was reached between the governors, the government and the local boards where more local control over the school and the trust would be granted. In 1893, a new scheme of administration was implemented for the trust which reorganised it into 15 school governors, 10 of whom would be local representatives while the remaining five would be co-opted. Almost all of the trust's income would be used for local educational purposes, except for minor charitable causes, while six free places would be guaranteed for local girls from Grays at the girls' school and 10 free places for boys at the boys' school.

Rigge saw this reformed scheme of administration as giving locals too much control over the boys' school, which he in turn saw as threatening its status as a public school distinct from the local community. He therefore resigned in protest. George H. Silverwood was appointed as the new headmaster of the boys' school in 1983. In line with Rigge's public school vision, Silverwood agreed to establish a new Palmer's preparatory school for both boys and girls, preparing fee-paying children for entry into both the boys' and girls' school from the age of seven, which remained in place until the Second World War.

Pictured: Portrait of George H. Silverwood, the headmaster of Palmer's Endowed School from 1893 until his retirement in 1918.

In 1906, Beck retired as head of the girls' school and the governors agreed to unite it with the boys' school to form a new dual school, with Silverwood remaining in his post as the headmaster of the unified school, while a senior mistress was appointed to support him. This position went to E. S. Packer from 1906 to 1913 and then Ellen M. Wren from 1913 until 1918. Although Palmer's Endowed School was now united, it remained gender segregated between two "sides" or "departments", as they became known, though the building was still shared between them, with the girls occupying the east wing and in turn the boys occupying the west wing.

While Silverwood shared Rigge's ambition for Palmer's to become a public school, he also took the united school in a new direction. Having a keen interest in local affairs, he decided to open up and integrate the school with the local community, giving it a prominent position in local and regional affairs and allowing boarders to come and go freely during free periods. Rigge's bluecoat uniform was adopted at the girls' school, while the more draconian policies of Rigge for the boys, such as chores for free pupils and his strict disciplinary regime and honour system, were relaxed or abandoned. Silverwood also abandoned the previous emphasis on boarding for both boys and girls to instead focus on day pupils. This led to further growth for the unified school, this time at an unprecedented rate; the numbers of boys alone rose from 45 at the start of Silverwood's tenure to 287 in 1918.

The growth of the school under Silverwood made it necessary to make large extensions to the premises. With financial assistance from local government, new buildings were built on the site with additional extensions, including new classrooms, a swimming pool, a physics laboratory and a gymnasium. The development of technical education also heralded further progression for the school, with new technical facilities constructed. A playing field across the road was also acquired by the school. Silverwood sought to build the school as a hub for secondary education in Grays and the rest of the local district. The prominent academic, educationist and historian Michael Sadler described the school in a report about higher education in Essex for the government as thus:

Palmer's Endowed School has already conferred great benefits on the area which it serves. It has now been decided to extend its buildings and sphere of work in order that it may become the centre of secondary education (including the instruction of pupil teachers) for the whole district and for evening classes in art and science in Grays. When these extensions are complete the range of its public usefulness will be considerable widened. The energy and organising skill which have been shown in the development of this foundation reflect great credit on all concerned, and not least upon Mr. Silverwood, who, helped by the warm support of the governors and of the leading residents in Grays […] commands the confidence of all who are interested in the development of secondary education in the town.

With the delivery of these new buildings, the curricular provision was also improved at the girls' department, there now being enough facilities for both girls and boys when hitherto only the boys had facilities available to them. The Cambridge Local Examination was standardised at both departments while the girls' were offered physical education with a fulltime teacher.

The school continued to grow under Silverwood, with consequent extensions to the school premises, until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Silverwood, with the assistance of his senior mistress Ellen M. Wren, led the school during the difficult period of the war, with many Palmer's pupils and staff sent off to fight on the battlefield and many also losing their lives serving their country, including Silverwood's own son H. F. Silverwood.

Recognition as prestigious public schools

On the war's close and the return to peace in 1918, Silverwood decided it was time to retire and hand over the baton to a new headmaster. On his retirement in 1918, the governors decided to reorganise the schools again into two separate boys' and girls' schools, with Wren becoming the headmistress of the girls' school and Reverend H. Alldrige Abbott the headmaster of the boys' school.

With the return of peace came more issues for the school, for it now became necessary to rebuild parts of the school which were damaged during the conflict. The population of Grays and the rest of South Essex continued to surge in the interwar period, so there was also the need for the school to provide new, additional accommodation for those new students who enrolled. The rapid population growth led to a succession of issues around staffing, accommodation and organisation, all of which were tackled by Abbott and Wren.

At the boys' school, Abbott, who was the successful former headmaster of Eggar's Grammar School, instituted a series of reforms which modernised the curriculum. School masters had, up to this point, not been required to specialise in a subject. This changed with Abbott's plan of modernisation, with every master required to specialise in their subjects while the subject areas themselves were departmentalised. Abbott also introduced the pupils' specialisation from the sixth form, a common practice today but very rare at the time, and an important change too which finally enabled the school to receive official public school status after a great deal of Old Palmerians were qualified and accepted into Oxford and Cambridge.

For it was in 1931 when Palmer's Endowed School for Boys, after 225 years, was elected as a member of the exclusive Headmasters' Conference of public schools, whose membership was restricted at the time to only the very best and most prestigious public schools in the entire country. Abbott's efforts were rewarded, with the headmasters of prestigious public schools like Eton and Harrow not just recognising it as a fellow public school, but a fellow public school of national and even international prestige.

The girls' school, though now a separate entity from the boys' school, was likewise granted public school status by association, sharing the same governing body as the boys' school who agreed that it too would be represented at the conference de facto by the headmaster of the boys' school (the conference then being open to boys' schools only). Curiously, this arrangement was known by the other members of the conference, including the likes of Rugby and Eton, which for reasons that have still yet to be ascertained not only tolerated the arrangement but also encouraged it. It is possible that this may have been due to Abbott's own personal connections to the heads of these schools, who may have been willing to make a de facto exception to the gender rule as long as it remained an ad hoc arrangement with no official membership for the girls' school.

In the meantime, Essex County Council chairman Herbert E. Brooks, who had previously argued for the full-blown sale of the school building and the closure of Palmer's in the late 1800s, had come to find himself in his old age passionately involved with Palmer's and its wellbeing. He became chair of governors from 1921, during which period the interwar population influx led to severe overcrowding at the boys' and girls' schools. It was at his suggestion that the the girls' school relocate to a new site elsewhere in Grays, which would in his view enable both the construction of a new, spacious and specially made building for the girls as well as the significant expansion of the existing boys' school building, dealing with the population and accommodation issue once and for all.

After several negotiations with local landowners, a new site was finally acquired for the girls' school in Grays further down Chadwell Road in the fielded outskirts of the town, around a mile away from the existing site. Brooks himself laid the first stone of the new building to mark the beginning of its construction in 1929, with the girls gradually moving into the new building as it neared the end of construction in the Spring of 1931, the new building being officially opened at the start of that academic year. That building still stands at the same location today, serving as the main campus of Unified Seevic Palmer's College, where it is befittingly named the Palmer's Campus. Surrounded by rural fields in an otherwise urban town, the campus maintains the welcoming allure it once had all those years ago, with a very spacious surrounding area for recreation and sporting activities.

Pictured: The girls' school building shortly after construction. Constructed from 1929 to 1931, this building still stands today as the main campus of Unified Seevic Palmer's College, where it is named the Palmer's Campus.

Following the relocation of the girls' school, the expansion of the existing building for the boys' school went ahead as planned. Much of the building's east wing, which up to this point had housed the girls' school, was demolished and rebuilt, while other areas of the building were expanded or renovated. This led to a period of disruption at the boys' school for some time, as classrooms were regularly renovated, demolished or rebuilt. After several years, the renovations were finally completed in 1937, with a special ceremony held to mark the official grand reopening of the school by Michael Sadler on 18th March 1937.

Transformation into state schools

Sadler, who by this point had become the government's and Essex County Council's lead adviser on education, signalled in his speech that Palmer's would eventually be taken into county council control to join the growing county secondary school system. This fate had befallen several other endowed private grammar schools at the time, foreshadowing what was to come for Palmer's.

Consequently, the government gradually ordered changes to several of the practices at the girls' and boys' schools, some of which were implemented under the guise of "emergency measures" going into the Second World War. The Palmer's preparatory school was shut down, leaving Palmer's as a purely secondary institution which taught 11-to-18-year-olds. Likewise, the boarding sections of the schools were also "temporarily" disestablished to allow for the evacuation of pupils to their families or to the countryside. Neither of these were ever reintroduced in later years.

Despite its close proximity to Greater London, both schools survived the German bombing campaigns of the war mostly unscathed. There were only two incidents which affected the schools, both of them at the boys' school. The first occurred in the middle of the day during an air-fight between a British Hurricane fighter plane and a German bomber. The Hurricane crash landed just in front of the school building. The resulting explosion shattered most of the windows on the front of the building, but otherwise it was left undamaged. The second incident occurred during a German night-time bombing run on Little Thurrock, the suburb of Grays where both Palmer's school buildings were located. Several bombs fell onto the boys' school, incinerating a large hut in the east playground and parts of the building beneath the east dormitory, but both fires were quickly extinguished.

After the war, Palmer's was reorganised under the 1944 Education Act, with both schools joining the state secondary school system as voluntary aided grammar schools. Under this new system, the schools could no longer legally require fees for attendance. Rather, every pupil who attended was admitted free of charge and instead owed their enrolment to their success in a competitive aptitude entry examination. This meant that any child who excelled in the exam and lived local to the schools were entitled to a place.

Over the next 20 years, both schools continued to flourish as state grammar schools. While they may have lost their status as public schools, their prestige remained just as noteworthy as before. Several Old Palmerians who attended the schools during this period went on to achieve successful careers, including Jean Lambert, Peter Wadhams, Anthony Michaels-Moore, Jeremy Fell Mathews, Roger Wrightson, Mick Jackson, Emmy Dinkel-Keet, Duncan Fallowell and several others. They joined the ranks of several distinguished alumni who attended the schools in the past, such as William Strang, 1st Baron Strang and George Sanson. Several areas in Grays were named after the schools, including Palmer's Avenue and College Avenue (after the historical names of Grays College and Palmer's College adopted under Rigge's headship).

Pictured: Old Palmerian Jean Lambert returns to Unified Seevic Palmer's College in 2023 for a Q&A with European Parliament Junior Ambassadors in the European Parliament Ambassador School Programme.

Reorganisation as a sixth form college

From 1965, most state grammar schools in England were reorganised and turned back into private schools, or transformed into new comprehensive schools, which did not select their students, or sixth form colleges. The government made this change after discovering that the entry exams to grammar schools disadvantaged working-class children to the benefit of middle and upper-class children, leading to an unfair system where poorer children received a worse standard of education in non-grammar schools while wealthier children benefited from the grammar system.

As a result, the decision was made to reorganise the girls' school and boys' school into a new sixth form college for the people of Thurrock. The schools were merged once again, this time transforming into Palmer's College in 1972 (the first time this name was legally recognised), with the nearby Aveley Technical High School also absorbed into Palmer's. It was agreed that, given the open space around the existing girls' school building and the potential for its expansion, all students relocate there as it would be best suited to provide academic and vocational sixth form college courses.

After a gradual transition, the old boys' school site was abandoned with all sixth formers now learning at the girls' school site, which became the campus of the new college. At this time, the local authority Thurrock Council was noted for its unusual drive to demolish almost all of the historical architecture in the borough to "start anew". Most of Grays was demolished and built over, and the old boys' school site was not spared from this fate. After the last boys finished their secondary education there in 1974, Thurrock Council eventually demolished the building in 1980 to build a new housing estate, which was fortunately named Palmer's Drive in honour of the old school. A stone memorial to the old building has been erected on the estate, paying tribute to Palmer's and its legacy.

Pictured, then and now: The demolition of the old boys' school building in 1980 and the exact same spot today.

After becoming a sixth form college, the high prestige and academic standards of Palmer's were maintained. During this period, the college educated even more highly successful Old Palmerians, including the future MP for Thurrock Jen Craft, the singer and songwriter Anne-Marie, the comedian and singer Jordan Gray and the composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, among others. In 1995, a government report into the college described it as "well managed and well governed", with "high standard" teaching, "strong" support for students and "good" academic results and standards.

During this period, Palmer's forged a very close and successful relationship with the nearby Thurrock Technical College, which over the years evolved into South Essex College. It was noted by the government of the time that Palmer's and Thurrock College had collaborated on their curriculum, while the principals of both colleges served on the other's governing body. It was agreed that Palmer's would mainly offer general and academic qualifications while Thurrock College would focus on technical and vocational education, with both also agreeing not to provide the same courses in each other's specialist area. This relationship continues today between South Essex College and Unified Seevic Palmer's College.

By the 1990s, Palmer's College had become the principal sixth form college for the whole of South Essex. It was one of two sixth form colleges in the region. During this period, another college by the name of South East Essex Sixth Form College (SEEVIC) had been formed in Thundersley, Benfleet in 1972. Palmer's and Seevic formed what was known as the "special relationship", with Seevic and Palmer's collaborating on curricular and staffing matters and founding the South Essex Learning Partnership, which supported secondary schools and further education providers across the region, including Thurrock College.

Pictured: Seevic College, which was merged into Palmer's in 2017.

This collaboration continued into the 2000s, when Palmer's supported Seevic's expansion into Basildon with the creation of a new campus in Great Oaks, Basildon. New Campus Basildon, as it was named, officially opened in September 2008 after Seevic and Palmer's secured government support and funding for the project, in partnership with South Essex College and Prospect College.

New Campus Basildon was a short-lived venture. In May 2013, it closed as a campus of Seevic after the government cut its funding for the project, leaving it financially unviable to maintain in its current form. Seevic then successfully reopened it as a sponsored studio school later that year in September, with continued financial support by Palmer's. However, poor enrolment figures and a critical government report into the school's poor standards led to Seevic's withdrawal in 2016 and the school's closure in 2017.

By 2017, the failed venture had taken its toll on the finances of both colleges, which in turn led to accommodation and staffing shortages, with standards declining at both colleges. The government found that Seevic in particular had fallen short of the standards expected of it as a further education provider, with poor teaching standards and exam results. Financially, both colleges failed to meet the legal costs required of them, with Seevic in particular given a notice of concern by the Skills Funding Agency, which typically signals an approaching bankruptcy.

In August 2017, the government intervened and ordered that Seevic merge into Palmer's. By absorbing the former into Palmer's, the latter would be able to meet its legal financial obligations for the 2017/2018 academic year, while also making it more likely for standards to improve at both campuses with a new, united leadership team. Under the order, Palmer's was to become the senior, main campus of the two, providing a "high quality academic offer" to the people of South Essex.

Unified Seevic Palmer's College today

Seevic formally merged into Palmer's in the same month, with its practical implementation phased in through the rest of 2017 and into 2018, with the two campuses renovated and the governing bodies unified, with the William Palmer Trust expanded to include Seevic and the ancient parish of South Benfleet as well as Palmer's and Grays. This culminated with the official rename of the college to Unified Seevic Palmer's College, or simply USP College, on 12 November 2018.

This reorganisation has proved a success, with USP College improving its financial situation and its academic standards in the year since, with the government's education watchdog Ofsted accrediting it as a "Good" graded college "with Outstanding features" in 2021 and 2024. In March 2019, the college acquired a third campus in Canvey Island, which is now the college's innovative XTEND Digital Campus.

Today, Unified Seevic Palmer's College has grown to include over 4,000 students across three different campuses, the Palmer's Campus in Grays, the Seevic Campus in Benfleet and the XTEND Digital Campus in Canvey. This is a massive far cry from the tiny charity school for ten poor children founded by William Palmer in Grays over 300 years ago. The modern college continues to build on William Palmer's legacy, providing young people with the high quality, prestigious education once offered by the school many moons ago, while also bringing to the table brand new modern innovations in Britain's educational system, such as immersive technology and virtual reality.

Pictured: Over 300 years later, USP College continues to innovate with its state-of-the-art immersive technology.

It is perhaps suitable, then, that the 300-plus-year-old college founded in 1706 which still survives today has bore, for almost a hundred years, the armorial motto of Monumentum Aere Perennius; A Monument More Enduring Than Bronze.

For it is in this spirit, that Unified Seevic Palmer's College, one of the oldest educational institutions in the country, has endured so much hardship to survive and thrive over 300 years later in the present day.