A School for Girls (founded 1827) moved to newly built schoolrooms at Common Close Chapel in 1837. In 1842 the British School for Boys was started in the same building. The girls moved to a disused Unitarian chapel (the present Dewey House) in North Row in 1872 and did not move back until 1923 when the infants went to North Row. The school had been taken over by Wiltshire County Council in 1902. In 1931 the senior children were transferred to the Avenue School and The Close became a Junior School. There was serious overcrowding in 1949.