The mayor and corporation were responsible for the maintenance of the earliest known education in Congleton. This took the form of a free school for the sons of aldermen and burgesses which was referred to as the Grammar School. There is no surviving evidence for the foundation of this school. Nor any evidence that prior to the school the chaplains of the town provided any basic literacy for the children of the town. The earliest reference to the corporation spending money on the school comes in 1584 during the reign of Elizabeth I.
The social, industrial and political changes in Britain and Europe from the end of the 18th century brought about a major expansion of education in the town. Led by the Methodists and followed by the Anglican National Schools education for all the children in the town was established by 1840. This included the rebuilding of the grammar school in 1814 and the building of the Sunday and National school in Chapel Street, opposite St Peter`s in 1830. It was enlarged in 1892 and later came under the control of the local authority.