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Mills Grammar School was built in 1901 with trust money left by Thomas Mills, an astute businessman who died in 1703. The first Mills Charity School was set up in 1751 in Station Road at the Mills Almshouses, but moved to a house that is now 42 Double Street and closed in 1878. It was then agreed by the Mills Trustees that Mills Grammar School for Girls be founded - this school was to be open to "all girls of good character" who were aged between 8 and 16 and be in "sufficient health", and day pupils only "who were residing with their parents, guardians or near relatives". If the school was over-subscribed, preference was made to girls in Framlingham, and parents were to pay fees of between £2 and £5 a year. There was also a kintergarten for boys and girls under the age of eight.
The school was built on Glebe Land gardens in Fairfield Road and opened in 1902 with Miss Ellen Mary Fisher as its first Headmistress. The building contained two classrooms, separated by a green sliding partition, the Head's office, music room and library, stock room, cloakroom and lavatory. 25 pupils started on the first morning: the youngest 8 years and the oldest 15 years - a girl named Florence Pechey who later became teacher and Deputy Head until her retirement in 1947. By 1904 the school was full and another room built to allow a total of 60 pupils.
In 1921 the school came under the control of the East Suffolk County Council. A boarding hostel "The Limes" in College Road was opened in 1929 and boarded girls who lived in villages around Framlingham, Saxmundham and Leiston. "The Limes" was replaced in 1959 by Cransford Hall, a property owned by Sir Patrick Hamilton and leased to Mills Grammar School for a peppercorn rent. At its peak (1963-4) there were 57 boarders; a quarter of the School.
Miss Ethel May Prickett succeeded Miss Fisher as Headmistress in 1933, and the third and final Headmistress, Miss Betty Langshaw, joined the school in 1958 and retired in 1979 when the Mills school site closed and joined the Secondary Modern School at its site in Saxtead Road to become Thomas Mills High School. Boys were admitted in 1974, 24 in Upper Third and four in Lower Sixth. There were 474 pupils at Mills Grammar School when it closed.