FROM Pontypool Museum's digital archives are two images which take a look back at Pontypool’s West Monmouth School.

The school was opened in 1898, after it was decided that a sister school to Monmouth School should be built to serve the western side of the then-county of Monmouthshire, where Pontypool was located.

It took two years to build and was opened by Lord Tredegar, able to accommodate 70 boarders and 30 day boys.

One of the images shows the school after it was built and the site was enclosed in around six acres of land.

The other image shows the assistant masters at the school during the academic year of 1902 and 1903, who worked at the school five years after it was constructed.

On the front row, left to right, are Messrs Cole and Evans, while on the back row is Messrs Buck, Abraham and Ottaway – again left to right.

It became a comprehensive school in 1982, after three secondary schools in the surrounding area closed, ending its grammar school status.

These images were donated by the Pontypool Museum as part of its digital archive, which aims to preserve historic documents, images and records from the area.

To find out more about the digital archive, contact the museum at pontypoolmuseum@hotmail.co.uk or call 01495 752036.

The Free Press thanks Pontypool Museum for allowing the paper to use these images.