Opened as an art and science college where previously classes had been held in the Athenaeum in Church St and the YMCA in Whitby Street.

The first Grammar school was opened in the Technical School in 1902 for 120 boys and girls. In 1912 the West Hartlepool Girls' High School opened and in 1938 the Boys' Grammar School at Brinkburn opened and the school became the Technical Day School.

In 1938 the Art Department moved to Church Square School. 

In 1941 girls were admitted and in 1954 these were relocated to Tunstall Court as the Commerce Department.

The School was opened in 1902 in Lauder Street. At that time it was known as West Hartlepool Secondary School and it provided education for both boys and girls. A modest annual fee was charged for entry to the school.

In 1912 the girls left for the newly-opened Girls' High School in Eldon Grove. The boys remained at Lauder Street until they moved to Brinkburn in Blakelock Road in 1938. The original house at Brinkburn had been the home of the Horsley  family, who were shipowners  and timber  merchants. There were significant additions to the original building, including classrooms, laboratories, workshops, a gymnasium and a large assembly hall. 

In 1944, as a consequence of the Butler Act, the School became the West Hartlepool Grammar School for Boys. In 1973, under the re-organisation of secondary education in the town. it became the Upper School of Brinkburn Comprehensive School. It is now, following considerable rebuilding, the Hartlepool Sixth Form College.

For more information see the West Hartlepool Grammar School Old Boys Association website at: 

http://www.whgsoba.org/