The house was purchased by the Strutt family in 1801 and in 1860 Edward Strutt offered to sell the house for £3,300 to the governors of Derby Grammar School. Money at that time was a problem for the school, and so he loaned the property to the school for free, on a temporary basis. The boys only grammar school duly moved in for the beginning of the 1861-1862 academic year and the house was purchased outright in 1863, using £1,300 raised by public subscription and a £2,000 mortgage taken out by Derby Corporation, which was repaid by 1873.