The town also developed an important educational role. Pontypool became home to a Welsh Baptist College in 1836, when it moved from Abergavenny. The college trained many Welsh Baptist ministers, large numbers of whom went on to lead congregations in Wales and overseas. It relocated to the new University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, in Cardiff, in 1893. The former Pontypool College became the County Grammar School for Girls in 1897 and, in the following January, West Monmouth Grammar School was opened for boys. The school's origins date back to the early seventeenth century when William Jones, a wealthy merchant, left a considerable fortune to the Company of Haberdashers to provide charitable and educational services in Monmouth. Monmouth School was built in 1615 and many years later, the trustees of the charity decided to invest in additional schools within the county. 'West Mon' School was consequently built, at a cost of £30,000, on a site donated by John Capel Hanbury in 1896.