Walton House School was opened in 1887 and provided what we would recognise as co-educational secondary education. After the 1889 Education Act a committee was formed to secure the establishment of an Intermediate School for Llangollen and district. The governors began fundraising for a new building, but in 1895 opened the school in temporary accommodation in Plas Geraint, formerly the Baptist Theological College. There was now no further need for Walton House, which closed.
The site of Pen y Bont field was purchased for the new building, which was completed in 1898 of Ruabon red brick. The County School was opened in September 1898, with the first headmaster being Henry R. Olley. Under his leadership the County School prospered and a new science building was opened in 1913. With the 1944 Education Act the school became the Grammar School and, after much new building work, became a bilateral school in 1960, with the name becoming Dinas Brân School.
