According to Bishop Gastrell of Chester, the school was started by the gift of Land and a house by Lord Warrington, the school was rebuilt at the expense of the parish by 1720.  According to England in Ashton-under-Lyne by W. Bowman, Jonathan Catlow secured the lease of the Old Hall at Ashton for the school in 1744 for a term of 21 years, later extended. (Picture below)

According to An Historical Account of the Towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Stalybridge, and Dukinfield by Edwin Butterworth, pub 1842

The district is not provided with any ancient endowed school, and yet a school house was erected in the seventeenth century on land given by the manorial owners adjacent to the Church-yard, for the education of the children of the parishioners generally, the means of its support have been chiefly derived from the parents of the scholars, the school was re-built by the parish in 1721, partly under the auspices of the Earl of Warrington: Mr John Newton, of Woodhouses, gave by Will dated February 17, 1731 to the school of Ashton £3 yearly, for the education of six poor children, two to be nominated by the Rector, two by the Curate, and two by the Wardens, the children not to remain above two years each. they are taught to read and write. Mr John Walker of Manchester having by his Will dated July 7, 1755, devised the interest of £600 to be applied to the education of poor children in Ashton, Oldham, and Saddleworth, £8 of the annual interest was divided amongst three schools in Ashton, £4 for ten scholars, Taunton £2 for five, and Hey £2 for five. The school was re built in 1807, and again re-erected and enlarged in 1827; it is a spacious pile, decorated by a mullet sable on a shield of white marble, the arms of Ashton; about 200 children are taught daily by subscription, and scholars payments. The appointment of master is vested in the Earl of Stamford and the Rector.

John Cock, whose son John Cock married Jonathan Catlow’s daughter, Alice, was the Churchwarden in 1822

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Ashton Old Hall demolished in 1893. Ashton School was here from at least 1744 to 1766.

  More pictures see http://www.ashton-under-lyne.com/history/oldhall.htm