Turner Ashby High School was the third high school built during the consolidation movement of the 1950s. Prior to 1950 there had been ten high schools in Rockingham County and, under the administration of John C. Myers in the late 1940s, the school board decided to built three high schools in the county: one in the southern part of the county, one on the north side of the county and one on the east side of the county. After the completion of Montevideo in 1950 and Broadway in 1952, plans were made to locate the third high school at Dayton and name the school for the famous Civil War general, Turner Ashby. Turner Ashby opened in the fall of 1956, consolidating the high schools at Bridgewater, Dayton and Mt. Clinton. The old high schools became elementary schools. Because of the increased space now available in these former high schools, schools at Pleasant Valley and Mt. Crawford were closed and students transferred to Bridgewater. Turner Ashby was built by English Construction Company at a cost of $916,000. In 1959, a four-room addition was constructed by Nielson Construction Company at a cost $42,000 and, three years later in 1962, a second addition of eight classrooms was constructed by M. A. Layman and Sons at a cost of $78,200. By the 1980s, the school was becoming very overcrowded and plans were being made for additional space. In 1986, the school board decided to built a new Turner Ashby High School and convert the old school to a middle school. In the fall of 1989, the new Turner Ashby High School opened and the old building became Wilbur S. Pence Middle School.

Principals who have served at Turner Ashby are:

1956-1961 F. N. Postlethwait

1961-94 W. Carl Yowell

1964-69 E. Cameron Miller

1969-92 Samuel Ritchie

1992-97 Michael Loso

1997- Delmer Botkin

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