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Derby School
Motto	Vita Sine Litteris Mors (Life without Learning is Death)
Established	1160
Type	former grammar school
Founder	Walkelin and Goda
Location	Derby, Derbyshire, England
Yearbook	The Derbeian

Derby School was a school in Derby in the English Midlands. It had a continuous history of education of over eight centuries. For most of that time it was a grammar school for boys. The school became co-educational and comprehensive in 1974 and was closed in 1989. In 1994 an independent grammar school called Derby Grammar School for boys was founded.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Royal Charter 3 St Helen's House period, 1863-1966 4 Littleover period, 1966-1989 5 School motto 6 School hymn 7 School Register 8 Notable Old Derbeians 9 List of Headmasters 10 Notable masters 11 Trivia 12 Derby Independent Grammar School 13 References

The school was re-founded in the 12th century by a local magnate, Walkelin de Derby (also called Walkelin de Ferrieres, or de Ferrers) and his wife, Goda de Toeni, who gave their own house to be used for the school. Local legend has it that it is the second oldest school in England. [[1]]

Magna Britannia (volume 5, 1817) by Daniel and Samuel Lysons says of Derby School -

In this parish [St Peter's] is the Free-school, one of the most ancient endowments of the kind in the kingdom. It is certain that it existed as early as the twelfth century, and it seems to have been founded in the reign of Henry II, soon after the removal of the canons of St Helen's to Derley. Walter Durdant, Bishop of Lichfield, in his charter, speaks of the school at Derby as the gift of himself and William de Barbâ Aprilis. Soon after this, whilst Richard Peche, who succeeded Walter Durdant in 1162, was Bishop of Lichfield, Walkelin de Derby and Goda his wife gave the mansion in which they dwelt, and which Walkelin had purchased of William Alsin, to the canons of Derley, on condition that the hall should be for ever used as a school-room, and the chambers for the dwelling of the master and clerks. This ancient grammar-school was given to the corporation by Queen Mary; who were to pay to the master and under-master 13£. 6s. 8d. by four quarterly payments. This school is free to the sons of burgesses only. The masters are appointed by the corporation: the head-master has now a salary of 40£. per annum, the under-master of 20£. per annum; and they are joint lecturers, on Croshaw's foundation, at All-Saints, for which they receive 10£. each.[2]

In 1554, the school received a Royal Charter from Queen Mary I. Thereafter called a Free Grammar School, it moved to a purpose-built building next to St Peter's Church, Derby. The building was for some time part of the Derby Heritage Centre and is now a hairdresser's. The school remained at this site until it moved to St Helen's House in 1863.

St Helen's House, in King Street, Derby, was built about 1726 for John Gisbourne [[3]], an alderman of Yoxall Lodge, Staffordshire, and originally stood in eighty acres of parkland [4]. The boys-only grammar school moved here in 1863, after the school's governors had bought the property from Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper.

During World War II, the school was evacuated to Overton Hall, Ashover, a village near Matlock.

In 1944, the School (already owned by Derbyshire Corporation as a result of its 1554 Charter) accepted financial support from Derbyshire County Council and became one of four single-sex grammar schools in Derby within the tripartite system established by the Education Act 1944. The other grammar schools were Bemrose (boys), Homelands (girls) and Parkfield Cedars (girls). After the second World War, the school returned to St Helen's House.

The St Helen's House complex consisted of the House itself (called 'A'-block), which contained mainly administrative offices; an attached annex ('B'-block), which held most of the classrooms and (on the first floor) 'Big School', the school's assembly hall; the school chapel, a separate building in red brick; several single-storey prefabricated buildings which contained science laboratories; and another smaller annex close by. Games were played at Parker's Piece, a small ground near the school.

St Helen's House was notable for its Fives Court, which has since been demolished, and for the fire escape outside Big School. Boys would prove their mettle by sliding down the fire escape supports.

In front of the main House, or 'A'-Block, a war memorial to Old Derbeians stands. A statue of Gillard, a notable master, was later moved to Littleover.

The school was divided into four houses: Gateley's, Tanner's, Fuller's, and Grimes'. All boys were allocated to one of the houses prosaically (by Harry Potter standards) in alphabetical order. The houses competed annually for the Cock House Trophy, gained by the house with the greatest number of 'House Points' which were awarded by masters for boys' academic, social and sporting achievements.

Forms for boys up to the age of about sixteen were named by a number and the initial of the form master. The number one was eschewed, so boys started in Form 2. For at least one year, there was a Form 2B, which is the same as the Bash Street Kids. The Fifth and Sixth Forms were divided between lower and upper: the complete form numbering system was 2,3,4, Lower Fifth, Upper Fifth, Lower Sixth, Upper Sixth.

Leadership at the school was in the hand of the masters however, like most schools, older pupils were given some responsibility and were appointed Praeposters or Monitors, the equivalent of Prefect and Sub-Prefect. This appellation is still in use at Uppingham School. Praeposters and Monitors were responsible for the behaviour of younger boys outside lessons in the halls and grounds of the school and were permitted to punish minor breaches of discipline. Such punishment would consist of requiring the boy to report to the Praeposters' or Monitors' room where the punishment would be handed out. Punishments were many and varied but usually inventive. One example was to require the boy to put a number of dots - usually four - in each square of an area of a sheet of graph paper - not as violent as the punishments handed out in the Rugby School of Tom Brown's Schooldays.

Notable masters in the last years at St Helen's House were:

• 'Rock' Allit (Physics) (1960-65)
• 'Snotty' Arnott (English, English Literature and drama)
• C. Daly Atkinson (Music)
• 'Jed' Barlow (French, German)
• 'Ding-dong' Bell (Maths)
• 'Pop' Burns
• W.O. 'Wob' Butler (Deputy Headmaster)
• Norman 'Sweat' Elliot (Maths, Headmaster)
• 'Stella' Irving (French)
• 'Wal' Kimber
• 'Bronco' Lane (Chemistry) (1960-65)
• 'Sol' Levy
• 'Emma' Marlowe (German)
• Molson (Biology)
• Pettigrew (Sports)
• 'Pont' (Latin)
• Barney Rayburn (French and German)
• F.E. 'Curly' Reeson
• 'Alf' (Fizzer) Rhodes (Physics and RE)(1950-1959)
• 'Jack' Richards (History)
• 'Loopy' Summerbell (History and Latin)
• Towers (Chemistry)
• 'Loggy' Wood (PE)

In 1966, the St Helen's House building was declared dangerous because of falling tiles and masonry. The school moved to a new site on Moorway Lane, Littleover, in 1967. St Helen's House still stands today and is in the process of being converted into a Hotel.

The first headmaster and deputy headmaster of Derby School at Moorway Lane came from the St Helen's House site: 'Norman' Elliot and 'WOB' Butler. It continued as a single-sex grammar school until 1974, when the School was taken over as a maintained county school by Derbyshire County Council. In doing so, it converted the school into a co-educational comprehensive school and greatly increased its size (in buildings and pupils). At this point, it was still Derby School. However, in 1989 the County Council took the decision to close Derby School and to make the headmaster redundant. A new school called Derby Moor Community College, now Derby Moor Community Sports College, was opened in the old school's Moorway Lane buildings, with a new head and governing body but with many of the former school's staff and students. In terms of legal identity, this was not the same school, but in some ways it was its successor.

External link

• A brief history of Derby School

The school motto, Vita sine litteris mors, is a quotation from letter number 82 in Seneca the Younger's Epistulae morales ad Lucilium -

Vita sine litteris mors est, et hominis vivi sepultura.

(Life without learning is death, and the funeral of a living man).

This motto is shared with -

• Adelphi University in Nassau County, New York
• Manning's High School, an 18th century foundation in Jamaica
• The new Derby Independent Grammar School

The school hymn, Lift Up Your Hearts!, was given a musical setting in 1916 by Walter Greatorex, an old boy of the school.

External links

• Words and music of Lift Up Your Hearts! at The Ames Collection
• Words and music of Lift Up Your Hearts! at cyberhymnal.org

A book called The Derby School Register, 1570-1901, was published in 1902, edited by Benjamin Tacchella, a modern languages master at the school, and the following is an extract from its preface:

"No work is more suited to perpetuate the fame and traditions of an ancient school, and to foster the spirit of brotherhood among the succeeding generation of its 'alumni', than a Register recording the proud distinctions of the humble achievements of those who have had the honour of belonging to it. Now, considering that prior to 1865, and with the exception of a bare list of the names of the pupils between 1834 and 1858, there was no register of any kind kept at the School, it looked like a hopeless task. However, one by one, a fairly complete list of scholars under Dr Fletcher (1834-1843), and Dr Leary (1858-1865) was got together. As for the more remote period (1570-1834), it has been necessary to go further afield. All available sources have been drawn upon: College admission registers (both of Oxford and Cambridge), biographical notices, pedigrees, memoirs, town records etc. Nor have the names been forgotten that are carved on the walls and panels of the old Grammar School in S. Peter's Churchyard, many of which had to be recovered from under accumulated layers of paint and whitewash."

• Lawrence Beesley (1877-1967), RMS Titanic survivor and author
• William George Constable (1887-1976), art historian
• John Cotton (1585–1652), New England Puritan
• John Flamsteed (1646-1719), England's first Astronomer Royal
• Sir Francis Seymour Haden (1818-1910), surgeon and artist
• E. W. Hobson FRS (1856-1933), mathematician
• Walter Greatorex (1877-1949), composer
• Blessed Edward James (1557-1588), Catholic martyr
• Richard Mansfield (1857-1907), actor
• Charles Tate Regan (1878-1943), ichthyologist
• Sir George Simpson FRS (1878–1965), meteorologist
• John Cook Wilson (1849-1915), philosopher
• Joseph Wright (1734-1797), artist

And see Old Derbeians

• Rev. Thomas Manlove MA (Cantab.), born 1729, died 1 February 1802, headmaster 1761-74
• Rev. James Bligh, born 16 May 1760, died 18 August 1834, headmaster, cousin of William Bligh of HMAV Bounty
• Dr Fletcher, headmaster 1834-1843
• Dr Leary, headmaster 1858-1865
• Rev. Walter Clark BD, born 1838, died April 12, 1889, headmaster 1865-1889 [5]
• Mr Constable, headmaster in the early 20th century
• Leslie Bradley MA (Oxon.), born 1902, died 2004, headmaster 1942-1961 [6]
• Norman Elliot, headmaster in the 1960s and 1970s

• John Meade Falkner, novelist and poet
• Rev. Robert de Courcy Laffan (Senior Classical Master, 1880-1884), principal of Cheltenham College, member of the International Olympic Committee
• Rev. Henry Judge Hose (Maths master, 1867-1874), mathematician [7]

Adelphi University is a private college located in Garden City, in Nassau County, New York. Adelphi acknowledges that is has borrowed its motto for its school seal from Derby School.

Derby Independent Grammar School, an entirely new school founded in 1994, is an independent school and includes a Junior department. It occupies the 18th century Rykneld Hall at Littleover (previously Rykneld Hospital) and currently has around three hundred pupils.

The new school aspires to fill the gap undoubtedly left by Derby School. With the agreement of the Committee of the Old Derbeians' Society, Derby Grammar School has adopted a heraldic badge devised by the Reverend Walter Clark in 1883 for Derby School, which it used until 1952, when the badge was replaced by a coat of arms granted by the College of Arms. Of course, the 1952 coat of arms ceased to exist with Derby School in 1989.

External link

• Derby Grammar School - official site

• Web site of the Old Derbeians Society
• Derby School at british-history.ac.uk
• The Derby School Register, 1570-1901, ed. Benjamin Tacchella (London, 1902)
• Bishop Durdent and the foundation of Derby School, by Benjamin Tacchella (Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, vol. 33, 1911)
• Grammar school education in Derby: its early history to 1662 by Richard Clark (in Derbyshire Miscellany, vol. 15, Part 1, 1998)
• Rev. Walter Clark, BD, headmaster of Derby School, obituary by J. Cook Wilson in The Classical Review, vol. 3, no. 6 (June 1889), pp. 281-282

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Derbyshire Schools
Comprehensive Schools: Belper School | Brookfield Community School | Derby Moor Community Sports College | Frederick Gent School | Hasland Hall Community School | Highfields School | John Flamsteed Community School | Lady Manners School | Littleover Community School | Noel-Baker Community School | Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ashbourne | St Mary's Roman Catholic High School, Chesterfield
City Academies: Landau Forte College
Independent Schools: Derby Grammar School |Foremarke Hall | St Anselm's Preparatory School
Public Schools: Mount St Mary's College | Repton School | Trent College
Junior Schools: Brimington Junior School | Dale Community Primary School | Saint Mary's Catholic School
Former Schools: Derby School | Chesterfield St Helena School

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