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Stonyhurst College
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Stonyhurst College | |
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Quant je puis
(French: "As much as I can") |
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| Location | |
|---|---|
| Clitheroe, Lancashire, England | |
| Information | |
| Headmaster | Mr. Andrew Johnson |
| Type | Independent, Catholic |
| Established | 1593 (France); 1794 (UK) |
| Sports | Most noted for Rugby Union |
| Homepage | www.stonyhurst.ac.uk |
Stonyhurst College is a Roman Catholic English Jesuit public school near Clitheroe, Lancashire. The school is close to the village of Hurst Green, and the River Hodder.
It provides boarding and day education to boys and girls aged 13-18. A preparatory school on an adjacent site, St. Mary's Hall, offers education to children aged 3-13. Another Jesuit-run preparatory school, St John's, in Old Windsor, Berkshire, formerly associated with Beaumont College, sends a significant proportion of its students to Stonyhurst.
Its alumni include three Saints, seven recognised by the Church as Blessed and seven awarded the Victoria Cross.
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Stonyhurst as an entity has two histories, which are outlined here. The building, now known as Stonyhurst College, was originally a manor house, owned by minor gentry of Lancashire, whilst the school itself was originally based in St Omer in France until it migrated to Lancashire.
Thomas Weld of Lulworth (b. 1750; d. 1810) gave Stonyhurst College, with thirty acres of land, to the exiled Jesuits; he entirely supported the English Poor Clares who had fled from Gravelines.
Stonyhurst Hall
The building of Stonyhurst Hall was founded by the Roman Catholic, Richard Shireburn, who built the gatehouse and towers on top of an older settlement from 1592 (Shireburn ancestors: the Baileys lived here previously). During the Civil Wars, Oliver Cromwell spent a night at Stonyhurst and slept on a table in the middle of the Great Hall before the Battle of Preston in 1648. He slept in full armour to stop his potential murder at the hands of the Catholics, who were also supporters of the King. He was quoted as saying it was "the best half house" he had seen. [1]
Richard Shireburn's successor and grandson, Sir Nicholas Shireburn, began a massive building plan to extend the "half house", and completed the great hall, gardens and avenue so that it could be a great manor house. Unfortunately, his son Richard was poisoned in the gardens in 1702 and with no male heir, Nicholas ceased building. On Nicholas' death, in 1717, the buildings passed to his wife and then onto their sole heir: Mary, the Duchess of Norfolk. The Duchess was married to Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk, and lived in Arundel Castle, many miles from Stonyhurst, so the buildings began to fall into disrepair. Eventually, the houses were inherited by her cousin, Thomas Weld in 1754. Already living in Lulworth Castle, and not needing an extra Hall, Thomas donated it to the Society of Jesus in 1794. Thomas was a member of a prominent Roman Catholic family, several of whose members had been associated with the school.
The village of Hurst Green, Lancashire developed with the hall.
The College
The story of the school starts at St. Omer in what was then the Spanish Low Countries in 1593, where a college was founded by Father Robert Parsons for English boys, unable to receive a Catholic education in Elizabethan England. As such it is one of a number of expatriate English schools operating on the European mainland during the centuries when Catholicism was proscribed in England.
In 1762, when the French Parlement turned against the Jesuits, the school, in what was then a part of France, was forced to move. During subsequent decades, when the Jesuit Order was suppressed in most countries, the college was one of the institutions through which it managed to maintain a continuous existence.
After St. Omer (still known in Stonyhurst parlance by its old English name of St. Omers), the college settled in Bruges where it continued until 1773 when it was again forced to move, reassembling at Liège, under the protection of its bishop.
In 1794 yet another move was forced upon the school, and a new home was found at Stonyhurst Hall in Lancashire. Lancashire, was an ideal county for the school to settle, because it was still predominantly Catholic. They would, therefore, be left alone by the authorities. [2]
When the pupils of Liège first moved to Stonyhurst Hall, the buildings were in extremely bad disrepair, and a temporary structure was built next to the east wing to house the boys. This "temporary" building still exists, and is known as shirk.
A number of other buildings were added in the early 19th Century, including the new church of St Peter's, in the Gothic style of King's College, Cambridge.
By the 1880s new building works began on the school, including removal of the grand stairs in the quad and subsequently the west wing. The temporary structures of 'shirk' and the new west wing served the school well, but by late 19th Century it needed to expand again and work was started on the south front, including the building of the beautiful Boys Chapel and a new assembly room, (now a theatre) called the Academy Room. The south front took a considerable amount of time to build, because much of the land was swamp, so they had to dig deeper foundations, which created extra space.
During the 19th century, Stonyhurst was a leading Jesuit cultural centre and also notable for its scientific activities, including the meteorological records of the Observatory (built in 1838). The school also prided itself on producing gentlemen philosophers. Philosophers were in fact students pursuing a course of education above high school level at a time when Catholics were forbidden both by English law and also by a Papal prohibition from attending Oxford and Cambridge. Gas lighting was another early technological innovation at the school during this period, and the school had its own power station.
From the 1960s onwards, the school went through a number of changes, partly reflecting those in the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council, but also attributable in part to the growing secular tone of British society. The number of Jesuit instructors fell steadily, reflecting the changed priorities of Catholic religious orders and the dwindling numbers of the English Jesuit province. These changes led to the closing of another Jesuit boys' public school, Beaumont College, in 1966, and Beaumont and Stonyhurst amalgamated. With the addition of these new pupils, Stonyhurst had to expand again and the New Wing was built - beside the wing erected in the 1800s to house the Arundell Library.
After Fr Michael Bossy SJ's fifteen-year headmastership, in 1986 the College acquired its first lay headmaster, Giles Mercer. Mercer brought in a number of changes during his time, and developed particular areas of the school. By the end of the 1980s, the school opened a new indoor swimming pool, new squash courts, a new gym and various refurbished classrooms and playrooms. Scenes from the film Three Men and a Little Lady were shot at the College.
In 1993 the school celebrated 400 years since its foundation at St Omer, and in 1994 200 years since its foundation at Stonyhurst Hall. Mercer set up the Centenaries appeal to raise money for new building works, including the refurbishment of the science laboratories, the Bread rooms (now English department classrooms), the language classrooms, the Ambulacrum (sports hall) and numerous other areas. The appeal also went towards building the new Centenaries Theatre (pictured). A play, written by Fr William Hewett SJ, was performed at the new theatre outlining the history of Stonyhurst.
Adrian Aylward succeeded Mercer in 1996, and the school continued to flourish during his ten years of leadership. In 1997, Stonyhurst began its run up to becoming fully co-educational, and introduced girls to the preparatory school, St Mary's Hall. The change to a co-educational school inevitably meant further changes to the building, and some of the dormitories were altered. The Infirmary wing ceased to be used for its original purpose, and a medical centre was built in the Shireburn Quad.
Academic standards are high. The school prides itself on a dedicated and able teaching staff and benefits from small classes, sometimes with as few as three or four pupils. Most leavers go on to attain places at reputable universities, with a healthy proportion up to Oxford and Cambridge. In some years the school, on a point of principle, has declined to publish its examination results because it does not feel that the league tables are helpful or relevant. In 2005, after ten years, Aylward announced his resignation from June 2006. Andrew Johnson succeeded Aylward in September 2006.
Until 1961 the duties of headmaster fell to the rector. The following lists show the rectors from 1794 and the headmasters from the separation of the two positions. [3]
- Marmaduke Stone (1794 - 1808)
- Nicholas Sewall (1808 - 1813)
- John Weld (1813 - 1816)
- Nicholas Sewall (1816 - 1817)
- Charles Plowden SJ (1817 - 1819)
- Joseph Tristram SJ (1819 - 1827)
- Richard Norris SJ (1827 - 1832)
- Richard Parker SJ (1832 - 1836)
- John Brownbill SJ (1836 - 1839)
- Francis Daniel SJ (1839 - 1841)
- Andrew Barrow SJ (1841 - 1845)
- Richard Norris SJ (1845 - 1846)
- Henry Walmesley SJ (1846 - 1847)
- Richard Sumner SJ (1847 - 1848)
- Francis Clough SJ (1848 - 1861)
- Joseph Johnson SJ (1861 - 1868)
- Charles Henry SJ (1868 - 1869)
- Edward Purbick SJ (1869 - 1879)
- William Eyre SJ (1879 - 1885)
- Reginald Colley SJ (1885 - 1891)
- Herman Walmesley SJ (1891 - 1898)
- Joseph Browne SJ (1898 - 1906)
- Pedro Gordon SJ(1906 - 1907)
- William Bodkin SJ (1907 - 1916)
- Edward O'Connor SJ (1916 - 1924)
- Walter Weld SJ (1924 - 1929)
- Richard Worsley SJ (1929 - 1932)
- Edward O'Connor SJ (1932 - 1938)
- Leo Belton SJ (1938 - 1945)
- Bernard Swindells SJ (1945 - 1952)
- Francis Vavasour SJ (1952 - 1958)
- Desmond Boyle SJ(1958 - 1961)
- Frederick J.Turner SJ (1961 - 1963)
- George Earle SJ (1963 - 1971)
- Michael Bossy SJ (1971 - 1985)
- Giles Mercer (1985 - 1996)
- Adrian Aylward (1996 - 2006)
- Andrew Johnson (2006 - present)
- Rae Carter
- Peter Anwyl
- Rory O'Brien
- Michael Higgins
- Lawrence Crouch
Stonyhurst College has four libraries: the Arundell, the Bay, the Square and finally the More (named after St Thomas More). The Arundell and Square libraries include many artefacts from the Society of Jesus and English Catholicism.
The Arundell Library, presented in 1837 by Everard, 11th Baron Arundell of Wardour, is the most significant. It is not only a country-house library from Wardour Castle but also has a notable collection of incunabula, medieval manuscripts and volumes of Jacobite interest. Signal among its books associated with historical figures is Queen Mary's Book of Hours which belonged to Mary Tudor and is thought to have been given by Mary Queen of Scots to her chaplain on the scaffold. The Arundell Library also held the Stonyhurst Gospel, before it was loaned to the British Library.
To these were added the archives of the English Province of the Society of Jesus. These included 16th-century manuscript verses by St Robert Southwell, the letters of St Edmund Campion (1540-81) and holographs of the 19th-century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.
The school also has a number of fine paintings, in particular portraits including one of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia and another of the Jesuit Henry Garnet. In the Stuart Parlour are portraits of a number of Jacobites including James Francis Edward Stuart, and his sons Charles Edward Stuart and Henry Benedict Stuart.
The school is Catholic, and has had a significant place in English Catholicism for many centuries (including more chequered moments such as the Popish Plot and Gunpowder Plot conspiracies). In the 19th Century, the school became the headquarters of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, and for many years trained priests and brothers for the order, including the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Stonyhurst is distinguished by the central and distinctive Jesuit ethos that pervades the life of the school.
The Jesuit identity is best summed up in a mission statement from the current Headmaster Andrew Johnson: “Creating people of Good Judgement, Clarity of Thought, and Principled Leaders for the Next Generation.”
The Jesuit ethos has three central components:
Creating men and women for others: Stonyhurst has a long and well developed tradition of voluntary service, helping students to understand the problems faced by disadvantaged people. This tradition had evolved today into the Arrupe programe named after Pedro Arrupe SJ. The programme places students in a wide variety of community settings with the aim that every student will have volunteered during their time at school. Students are encouraged to develop and use their skills to contribute to society e.g. Medicine and the Law are popular career choices. A good example of the opportunities that students have through being part of the wider Jesuit community is the 'Chiwirangwe' (a Shona word meaning 'we will struggle together') project that twins Stonyhurst with the Jesuit school St Peter's Kubatana (Zimbabwe). The project is organised by the Jesuit province as part of their Companions programme that twins all nine UK Jesuit schools with Jesuit schools around the world. Stonyhurst leavers also have the opportunity to take a gap year working in Jesuit projects around the world.
Ignatian spirituality: this, based on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola, is confident, inclusive and outward looking, encouraging the school and its students to engage with the complexities of modern life. A Jesuit Catholic education provides both a solid grounding in the teachings of the Catholic church whilst also encouraging a robust philosophical engagement with faith and moral issues. The Jesuit retreats that pupils experience aim to lay the foundations for a life long personal relationship with God.
Well developed reasoning skills are seen as essential both for students to think through their faith and to be effective in the contributions they make to society. The Jesuits remain to the fore in the intellectual life of the Catholic Church. With many universities worldwide, they run colleges in both Oxford (Campion Hall) and London (Heythrop) Universities. Stonyhurst aims to develop strong independent, logical thinking skills in students, so that they may be confident in their faith, clear thinking in all aspects of life and so become successful people of good judgement.
The school has one main church, St Peter’s, and five chapels: The Boys, Angels, Sodality, and two within St Peter’s.
In recent years the number of Jesuits at the school has slowly diminished, but the school keeps a very strong connection with the order through its history, retreats, religious life, the governing body and a small Jesuit community. Since the Second Vatican Council the Jesuits have worked hard to develop a partnership between lay and religious people. Jesuit schools are supported through a strong network co-ordinated by a Director of Education based in London. Catholicism and the Jesuit identity are still very much at the heart of the school, and this can be seen through the monthly benediction, daily voluntary Mass, Sunday Mass, and annual carol service. Stonyhurst also attends and plays an important role in the annual Catholic Association Pilgrimage to Lourdes. The school also runs a thriving Easter Retreat each year for the Association, parents and friends.
Originally composed in 1894 to celebrate a century of happy settlement for the College in idyllic rural Lancashire.
- Old Alma Mater, here's to thee!
- Stonyhurst! Old Stonyhurst!
- Long life and all prosperity!
- Stonyhurst! Old Stonyhurst!
- While generations come and go,
- While boyhood doth to manhood grow,
- Be aye the same we used to know,
- Stonyhurst! Old Stonyhurst!
- More bright be every coming year!
- Stonyhurst! Old Stonyhurst!
- More proud each step of thy career!
- Stonyhurst! Old Stonyhurst!
- And may thy sons that are to be
- More worthy service bring to thee,
- But not more loyal hearts than we,
- Stonyhurst! Old Stonyhurst!
- Thy sons in every land are known,
- Stonyhurst! Old Stonyhurst!
- In all they prove them for thine own,
- Stonyhurst! Old Stonyhurst!
- And borne across each distant main,
- From every continent our strain
- Shall come in echoes back again,
- Stonyhurst! Old Stonyhurst!
- Old college of the eagle towers,
- Stonyhurst! Old Stonyhurst:
- Thy honour shall through life be ours,
- Stonyhurst! Old Stonyhurst!
- Fresh triumphs give us year by year
- Of study and of play to hear,
- And back to thee return the cheer,
- Stonyhurst! Old Stonyhurst!
L.D.S
(Sung to the German melody 'Tannenbaum')
The Stonyhurst Chorus is traditionally sung each year following the Head of the Line's address at Rhetoric ball. The first verse is sung by the Head chorister of the school and then the rest join in. It is considerd a grat honour for the soloist.
It is a long-standing practice that students at the school write A.M.D.G. in the top left hand corner of any piece of work they do. It stands for the Latin phrase Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam which means For the Greater Glory of God. At the end of a piece of work they write L.D.S. in the centre of the page. It stands for Laus Deo Semper which means Praise to God Always. These are both traditional Jesuit mottoes.
Unlike most English public schools, Stonyhurst is organised horizontally by year groups (known as playrooms) rather than vertically by houses. Each playroom has an assigned playroom master, with each cohort moving through the playrooms, having a sequence of playroom masters (rather than being allocated into a house with housemaster for their whole time in the school, as happens in other schools).
All of the accommodation for boarders is contained within the college, under a single roof, with separate areas for each playroom.
Currently, Stonyhurst has the following year names (with approximate ages):
- Hodder House (3-8)
- Preparatory ('Prep', 8-9)
- Elements (9-10)
- Lower Figures (10-11)
- Upper Figures (11-12)
- Rudiments ('Ruds', 12-13)
- Lower Grammar ('LG' 13-14)
- Grammar (14-15)
- Syntax (15-16, GCSE Year)
- Poetry (16-17)
- Rhetoric (17-18)
Rather than houses, Stonyhurst categorises pupils into Lines. The Lines and colours are as follows:
- Campion (Red) (after St Edmund Campion)
- St Omers (Yellow, though Brown for sporting attire) (after St Omer, the town the school was founded in)
- Shireburn (Green) (after the Shireburn family that built Stonyhurst)
- Weld (Blue) (after the Weld family that donated Stonyhurst)
The Cadet Corps has the following Platoons, seven of which are named after the School's VC winners:
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In recent years, a number of pupils have distinguished themselves as members of the CCF and gone on to receive places at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
Fourteen international rugby players from England (5), Ireland (6),Scotland (1), Italy (1) and USA (1) were educated at Stonyhurst. Most recently they include Iain Balshaw and Kyran Bracken, who both played for England when they won the World Cup. Another member of that team, Will Greenwood, went to St. Mary's Hall.
Stonyhurst has recently had well known coaches, including former England coach, Dick Greenwood, and current England coach, Brian Ashton (even though he went to Lancaster Royal Grammar School), and this may well account for the team's success.
After less formal arrangements had been made for many years, the Association was formed in 1879.
The Association’s primary objective is to foster a strong spirit of union amongst past pupils and friends of Stonyhurst. This has been fostered in a variety of ways reflecting the spirit of succeeding generations. Recently, there has been a strong charitable emphasis, embedded with similar developments within the College. This was formalised in 1985, when the Association was granted charitable status by the Charity Commission. It also supports a number of charities connected to the school including Eagle Aid.
Stonyhurst has produced twenty-two saints and martyrs.
It also counts seven winners of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry, amongst its alumni. Their paintings today adorn the walls of the Top Refectory in the school.
Notable alumni and teachers include:
- Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes
- Charles Laughton, Oscar winning actor
- Eduardo López de Romaña, President of Peru
- Herbert Vaughan, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster
- Charles Waterton, naturalist
- George Herbert Walker, founder of the Walker Cup, grandfather of George Bush and great-grandfather of George W. Bush
- Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet
- Vernon A. Walters, Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and United States Ambassador to the United Nations.
More recently alumni in the public eye include:
- Chris Morris, satirist, creator of "Brass Eye"
- Robert Brinkley, HM High Commissioner to Pakistan
- Paul Johnson, former editor of the New Stateman
- Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC
- Crispian Hollis, Bishop of Portsmouth
- Patrick Baladi, actor (Neil in "The Office")
- Hugh Wooldridge, theatre director
- Bill Cash, Member of Parliament
- ^ Stonyhurst College (2007). Quote of Cromwell. Retrieved on 2007-01-22.
- ^ Francis Irwin (Catholic Encyclopaedia 1912) (2003). Stonyhurst College. Retrieved on 2006-03-11.
- ^ Maurice Whitehead (16 January 2006). Rectors, presidents and headmasters of the English Jesuit college of St Omers, Bruges, Liège and Stonyhurst since 1593. Retrieved on 2006-03-11.
- Chadwick, Hubert, S.J. (1962). "St Omers to Stonyhurst", Burns & Oats. No ISBN
- Walsh, R.R. (1989) "Stonyhurst War Record"
- Muir, T.E. (1992). "Stonyhurst College 1593-1993", James & James (Publishers) Ltd. ISBN 0-907383-32-7
- Kirby, Henry L. and Walsh, R.Raymond (1987). "The Seven V.C.s of Stonyhurst College", T.H.C.L. Books. ISBN 0-948494-04-2
- Stonyhurst College website
- St Mary's Hall website (Stonyhurst Prep School)
- St John's Beaumont website (Stonyhurst Prep School)
- Unofficial Bulletin Board for Alumni
- Stonyhurst's entry in the 1912 Catholic Encyclopaedia
- Stonyhurst was featured in the film Three Men and a Little Lady
Categories: Catholic boarding schools | Roman Catholic secondary schools in the United Kingdom | Stonyhurst College | Independent schools in Lancashire | Members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference | Boarding schools in England | Schools with Combined Cadet Forces | 1593 establishments | Educational institutions established in the 1590s | Clitheroe