Bablake School

Bablake School
Address
Coundon Road Bablake Coventry , West Midlands , CV1 4AU England
Information
Type	Independent school
Motto	'Spiritus Vicis' – trans. 'The Spirit of Opportunity'
Religious affiliation(s)	Non-denominational
Established	1344
Founder	Isabella of France
Local authority	Coventry
Head teacher	Mr J. Watson MA
Gender	Co-educational mixed
Age	11 to 18
Enrollment	893
Houses	Bayley, Crow, Fairfax, Wheatley
Colour(s)	Maroon and gold
Website	http://www.bablake.com/home.asp

The entrance to the old buildings (no longer occupied by the school) in Hill Street

Bablake School. Main school building in the centre, with the English, Drama and Music block and the Language block to the right of the photo; Sixth Form block and Science Quadrant to the left.

Bablake School is a co-educational independent school founded in 1344 by Queen Isabella and located in Coventry, England. Bablake is part of the Coventry School Foundation, a registered charity, along with King Henry VIII School, King Henry VIII Preparatory School and Cheshunt School. The current headmaster is John Watson, who succeeded Dr Stuart Nuttall following his retirement in 2006. Today Bablake is a selective, fee-paying independent school and a member of the HMC.

History

Started by Edward II's wife Isabella in 1344, Bablake (or Babbelak in Middle English) was a public school first sited at Hill Street in Coventry. Isabella endowed the Guild of St John with the Babbelak land on which was founded the St John's chapel and the Bablake school linked to it. Bablake church, now known as St John's, still stands adjacent to the school's original buildings. The school and the church shared a long history which continues to this day. The Bablake Carole service is still held in the church, a custom which has continued since medieval times. Many of the pupils were originally choristers of the church. The relationship continued through the figure of Edward Jackson, who from 1734 was both vicar of the church and headmaster of the school. The expansion of the Bablake site continued throughout the 14th century with the aid of further land granted by the Black Prince. In 1563 the school's principal benefactor, Thomas Wheatley, who had been mayor of Coventry in 1556, endowed it with much of his estate.

Wheatley had ordered some steel wedges from Spain. In their place, he received by mistake a chest of silver ingots. Unable to discover to whom this cargo rightly belonged, Wheatley decided to bestow it upon the school. In 1833 a new schoolroom (now the headquarters of the Coventry School Former Pupils’ Association) and a house for the master were added. Two years later, after much mismanagement and extravagant spending, administration of the charities was removed from the Corporation, and Bablake came under the control of the General Charity Trustees. At this time there were twenty boys in the school. In 1855 this number increased to seventy. Even under the great F. W. Humberstone, who took over as headmaster in 1870, Bablake boys were largely confined to the premises and a most monotonous routine. Shortly after this Bablake expanded rapidly, incorporating three other local schools: Baker, Billing and Crow’s School (Black Gift), Katherine Bayley’s Charity School (Blue Gift) and Fairfax Charity School (Green Gift) These, along with Wheatley, comprised the school's six principal benefactors, and gave their names to its six houses thereafter. In the 1890s, Bablake began to move to its current site in Coundon Road, where it continued as a public school with six all-boys boarding houses.

In the 1930s fifty acres of land on Hollyfast Road were purchased to expand the playing fields of the school. During the war, the school was evacuated to Lincoln, and in the Blitz, the new library was bombed so badly that the only thing to remain intact was a page from a German dictionary . In the 1970s the first female pupil was admitted. The school had long ceased taking boarders; what had been the bedrooms became the Mathematics department, and the headmaster's house became the Geography department. In the late 1980s the school built its Modern Languages block; a few years later Bablake Junior School opened and in 2000 the English, Drama and Music block was completed, sited on what was originally the master's garden.

Uniform

The original school uniform of the school consisted of boys wearing the ‘Blue Coat’ uniform: a long tunic of dark blue cloth, with a leather girdle, yellow petticoat, yellow stockings, low buckled shoes, a linen collar with bands, and a round black worsted cap with yellow tassel. The yellow earned them the unenviable nickname of 'Canaries' among the townspeople. However, the move to the new site prompted a more modern uniform. For a time boys were required to wear clerical-grey single-breasted pinhead-worsted suits; now they are dressed in grey trousers, a white shirt, a tie bearing their house crest (see below) and a black blazer bearing the shield of Bablake school. The girls wear a v-neck sweatshirt bearing the Bablake badge and knee-length grey skirts. They also wear blouses (long or short sleeved) and a badge in which is engraved the first letter of their house (Fairfax, Crow, Wheatley or Bailey).

Coat of arms

The arms of Bablake School are those of its principal benefactor, Thomas Wheatley: Sanguine a Lion Rampant Argent, on a Chief Or, Three Mullets of the second.

Layout

The Bablake site houses two schools: a junior school that takes children between year 3 and year 6, and a senior school that takes children between year 7 and sixth form. Although the junior school is formally independent, its intake generally move up as a group to the senior school. In the main school, there are blocks allocated to specific subjects, such as science, art, design and technology, music and English combined, and a languages block. The school has a swimming pool and indoor sporting facilities on site. It also has four tennis courts, which are used as netball courts at other times in the year. Off site there are four rugby pitches, hockey astroturf (with floodlights) and a cricket square. The cricket pavilion, which housed the changing rooms, was hit by lightning on 28 June 2005, and was out of use until spring 2006.

Houses

The four modern-day houses of Bablake are:

House name	Date of establishment	Crest	House colours
Wheatley	1563	Sanguine a Stag's Head Or	Maroon and gold
Bayley	1900	Gules a Motte Argent	Red and white
Fairfax	1896	Azure a Crosslet Argent	Sky blue and gold
Crow	1894	Sable a Corvus Argent	Black and white

The two houses which are no longer extant are:

• Baker (est. 1896)
• Billing (est. 1894)

Notable former pupils

Former students, known as Old Wheatleyans, include:

• Robert Clift (born 1962), hockey player
• Sir John Egan, (born 1939), Executive, Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Warwickshire
• Shane Geraghty (born 1986), rugby union player
• Courtenay Griffiths QC, criminal barrister
• Kenneth Hegan OBE (1901–1989), England international footballer
• Leonard Lord (1896–1967), industrialist
• Brian Matthew (born 1928), broadcaster
• Gladstone McKenzie (born 1963), American football player and councilor
• Jack Parsons (1890–1981), cricketer
• Nick Skelton (born 1957), showjumper
• Donald Trelford, Former editor of The Observer
• Martine Croxall, BBC News presenter
• Gary Hoffman, Chief executive of Northern Rock (2008–)
• Paul Corley, Former managing director of GMTV (2001–2007)
• T. E. Dunville Victorian entertainer
• Melissa Walton Hollyoaks star (Pupil 2002-2007)

Former headmasters

• Rev. Edward Jackson (1734–1758)
• Sir William Moore (1822–1824)
• Dr. Henry Mander (1824–1870)
• F. W. Humberstone MA (1870–1890)
• E. A. Seaborne MA (1937–1962)
• E. H. Burroughs MA (1962–1977)
• M. W. Barker MA (1977–1991)
• Dr Stuart Nutall (1991–2006)
• J. Watson MA (2006–present)

Further reading

• Peter Burden, The Lion and the Stars: A History of Bablake School, Coventry (Coventry: Coventry School Foundation, 1990)

External links

• Official Homepage
• Coventry School Foundation
• Independent Schools Council entry for Bablake School