Stonyhurst College
| Stonyhurst College | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | |
 | |
| , | |
| Information | |
| Type | Independent, Catholic |
| Motto | Quant je puis (French: "As much as I can") |
| Established | 1593 (France); 1794 (UK) |
| Headmaster | Mr. Andrew Johnson |
| Sports | Most noted for Rugby Union |
| Website | www.stonyhurst.ac.uk |
Stonyhurst College is a Roman Catholic English Jesuit independent boarding school near Clitheroe, Lancashire, England. 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.
Its alumni include three Saints, twelve Beati and seven recipients of the Victoria Cross.
History
Beginnings
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.
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]
His 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 Netherlands in 1593, where a college was founded by Father Robert Parsons SJ 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.
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]
1794 - 1960s
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.
1980s - present day
During the 1980s, Stonyhurst College welcomed its first lay headmaster, Giles Mercer, in 1986, succeeding Fr Michael Bossy SJ, after fifteen years. Mercer brought in a number of changes during his time, and developed particular areas of the school. By the end of the 80s, the school opened a new indoor swimming pool, new squash courts, a new gym (there was no new gym built) and had refurbished various 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 it celebrated 200 yeas 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 labs, 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 prep 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 converted. This also meant that the Infirmary wing ceased to be used for its original purpose, and a medical centre was built in the Shireburn Quad.
Into the early twenty-first century, 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, and a number at 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.
List of Rectors and Headmasters
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]
Presidents
- Marmaduke Stone (1794 - 1808)
- Nicholas Sewall (1808 - 1813)
- John Weld (1813 - 1816)
- Nicholas Sewall (1816 - 1817)
Rector and Headmaster
- 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)
Headmaster
- 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)
Headmasters of St Mary's Hall
- Rae Carter
- Peter Anwyl
- Rory O'Brien
- Michael Higgins
- Lawrence Crouch
Archives & Libraries
Stonyhurst College, has within its building, 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 boasts a number of fine paintings throughout the buildings, in particular some fine portraits. These include one of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, Fr Henry Garnet SJ and portraits of a number of the Jacobites, in their Stuart Parlour including: James (the Old Pretender), Bonnie Prince Charlie (the Young Pretender), and Charles' brother, Cardinal Henry.
Religious Life
The school has a Catholic tradition, and has been intertwined with English Catholicism for many centuries, including some conspiracies (Popish Plot, Gunpowder Plot). In the 19th Century, the school became the Jesuit British Province office, and for many years trained priests and brothers for the order, including the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins at St Mary’s Hall.
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 the Director of Jesuit Education based in Mayfair, London. Catholicism and the Jesuit identity is still very much at the heart of the school, and this can be seen through their monthly benediction, daily voluntary Mass, Sunday Mass, and annual carol service.
The Jesuit identity of the school is best summed up in a quotation 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. 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 this 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 for the mutual benefut of both schools. Stonyhurst leavers also have the opportunity to take a gap year working in Jesuit projects around the world.
Ignatian spirituality, 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 for students to think through their faith. The Jesuits remain to the fore in the intellectual life of the Catholic Church, with many universities world wide, they run college's within both Oxford (Campion Hall) and London Universities (Heythrop College). Stonyhurst aims to develop strong 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 Judegment.
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.
Stonyhurst Chorus
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; 'O Tannenbaum')
The Stonyhurst Chorus is traditionally recited each year following the Head of the Line's address at Rhetoric ball.
Motto
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.
School Organisation
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.
Year Names
Currently, Stonyhurst has the following year names (with approximate ages):
Preparatory School: St Mary's Hall
- Preparatory ('Prep', 8-9)
- Elements (9-10)
- Lower Figures (10-11)
- Upper Figures (11-12)
- Rudiments ('Ruds', 12-13)
Stonyhurst College
- Lower Grammar ('LG' 13-14)
- Grammar (14-15)
- Syntax (15-16, GCSE Year)
- Poetry (16-17)
- Rhetoric (17-18)
Lines
Rather than houses, Stonyhurst categorises pupils into Lines. The Lines and colours are as follows:
- Campion (Red) (after St Edmund Campion)
- St Omers (Brown) (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)
Cadet Corps
The Cadet Corps has the following Platoons, seven of which are named after the School's VC winners:
Junior Company
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Senior Company
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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.
Stonyhurst Rugby Union
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.
Stonyhurst Association
The Association was formed in 1879, but there are reports of its existence even 60 years before that. The list of Presidents is, however, complete from 1879.
The Association’s primary objective is to foster a strong spirit of union amongst past pupils and friends of Stonyhurst College. This has been fostered in a variety of ways reflecting the spirit of succeeding generations. Recently, this has been evidence by 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, after adopting the following objectives, namely: "To unite and associate, past and present pupils and friends of Stonyhurst in the carrying on of any of the following charitable purposes (whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere)"
It also supports a number of charities connected to the school including Eagle Aid.
Alumni
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/Old Refectory in the school.
A sampling of some notable and well known Stonyhurst alumni and teachers includes:
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes
- Charles Laughton, actor
- Eduardo López de Romaña, businessman and Peruvian politician, former President of Peru (1899-1903)
- Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (Cardinal and Archbishop of Westminster)
- Charles Waterton, naturalist
- George Herbert "Bert" Walker, grandfather (and namesake) of President George H. W. Bush and the great-grandfather of current President George W. Bush
- Frederick Turner SJ
- Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ
More recently, Old Stonyhurst in the public eye include
- Chris Morris, satirist, famous for "Brass Eye".
- Macdonald Hastings, journalist and war correspondent
- Paul Johnson, journalist and historian
- Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC
- Bishop Crispian Hollis, Portsmouth Diocese
- Fr Nicholas King SJ. Recently translated the New Testament for Kevin Mayhew publishers. ISBN 1844173240.
- Patrick Baladi, actor (Neil in "The Office")
- Hugh Wooldridge, theatre director
- Bill Cash MP, Conservative member of Parliament
References
- ^ Stonyhurst College (2007). "Quote of Cromwell". Retrieved 2007-01-22.
- ^ Francis Irwin (Catholic Encyclopaedia 1912) (2003). "Stonyhurst College". Retrieved 2006-03-11.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Maurice Whitehead (16 January 2006). "Rectors, presidents and headmasters of the English Jesuit college of St Omers, Bruges, Liège and Stonyhurst since 1593". Retrieved 2006-03-11.
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Bibliography
- 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