Bishop's Stortford College

Infobox UK school
name = Bishop's Stortford College


size =
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established = 1868
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closed =
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type = Independent, Day & Boarding
religion =
president =
head_label = Headmaster
head = John Trotman
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street = Maze Green Road
city = Bishop's Stortford
county = Hertfordshire
country = England flagicon|England
postcode = CM23 2PJ
LEA = Hertfordshire
ofsted =
staff =
enrollment = 1005cite web|url = http://www.bishops-stortford-college.herts.sch.uk/prospc/profile.html|title = College Profile|accessdate = 2007-10-08|work = Introduction|publisher = Bishop's Stortford College]
gender = Co-educational
lower_age = 4
upper_age = 18
houses = 8 (Senior), 4 (Junior)
colours = Navy Blue, Maroon & Gold color box|#000080color box|#800000color box|#FFD700
publication =
free_label_1 = Former pupils
free_1 = Old Stortfordians
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website = http://www.bishops-stortford-college.herts.sch.uk/
website_name = bishops-stortford-college.herts.sch.uk

Bishop's Stortford College is a public school, with a convert|130|acre|km2|sing=on campus located on the edge of Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. It is an independent, co-educational, day and boarding school for children aged 4 to 18 years. As an "all-through" school it is a member of both the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools.

History

Bishop's Stortford College was founded in 1868 by a group of prominent Nonconformists in East Anglia who wanted to establish a public school:"in which Evangelical Nonconformists might secure for their boys an effective and Christian education on terms that should not be beyond the reach of the middle class generally."

They approached the Bishop's Stortford Collegiate School, a non-sectarian school founded in 1850, and acquired the school buildings, naming the new educational establishment as the Nonconformist Grammar School.

Two grammar schools in the town proved confusing so in 1901 the name was changed to the Bishop’s Stortford College and the association became instead a board of governors with nominees from the Baptist, Congregational and Presbyterian churches on the panel.

The school’s first headmaster was the Reverend Richard Alliott and its first pupils were 40 in number. Rev Alliott led the school for 31 years and his successor Francis Young was also in post for 31 years.

It is notable that the school only had five head teachers during its first one hundred years:
*Rev Alliott 1869 – 1899,
*F S Young 1900 – 1931,
*H L Price 1932 -43,
*A N Evans 1944 – 57,
*P W Rowe 1957 – 68, then:
*G C Greetham 1971-1984,
*S G G Benson 1984 – 1997
*J G Trotman 1998 to date.

During its early years, the school built up a strong reputation in the sports field and swimming, and was one of the first schools in the country to have its own indoor heated pool, built in 1895. The Bishop's Stortford College Centenary Chronicle records::"The new bath, which cost something in the region of £5000, was an immense addition to the athletic life and the amenities of the school. Before it was built, swimming was possible only in the summer term, in the part of the River Stort near the cattle market that had been railed off as a town swimming pool; here such things as broken glass bottles would be found at times on the muddy bottom with grave danger to the bathers’ feet. Now, with a heated bath under cover, it was possible to bathe the whole year round, and the swimming standards of the boys improved greatly."

Under the headmastership of Francis Young, the school continued to grow in both size and reputation. Young commissioned many of the red brick Gothic school buildings, acquired the sports fields which occupy convert|100|acre|km2 of land and, in 1902, took over an existing school for boys aged 7 to 13 years. The life of the Bishop's Stortford College Preparatory School, now referred to as the Junior School, began with just eight day pupils and eight boarders.

The Memorial Hall, Bishop's Stortford College’s most distinctive building, was designed in Georgian style by architect Clough Williams-Ellis who was known chiefly as creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. The Memorial Hall was erected in 1922 to commemorate the 62 pupils who had lost their lives in the First World War. A second Roll of Honour was added in 1949, inscribed with the names of a further 154 former students who lost their lives in World War II.

In 1968 the school celebrated its centenary with a visit from the Queen Mother and in 1978 the first girls were admitted into its Sixth Form. The transition to full co-education throughout the school began in 1995 coinciding with the opening of a new Pre-Preparatory Department for both girls and boys aged 4 to 7 years.

Present day

Bishop's Stortford College today caters for girls and boys from the age of 4 to 18 years within the convert|130|acre|km2|sing=on campus. Girls now account for over 40% of enrolments.

The original school buildings are still in use and many facilities have since been added including accommodation for the Junior School and, more recently, the Pre-Prep Department. The Charles Edward Centre houses ICT, Physics and Design and Technology and the Leo Price Theatre, which began life as a gymnasium, has been developed into a performance venue.

The original indoor bath was replaced in 2002 by a modern swimming facility with a 25 metre, six-lane main pool, learner pool and large spectator gallery.

In 2006, the pre-preparatory department was converted to more junior school classrooms and a new 'pre-prep' built above the school astro turf. The Ferguson Lecture theatre was added. Belonging to one of the Stortford houses continues to be a major part of life for all Senior School pupils and Junior School boarders. There are nine houses in total including a girls' boarding and day house opened in 2002.

Recently the Ferguson Lecture theatre (opened 2007) has been added to the school campus which does not only bring a lecture theatre, but many classrooms and I.T labs too. Once a month, the lecture theatre puts on a lecture open to the public. The school has already commisioned the building of a second astroturf, to help with hockey and tennis. This will begin construction in summer 2008.

The new astroturf was officially opened on 17th September 2008, with a visit from a school in Arengtina, with a hockey match played on the astro turf and a thriller of a rugby match, with the College Boys winning 18-17. The astro can now be used for a vareity of outside sports, opened with a special event.

Notable Old Stortfordians

*Sir Leonard Pearce (1873–1947), electrical engineer
*Grantly Dick-Read (1890–1959), obstetrician
*Brett Mackay Cloutman (1891–1971), First World War Victoria Cross
*Sir Charles Collett (1893–1971), Lord Mayor of London
*Percy Horton (1897–1970), painter
*Wilfred Bion (1897–1979), psychoanalyst
*Clifford Dupont (1905–1978), first President of Rhodesia
*Sir Leader Stirling of Glorat (c.1906–2003), Minister of Health of Tanzania
*Sir Dick White (1906–1993), Director-General of MI5, 1953–1956, and Chief of MI6, 1956–1968
*Alec Clifton-Taylor (1907–1985), architectural historian
*Edward Crankshaw (1909–1984), expert and author on the Soviet Union
*Sir Arnold France (1911–1998), Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, 1964–1968, and Chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue, 1968–1972
*Roger Hilton (1911–1975), painter
*James Maxwell Fisher (1912–1970), ornithologist
*Denis Greenhill, Baron Greenhill of Harrow (1913–2000), Permanent Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service, 1968–1973
*Peter Wright (1916–1995), Assistant Director-General of MI5 and author of "Spycatcher"
*Geoffrey Cotterell (born 1919), novelist
*Drummond Allison (1921–1943), poet
*John Heddle (1943–1989), politician
*Sir Stephen Lander (born 1947), Director-General of MI5, 1996–2002, and Chair of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, 2004–
*Andy Peebles (born 1948), broadcaster
*Warwick Morris, British Ambassador to Vietnam and South Korea
*Hugo Barnacle, literary critic and novelist
*Sir Samuel Pringle, British Government Envoy to Swaziland
*James Duthie (born 1957), hockey player and Great Britain team coach
*Ben Clarke (born 1968), England rugby union player
*Derek Beales author

Notable teachers have included
*Brendan Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken (1901–1958), publisher and politician
*Eric Whelpton (1894-1981), travel writer and prototype for Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey
*Walter Strachan, artist and linguist

References

External links

* [http://www.bishops-stortford-college.herts.sch.uk/ Official site]
* [http://www.stortfordhistory.co.uk/guide5/stortford_college.html Overview and history]