Bishop's Stortford College

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The College Memorial Hall
The College Memorial Hall

Bishop's Stortford College is a public school, with a 130-acre 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.

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[edit] 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.

However, 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 100 acres 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.

[edit] Present day

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

The original school buildings are still in use and many new facilities have since been added including purpose-built 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 versatile performance venue.

(Further, in 2006, the pre-preparatory department has been converted in to more junior school classrooms and a new 'pre-prep' has been built above the school astro turf. There is also the addition of the Ferguson Lecture theatre.)

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.

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.

[edit] Notable Old Stortfordians

Notable teachers have included

[edit] External links

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