Bradfield College
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bradfield College is a public school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire.
The college was founded in the 1850s by Thomas Stevens, Rector and Lord of the Manor of Bradfield. It now has some 500 male and 120 female pupils.
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[edit] Overview
The school, which admits pupils between the ages of 13–18, has been co-educational throughout since September 2005. All first years pupils (fourth formers) enter a first year boarding house (Faulkners) and then, from the second year (the shell), they move to their main boarding houses for the remaining four years.
Bradfield's Motto: Benedictus es, O Domine doce me Statuta Tua — Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me Thy statutes.
[edit] The Greek Play
Bradfield is most renowned for its Greek theatre and triennial Greek play, which is performed on a three-year rota ('presumably', says Tatler's Good Schools Guide, 'it takes that long to build up the stamina again) in conjunction with Cambridge University and Oxford University respectively. Started to save the school from bankruptcy, the Greek plays have been staged by the school for almost 150 years. The students who act in it receive no formal training in speaking Ancient Greek, and have only nine months to learn the lines and direction, as well as keeping up with their other studies. The 2006 play was Euripides’s Medea, directed by John Taylor. It has been noted for its groundbreaking advances, including the addition of projected subtitles and the bold decision of incorporating the orchestra into the skene, using a ramp covered in sand and flooded to symbolise the sea and Medea's situation of being "between places".
[edit] In the News
In 2005 the school was embroiled in the so-called “Sevenoaks survey” fee-fixing scandal, exposed by The Times. They were eventually found guilty, with fifty other schools, of breaking the Competition Act (1998).
The Commission for Social Care Inspection, which routinely inspects standards at both private and state boarding schools, praised Bradfield, in an otherwise damning report, for its "safe and caring environment" and for endeavouring to "develop a more modern approach to boarding". The Daily Telegraph reported that, ‘against the relevant 47 standards, Bradfield achieved 16 gold stars. In only two areas was it judged to have "minor shortcomings”.
[edit] Trivia
Former footballing hardman turned Hollywood actor, Vincent Peter Jones, known as Vinnie Jones, once worked in the kitchens at the college. 'He got me in at a boys’ public school, Bradfield College, near Reading, Berkshire. Neil’s dad, Tom, was the hairdresser who called at the school a couple of times a week. He went to see the bursar and got me a job: washing pots and pans!' explains Jones in his hard-hitting autobiography Vinnie: My Life (Headline Books 2001). Although at the time Jones was at a particularly low-ebb – the Bradfield days appear in a chapter entitled ‘Life in a Bin Liner’ – he writes with some tenderness about the friends he made, and the room in which he lived: 'It was built on a corner and overlooked the gardens and the sports field, which was lovely, and there was a river [the pang] at the bottom.'
In 2005, girls taking German A-level at Bradfield scored the highest results of any independent school in the country.
[edit] Notable Old Bradfieldians
- George Blackall Simonds (1843–1929), Sculptor
- Edward Armstrong (1846–1928), historian and Pro-Provost, Queen's College, Oxford
- Archibald Robertson (1853–1931), Bishop of Exeter
- Stephen Coleridge (1854–1936), author, anti-vivisectionist and co-founder of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
- Cecil Tyndale-Biscoe (1863–1949), missionary in Kashmir
- Gordon Craig (1872–1966), theatre director, stage designer and wood engraver
- H. Pelham Lee (1877–1953), internal combustion engine pioneer and founder of the Coventry Climax Engines company
- Zachary Nugent Brooke (1883–1946), historian
- William Ormston Backhouse (1885–1962), agricultural geneticist
- Cyril Falls (1888–1971), military historian
- Admiral of the Fleet Bruce Fraser, Baron Fraser of North Cape (1888–1981), Chief of the Naval Staff
- George Grey Wornum (1888–1957), architect
- Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Courtney (1890–1976), Royal Air Force officer
- Air Chief Marshal Sir Guy Garrod (1891–1965), Royal Air Force officer
- Oscar Henderson (1891–1969), Royal Navy officer, Private Secretary to the Governor of Northern Ireland, and television executive
- G. Norman Knight (1891–1978), civil servant and indexer
- Air Chief Marshal Sir Roderic Hill (1894–1954), Royal Air Force officer
- Hubert Foss (1899–1953), composer and music publisher
- Basil Gray (1904–1989), British Museum curator
- Robin Ironside (1912–1965), painter and writer
- Brigadier Mike Calvert (1913–1998), Chindits and Special Air Service commander
- Terence Reese (1913–1996), bridge player and writer
- Martin Wight (1913–1972), historian and international affairs expert
- Vivian H. H. Green (1915–2005), historian and Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford
- Morrice James, Baron Saint Brides (1916–1989), High Commissioner in Pakistan, India and Australia
- Charles Phillips (1916–1994), neurophysiologist
- George Paine (1918–1992), Registrar General
- Sir Martin Ryle (1918–1984), Astronomer Royal
- Richard Adams (born 1920), author
- Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Andrew Humphrey (1921–1977), Chief of the Air Staff and Chief of the Defence Staff
- Tony Hancock (1924–1968), comedian
- Sir Michael Marshall (1930–2006), politician
- Sir John Nott (born 1932), Secretary of State for Defence
- Sir Cyril Townsend (born 1937), politician
- David Owen, Baron Owen (born 1938), Foreign Secretary and co-founder of the SDP
- Graham Roope (1946–2006), Surrey and England cricketer
- Nick Clarke (1948–2006), journalist and BBC Radio 4 presenter
- Stephen Milligan (1948–1994), auto-asphyxiated Conservative MP
- Louis de Bernières (born 1954), novelist
- Peter Ainsworth (born 1956), Conservative Member of Parliament for East Surrey and member of the Shadow Cabinet
- Mark Nicholas (born 1957), cricketer and TV presenter
- Charles Tannock (born 1957) Conservative Member of the European Parliament
- Richard Benyon (born 1960), Conservative Member of Parliament for Newbury
- Tim Dellor (born 1975), BBC Local Radio presenter
- Claudia Harrison, actress
- Will Lyons (born 1976), wine writer
- Kaddy Lee-Preston, TV weather presenter
