The history of Stonyhurst College as a school dates back to 1593 when its antecedent, the Jesuit College at St Omer, was founded in Flanders to educate English Catholics. The history of the present school buildings dates as far back as 1200 AD. The details of both are set out below.
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The earliest Deed concerning the "Stanihurst" dates from 1200 AD and can now be found in the Arundell Library in the College, whilst the earliest evidence of a building on the site is from 1372 when John de Bayley was licensed to have an oratory there; the archway in the Bayley Room, within the 'Blind Tower', is believed to date from the fourteenth century, and may well be the only remnant of that earlier building.[1] The oldest portion of the extant buildings however, the Shireburn Mansion (Stonyhurst Hall), was founded by the Roman Catholic, Richard Shireburn, a descendant of the Bayley family, whose son attended the College at St Omers. He built the gatehouse and open cupolas (known as "the towers") on top of an older settlement dating from 1592. The design of the gatehouse incorporates four of the Classical orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite). Three similar designs appear on Merton and Wadham Colleges and the Schools building in Oxford, though Stonyhurst's predates them all by more than a decade.[2] In places the exterior walls of this part of the building are as much as six feet deep.[3]
During the Civil Wars, Oliver Cromwell's army encamped near the Hall on their way to the Battle of Preston in 1648. Cromwell spent the night at Stonyhurst and slept on a table in the middle of the Great Hall in full armour. He is said to have preferred this option to a bed due to his fear of assassination and mistrust of his Catholic, royalist hosts.[4] He was quoted as saying it was "the best half house" he had seen (the Hall was at that time still unfinished). [5]
Richard Shireburn's 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. Two ponds, each measuring 660 feet (200 m) by 112 feet (34 m) were constructed in 1696, along with the "causeway" between, today known as the Avenue. His son Richard was poisoned in the gardens in 1702, and with no male heir Nicholas ceased building. Upon his death in 1717, the buildings passed to his wife and then to their sole heir, Mary, the Duchess of Norfolk. The Duchess was married to Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk, and lived in Arundel Castle in Sussex. Unoccupied, 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 house, Thomas, an old boy of St Omers, donated it to the Society of Jesus, with 30 acres (120,000 m2) of land, in 1794.
The original hall has been altered and extended over the years to become one of the largest inhabited buildings in Europe and achieving Grade I listed status from English Heritage.[6]
The village of Hurst Green, Lancashire developed with the hall. Richard Shireburn built the village school in 1686. He also built an almshouse upon Longridge Fell, the predecessor of the Shireburn Almshouse, which his son Nicholas built c.1707. The latter was dismantled in 1946 and re-erected in the village.
The story of the school starts at St Omer in what was then the Spanish Low Countries in 1593, where a college was founded by Father Robert Parsons for English boys, unable to receive a Catholic education in Elizabethan England. As such it was 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, under the protection of its bishop.
In 1794 yet another move was forced upon the school, and a new home was found at Stonyhurst Hall in Lancashire, an ideal county for the school to settle in because it was still a Catholic stronghold[7] and its rural, isolated character provided the hope that the school would be left alone by the authorities. Not taking any chances however, a number of hiding places were created throughout the building should the Jesuits face persecution again, and when Saint Mary's Hall was constructed in the following century, a secret escape tunnel, which still survives, was also built linking the seminary to an exit in the gardens. [8]
The honour of being last student at Liege and the first at Stonyhurst was claimed by a George Lambert Clifford whose bust is today on display in the Do Room; it is recorded that he and fellow pupil from Liege, Charles Brooke were the first of the migrants to arrive at the Stonyhurst mansion and raced down the Avenue together, but whilst his antagonist was waiting to be let in, Clifford spotted an open window and darted in, to be remembered by posterity as Stonyhurst's first pupil.[9]
When Clifford and his fellow pupils of Liège first arrived at Stonyhurst Hall, the buildings were in an extremely bad state of 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 the chapel at 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 Boys Chapel and the Academy Room. The south front took a considerable amount of time to build, because much of the land was swamp, resulting in the need for deeper foundations, which also created extra space. The work began in 1876 to replace the Old Playground front of 1809; the total cost of the construction (minus architect's fees) was £123,205.5s.6d. (less than the cost of refurbishing the dormitories in the same building 130 years later).[10]
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 was the term used for students pursuing a course of education above secondary level at a time when Catholics were forbidden from attending Oxford or Cambridge both by English law and also by a Papal prohibition. 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 Stonyhurst 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; 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.
The former preparatory school to Beaumont College, St John's, Old Windsor, Berkshire continues to send a significant number of its leavers to Stonyhurst.
After Fr Michael Bossy's fifteen-year headmastership, in 1986 the College acquired its first lay headmaster, Giles Mercer. Mercer brought in a number of changes during his time, and developed particular areas of the school. By the end of the 1980s, the school opened a new indoor swimming pool, new squash courts, a new gym and various refurbished 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 Saint-Omer, and in 1994 200 years 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 laboratories, 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. A play, written by Fr William Hewett, SJ, was performed at the new theatre outlining the history of Stonyhurst as part of the celebrations.
Adrian Aylward succeeded Mercer in 1996, and the school continued to flourish during his ten year leadership. In 1997, Stonyhurst began its run up to becoming fully co-educational, and introduced girls to the preparatory school, St Mary's Hall. An building project was undertaken, such that by the time of his departure as headmaster, refurbishment had taken place in the following areas of the school: the Old Infirmary (converted from girls' to Jesuit community accommodation), Lower Grammar, Grammar and Higher Line Playrooms, all dormitories (cubicles replaced by rooms on two storeys), the plunge (converted into dormitories and changing rooms on two storeys), the Sodality Chapel (restored), the Top Refectory, the Do Room, the Long Room, the Bayley Room, the More Library, the Syntax Wing and the shooting range. Five I.T. suites were created, CCTV was installed at all entrances, some disguised as Victorian lamp-posts, the back of the building outside the music basement was tidied up, and new landscaping and redesign of the road layout accompanied the building of the all-weather sports pitch on Harry Meadow. Classrooms were re-decorated and renamed after Saints associated with the school. At the same time, academic standards improved, with Oxbridge entry standing at around 10% in 2003. On a point of principle, Aylward withdrew Stonyhurst from academic league tables, claiming that they were of little relevance and devalued the worth of the individual. The Stonyhurst Access Appeal was set up in 2003 to widen access to the College to those from lower income families and to generate funds for further redevelopment. Adrian Aylward also steered the school through a difficult investigation into claims of alleged child abuse said to have taken place in the 1970s (all the accused were eventually acquitted). In 2005, after ten years, Aylward announced his resignation from June 2006. Andrew Johnson succeeded Aylward in September 2006.
As headmaster, Andrew Johnson has presided over continued alterations to the building. A new spiritual centre has opened, adjoining the Do Room, the Emmaus Centre, the Sodality Chapel has been re-dedicated, and most recently the Campion Room converted into a new study centre. The school has returned to the League tables as Johnson works to improve the school's academic standing. New procedures have been put in place to support and prepare Oxbridge applicants and a new mentoring system established. Extra Curricular activities have been increased, particularly with a view to community-based work, such as the "Arrupe Programme". He also inspired the renaming of Saint Mary's Hall Stonyhurst to Stonyhurst Saint Mary's Hall, and is encouraging the prep school's doubling in size. Johnson is keen to transform Stonyhurst's academic performance as well as its standing, focusing on the quality of teaching, and moving the school towards greater academic selection.