Clifton College

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Clifton College
Contact Information	Phone: 0117 3157 000 Fax: 0117 3157 101
Established	1860s
Type	Independent
Head Teacher	Mark J Moore
Location	College Road Bristol, - United Kingdom
Enrollment	Approx. 650 students
Ages	3 to 18
Website	Clifton College website

Clifton College is a major coeducational public school in Clifton, Bristol, England. It was founded in 1862. The school's motto is Spiritus Intus Alit (meaning: The spirit nourishes within).

On the 5th October 2006, Clifton College was featured on local news service BBC Points West as part of their Bristol School special.

Contents 1 School structure 1.1 Houses 2 Buildings & grounds 2.1 The first school buildings 2.2 The memorial arch 2.3 Cricket pitches 3 The Close 4 The Marshal 5 School customs 6 School Slang 7 Religious community 8 Alumni 9 Headmasters 10 Notable former masters 11 Clifton College Register 11.1 Pupils 11.2 Masters 12 External links 13 References

[edit] School structure

The school is divided into three sections:

• The Pre-Preparatory takes children aged 3-8;
• The Preparatory is for boys and girls aged 8-13, and
• The Upper School is for boys and girls aged 13-18.

There are currently around 650 children in the Upper School of which about a third are girls, and in 2004 there were plans to increase the size of the school. At the start of the 2004 - 2005 school year, a new boarding and day house for girls were opened.

School Fees From September 2006:

• Full Boarder £7,750.00 per term
• Day Boarder (4 nights) £6,970.00 per term
• Day Boarder (3 nights) £6,720.00 per term
• Day Pupil £5,230.00 per term
• Occasional Boarding £40.00 per night

[edit] Houses

The Upper School boys' houses are:

• School House (boarding)
• Wiseman's (boarding)
• Watson's (boarding)
• Moberly's (boarding)
• East Town (day)
• South Town (day)
• North Town (day)

(Polacks house, which took Jewish boys only, has recently closed)

The girls' houses are:

• Worcester (boarding)
• Oakeley's (boarding)
• West Town (day)
• Hallward's (predominantly day with some boarders)

Before 1987, Clifton was a boys-only school, and was predominantly boarding, although there were day-boy houses.

[edit] Buildings & grounds

[edit] The first school buildings

The original College buildings were designed by the architect Charles Hansom (the brother of Joseph Hansom); his first design was for Big School and a proposed dining hall. Only the former was actually built and a small extra short wing was added in 1866 – this is what now contains the Marshal’s office and the new staircase into Big School. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II listed building.^[1]

Hansom was called back in the 1870’s and asked to design what is now the Percival Library and the open-cloister classrooms. This project was built undertaken in two stages and largely completed by 1875 – although the Wilson Tower was not built until 1890.(grade II listed.^[2]) Other buildings were added as follows:

• By 1875 Brown’s, Dakyns’ and Oakley’s had been opened along with what is now 32 College Road – originally this functioned as accommodation for bachelor masters.
• Three fives courts (1864),
• The original san’ (1865),
• Gymnasium (1867),
• Two swimming pools (1869),
• An open rackets court (1872)
• The present workshop (1873).
• The Chapel (1867); this was built to Charles Hansom’s original design, but was moved from the intended site (which is now the gym’). As built, the Chapel was a narrow aisle-less building, and just the width of its present west end. It was the gift of Mrs Guthrie, the widow of Canon Guthriel. Hansom was given permission “to quarry sufficient stone from the College grounds for the purposes of the Chapel building”. Unfortunately, Mrs Guthrie died before the building work was completed.

The Chapel building was licensed by the then Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol on Saturday, 15th June, 1867. It is now grade II* listed.^[3]

The school’s present buildings have evolved in four main phases:

• The early Percival years, when the nucleus of the school buildings was laid down.
• The 1880s. In 1880, the school’s East Wing was completed as far as the staircase – this had yet to be linked to the library by the Wilson Tower) and added a science lecture-room (which is the reason for the curious 'stepped' windows that are found there), a laboratory and several classrooms.

In 1886, a porters' lodge and what is now the staff common room were also added; this was effected by enlarging what had been the original science school. On the ground floor was found the school tuck-shop and above this (in what is now the Upper Common Room) was a drawing-school. The day boys were provided for in Town Rooms for both North and South Town. The East Wing was then completed by carrying it beyond the staircase and then creating an additional classroom at each ed. The ground-floor classroom (then Room 12) is now known as the "Newbolt Room" and has been furnished by the Old Cliftonian Society, who still use it fir reunions. Between 1890 and the start of the first world war there were added the new Music School (1897) and the re-building of the Chapel (1910).

• The 1920s. Dr John King whose headmastership spanned the war years, had little scope for building after 1914, but he did oversee did see the development of the playing fields at Beggar's Bush, the building of the Memorial Arch, the neo-classical cricket pavilion, and the opening of the new San’ in Worcester Roadl.

On 3rd December, 1918, the former headmaster John Percival died and was buried in the vault of the school Chapel . In 1921 a special memorial chapel was created and consecrated about his tomb. . Norman Whatley, was the headmaster between 1923 and 1938; his tenure saw the building of the Science School (on the site of the previous Junior School) and the opening of the Preparatory School. Also at this time the school acquired Hugh Easton's new east windows which can still startle one today. The windows also contain the hint of a joke: beneath the representation of the heavenly Jerusalem, is depicted a game of cricket on the Close - with one of Whatley's sons taking playing!

• The 1980s. In 1982, there was the construction, on the site of the old swimming pools, the new Sports Hall, remedial gym’ and a new covered swimming pool – something that would have been appreciated by the generations of boys forced to use the old outdoor Victorian pool and its outdoor covered changing cubicles.

The 1980s also saw the building of the Coulson Centre which links together two previously separate classroom blocks, at Muir and Birdwood houses. As a result of the improvements in modern medicine, the Sanitorium in Worcester Road was unnecessarily large for the school's needs, and so the old pre-1921 Sanatorium on the Close has been refitted to serve this purpose, whilst the Worcester Road san’ has been refitted as the new Headmaster’s house.

[edit] The memorial arch

At the side of College Road, opposite what was Dakyns' boarding house (now East Town and North Town), is the college's memorial arch designed by Charles Holden, which commemorates teachers and pupils who died in the two world wars. It is now grade II listed.^[4] The college's buildings, mainly School House, were used as the main HQ where the D-Day landings were devised and planned. The college played a major part in both World Wars; Field Marshal Douglas Haig was an Old Cliftonian who went on to command the British armed forces in the First World War. Through the memorial arch and in front of School House is a life-size statue of Haig.^[5] At the edge of the quad is a memorial to those killed in the South African Wars.^[6]

[edit] Cricket pitches

On one of the college's cricket pitches, now known as Collins' Piece, the highest-ever cricket score was reached in June 1899, in the School House match between Clark's House v North Town. In this match A. E. J. Collins, killed in the First World War, scored 628 not out, but not under the current rules of the game. He was not the first Clifton schoolboy to hold this record: in 1868 Edward Tylecote, who went on to help England reclaim the Ashes in 1882/3 was a previous holder, with 404 not out in a game between Classicals and Moderns.

[edit] The Close

The college ground, known as the Close, played an important role in the history of cricket, and witnessed 13 of W G Grace's first-class hundreds for Gloucestershire in the County Championship. Grace's children attended the college.

The close featured in the famous poem by O.C. Sir Henry Newbolt - Vitaї Lampada:-

There's a breathless hush on the Close to-night

Ten to make and the match to win

A bumping pitch and a blinding light,

An hour to play, and the last man in.

And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat.

Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,

But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote

"Play up! Play up! And play the game!"

The sand of the desert is sodden red-

Red with the wreck of the square that broke

The gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,

And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.

The river of death has brimmed its banks,

And England's far, and Honour a name,

But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks-

"Play up! Play up! And play the game!"

This is the word that year by year,

While in her place the school is set,

Every one of her sons must hear,

And none that hears it dare forget.

This they all with a joyful mind

Bear through life like a torch in flame,

And falling fling to the host behind -

"Play up! Play up! And play the game!"

Clifton has a commemoration arch, known by pupils as 'mem arch', with the names of all of pupils and teachers who died in the first and second world wars. Current pupils, as a sign of respect, refrain from talking and remove their hands from their pockets when passing through the memorial. During the second world war the school was evacuated to a hotel in Cornwall and the Americans used the impressive buildings for the planning of their role in the war. The Omaha D-day beach landings were planned in School House, and as a thank you the school was given an American flag, which is now flown on July 4 every year from the Wilson Tower.

[edit] The Marshal

Unusually, the college employs a master called "The Marshal", whose only job is to enforce discipline, attendance at classes and other school rules (such as dress code, drinking and hair length). Mr French, a well known Marshal from the 1970s, once upbraided a boy called Bascombe, with the classic "'ere Bascombe-lad, what's your name?". Many public houses near the school had photos of the Marshal, who was permanently banned so as to not discourage the attendance of pupils who were regular customers. The current Marshal is, perhaps fittingly, called Mr Cross.

By tradition of the college, a Marshal's name is not added to the plaque listing the names of the school's Marshals until after his death.

[edit] School customs

• The Head of School is entitled to graze sheep on the Close and attend chapel on a white charger.
• If the school clock (on the edge of the chapel in the quad) is hit by a cricket ball driven in a school match, the following school day will be given as a holiday.
• Walking on the Close without permission during the week results in a fine (calculated on a cost-per-foot-in-breach basis) administered by the Marshal.
• There is a less well-known tradition that if a pupil spends a night in the crypt where John Percival's remains are located the whole school may have a day's holiday, but pupils have tried to do this in more recent years and have not been allowed. It has often been said that a dark figure can be seen walking around the arches by the door to the crypt late at night, and when followed it will vanish.

[edit] School Slang

• Big School- The school canteen
• Big Side- 1st and 2nd XV rugby pitches
• Little Side- all other rugby pitches
• The Close- the grass in front of the school (inc. big and little side pitches)
• Praepostor (praep)- school prefect
• Congers- school congregational hymn singing
• The Grubber- the school stationers (historically, the school tuck shop)
• The Pens - School cross country races (long pen and short pen)
• Holder of the Big Side Bags- Captain of the School Cross Country Team
• Exeat- permission to go home on the weekend after lessons and sport
• Rustication- a milder form of suspension
• Yearlings- the youngest year in the (upper) school
• The Percy- the (Percival) library
• Terriers- an activity programme for the yearlings where they learn life skills.

[edit] Religious community

Like many English public schools, Clifton has regular chapel services and a focus on Christianity, but for the last 125 years there has also been a Jewish boarding house (Polack's); complete with kosher dining facilities and synagogue for boys in the Upper School: this was the last one of its kind in Europe. However, at the end of the 2004-05 school year, the Polack's trust announced that Polack's House would be close due to the low numbers of boys in the house (although many pupils were turned down this year).

[edit] Alumni

Clifton's alumni include: category:Old Cliftonians

• Field Marshal Douglas Haig
• Monty Python actor John Cleese (A persistent school legend has it that he was expelled for a humorous defacing of school grounds. In the story, Cleese used painted footsteps to suggest that the statue of General Haig had got down off his stand and gone to the toilet. Though the prank may indeed have happened, Cleese was not expelled for it.)
• Roger Fry, artist
• Henry Newbolt, poet
• Sir Michael Redgrave, actor
• Martin Lings, scholar
• Joyce Carey, Writer
• John Inverdale, TV presenter [1]
• James Kirtley, England cricketer
• Matt Windows, England cricketer
• A. E. J. Collins, World record holder for the highest individual cricket innings
• Julian Richer (entrepreneur) owner of Richer Sounds
• Roger Alton, editor of The Observer
• Walter Owen Bentley, founder of "Bentley cars"
• Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, British Army officer, explorer, and spiritualist
• Sir Charles Bonham-Carter, General of the Territorial Army and Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta.
• Right Hon Leslie Hore-Belisha, Minister of War- 1937-40
• Trevor Howard, actor
• R. P. Keigwin, academic, England cricketer and hockey player
• Jose, Arthur Wilberforce, historian and journalist
• John Henry Whitley, politician
• Simon Blackburn, philosopher- founder of quasi-realism.
• Edward Tylecote, England cricketer
• Godfrey Goodwin, scholar
• Linsdall Richardson, academic
• Herbert Paul Grice, philosopher
• Sir Richard Threlfall, physicist and chemical engineer
• Geoffrey Household, author
• John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart, Philosopher
• Tim Mackintosh-Smith , author and television presenter
• Simon Russell Beale CBE, actor
• Sir David Willcocks, conductor
• J.H.Whitley, MP, speaker of the House of Commons
• Edwin Samuel Montagu, politician
• Alan Napier - actor
• Charles Patrick Fleeming Jenkin (Baron Jenkin of Roding), politician.
• John Houseman, actor.
• Charles Alfred Coulson , chemist.
• Clive Swift, actor (e.g keeping up appearances)
• David Swift, actor
• Baron Wolfson. British businessman and conservative politician.
• Roger Hollis KBE, CB, journalist, secret-service agent and director general of MI5.
• Walter Gibb, World record holder (altitude)
• Boris Ord, conductor
• Peter Andrew Tranchell, composer
• Conrad Hal Waddington, developmental biologist, paleontologist, geneticist, embryologist and philosopher
• Reginald Punnett, British geneticist.
• Norman O. Brown, Author, philosopher

as well as three Nobel Prize winners:

• John Kendrew (Chemistry)
• John Hicks (Economics)
• Nevill Mott (Physics)

[edit] Headmasters

Listed in order of appointment - with the most recent listed last:

• John Percival (Bishop of Hereford)
• Canon James Maurice Wilson (1879 - 1890)
• Canon Michael George Glazebrooke
• Rt Rev Albert Augustus David (Bishop of Liverpool)
• Dr John David King
• Norman Whatley
• Bertrand Leslie Hallward
• Sir Henry Desmond Pritchard Lee
• Nicholas Geoffrey Lempriere Hammond
• Stephen John McWatters
• Stuart Morrison Andrews
• Andrew Hugh Monro
• Dr Stephen Spurr
• Mark J Moore

[edit] Notable former masters

• R. P. Keigwin

[edit] Clifton College Register

The register's motto:

"There be of them, that have left a name behind them, that their praises might be reported..."

The Clifton College Register is the definitive set of records held for Clifton College in Bristol. The Register is kept and maintained by the Old Cliftonian Society. The Old Cliftonian Society [OCS] is the Society for the alumni of Clifton College - whether pupils or staff. The OCS organises regular reunions at the school and publishes a regular newsletter for alumni.

This important record has been maintained unbroken from the very start of the school in 1862 and lists every pupil, master and headmaster. Each person is allocated a unique and consecutive school number - and for masters and headmasters the number is prefixed with either an M or HM as appropriate. The Register also maintains a record of the school roll in numbers, the Heads of School and summarises the major sporting records for each year.

The Register is periodically published by the Old Cliftonian Society; at present there are three available volumes:

• 1862 - 1947
• 1948 - 1977
• 1978 - 1994

First entries in the Register:-

[edit] Pupils

• P1. Sept 1862 - Francis Charles Anderson (b 14 Nov 1846 - d 1881)

[edit] Masters

• M1. Sept 1862 - Rev T. H. Stokoe (educated at Uppingham; Exhibitioner of Lincoln College, Oxford; left 1863; Preacher of Gray's Inn; d 1903)

The early years

• Numbers of pupils in the school

• 1862 - 69
• 1863 - 195 (including the new junior school)
• 1864 - 237
• 1865 - 258
• 1866 - 278

• Heads of School

• 1862 - H. W. Wellesley
• 1863 - A. W. Paul

[edit] External links

• Official school website

• Pictures of Ashtead Potters Limited Commemorative wares for the College - source www.ashteadpotters.com

[edit] References

1. ^ Clifton College, Big School. Images of England. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
2. ^ Clifton College, Percival Buildings and Wilson Tower. Images of England. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
3. ^ Clifton College, Guthrie Memorial Chapel. Images of England. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
4. ^ Clifton College, Victory Arch. Images of England. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
5. ^ Clifton College, Statue of Earl Haig. Images of England. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
6. ^ Clifton College, South African War Memorial. Images of England. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.

• Clifton College Register 1862 - 1962 - Published by the Old Cliftonian Society

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