Stonyhurst College

Stonyhurst College is a co-educational Catholic public school providing education for boarding and day pupils, adhering to the Jesuit tradition.

A precursor institution of the college was founded in 1593 by Father Robert Persons SJ at St Omer,

Its alumni/ae include three Saints, twelve Beati, twenty-two martyrs, seven archbishops, seven Victoria Cross winners, a Peruvian president and prime minister, a New Zealand Prime Minister, a signatory of the American Declaration of Independence and a number of writers, sportsmen, politicians, and European royals.

History

Stonyhurst Hall

The earliest deed concerning the Stanihurst is held in the college's Arundell Library; it dates from approximately 1200. In 1372, a licence was granted to John de Bayley for an oratory on the site. His descendants, the Shireburn family, completed the oldest portion of the extant buildings. Richard Shireburn began building the hall, which was enlarged by his grandson Nicholas who also constructed the ponds, avenue and gardens. Following his death, the estate passed to his wife and then to sole heir, their daughter, Mary, the Duchess of Norfolk.

The college

thumb|[[Robert Persons|Fr Robert Persons SJ]]

The story of the school may be traced back to establishments in St Omer in what was then the Spanish Netherlands in 1593, where a college, under the Royal Patronage of Philip II of Spain, was founded by Fr Robert Persons SJ for English boys unable to receive a Catholic education in Elizabethan England.

The number of students increased during the 19th century: the Society of Jesus was re-established in Britain at Stonyhurst in 1803, and over the century, student numbers rose from the original twelve migrants from Liège. The 20th century saw the gradual hiring of a mostly lay staff, as the number of Jesuits declined.

St Mary's Hall, on an adjoining site to Stonyhurst, was built as a Jesuit seminary in 1828 (extended in the 1850s) and functioned until 1926, when the seminarians moved to Heythrop Hall. At the same time, Hodder Place continued to educate those aged eight to eleven, until its closure and conversion into flats in 1970. Hodder Place pupils moved up to St Mary's Hall to form Hodder Playroom.

It is a long-standing practice, as with many Jesuit schools around the world, that pupils write A.M.D.G. in the top left hand corner of any piece of work they do. It stands for the Latin phrase Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam which means For the Greater Glory of God. At the end of a piece of work they write L.D.S. in the centre of the page. It stands for Laus Deo Semper which means Praise to God Always. These are both traditional Jesuit mottoes.

Chapels

The school has one main church, St Peter's, and five chapels: the Boys' Chapel, the Chapel of the Angels, the Sodality Chapel, the St Francis Chapel and the St Ignatius Chapel. The chapel is again used by the re-established Sodality. Adjacent to the Old Infirmary is the Rosary Garden, a place for spiritual contemplation, at the centre of which is a stone statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. St Peter's Church underwent repair and refurbishment in 2010–11.

Charitable status

thumb|Public gardens and [[Religious life at Stonyhurst College#Religious Publications|Typographia Collegii]]

As a registered charity, Its sports facilities, including the swimming pool and all-weather pitch are available for public use; the latter was used for competitors training for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Much of the estate has public access. Many of its facilities such as its swimming pool, leisure complex, golf course, grounds and museum are open to the public. The school has relationships with several state schools, arranging shared activities with their pupils, in particular those serving special needs children. In addition, the school makes available some places to pupils offered on scholarship, bursaries or free of charge; almost a third of current pupils receive financial support for their places.

Motto

The French motto refers to all-round development of the individual. It is inherited from the Shireburn family who once owned the original mansion on the site; the family emblem is emblazoned, in stone, with the motto, above the fireplace in the Top Refectory.

Education during the college's early history was based on St Ignatius' Ratio Studiorum, with emphasis upon theology, classics and science, all of which still feature prominently in the curriculum.

Libraries and collections

thumb|The More Library in 2003, prior to refurbishment.

Stonyhurst College has four main libraries: the Arundell, the Bay, the Square and the More (dedicated to Saint Thomas More).

The More Library is the main library for students while the 'House Libraries' (the Arundell, the Bay, and the Square) contain many artefacts from the Society of Jesus and English Catholicism. The Arundell Library, presented in 1837 by Everard, 11th Baron Arundell of Wardour, is the most significant; it is not only a country-house library from Wardour Castle but also has a notable collection of 250 incunabula, medieval manuscripts and volumes of Jacobite interest, signal among which is Mary Tudor's Book of Hours, which it is believed was given by Mary, Queen of Scots to her chaplain on the scaffold. The manuscript Le Livre de Seyntz Medicines was written in 1354 by Henry, Duke of Lancaster. To these were added the archives of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, which include 16th-century manuscript verses by St Robert Southwell SJ, the letters of St Edmund Campion SJ (1540–81) and holographs of the 19th-century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. The Arundell Library has a copy of the Chronicles of Jean Froissart, captured at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and held the 7th-century Stonyhurst Gospel of St John before it was loaned to the British Library, as well as a First Folio of Shakespeare.

thumb|right|The Do Room, displaying items from the collections

Among those collections kept away from public view are numerous blood-soaked garments from Jesuits martyred in Japan, the skull of Cardinal Morton, ropes used to quarter St Edmund Campion SJ, hair of St Francis Xavier SJ, an enormous solid silver jewel-encrusted monstrance, the Wintour vestments, a cope made for Henry VII, and a thorn said to be from the crown of thorns placed upon Jesus' head at the crucifixion. The records of temperature taken there start from 1846 and are the oldest continuous daily records in the world. During the nineteenth century, the observatory was maintained by the astronomer priests, Fr Alfred Weld, Fr Perry and Fr Sidgreaves whose research included astronomy, geomagnetrometry and seismology. Astrophysicist Pietro Angelo Secchi, director of the Vatican Observatory, also taught astronomy at the college during the period. During the course of the twentieth century, the observatory fell out of use and its telescope, parts of which dated to the 1860s, was sold after the Second World War. When its private owner came to sell it, the college was able to buy it back and restore it to its original home. The observatory is today used for astronomical purposes again, whilst also functioning as one of four weather stations used by the Met Office to provide central England temperature data (CET).

Arts

Music, drama and art

There are two choirs: the Chapel Choir, which sings regularly at Mass, and the Schola Cantorum, composed of teachers and pupils, of all ages.

The school has two theatres and has after-school programs, lessons, and sessions in drama and music. In September 2024, a new dance studio was opened. The college has a traditional theatre, the Academy Room, and a high-tech theatre built at St Mary's Hall as part of the Centenaries Appeal in 1993. The latter plays host to the annual Ribble Valley International Piano Week. Several former pupils have gone on to achieve success upon the stage, including OSCAR-winning actor and director Charles Laughton and BAFTA-winning director and producer Peter Glenville.

Literary associations

Stonyhurst has provided inspiration for poets and authors who include former classics teacher Gerard Manley Hopkins, whose poems feature details of the local countryside, and former pupil Sir Arthur Conan Doyle whose "Baskerville Hall" was modelled on Stonyhurst Hall, and who named Sherlock Holmes' nemesis, Moriarty, after a fellow pupil. J. R. R. Tolkien wrote part of The Lord of the Rings in a classroom on the Upper Gallery during his stay at the college where his son taught Classics; his "Middle-earth" is said to resemble the local area, while there are specific resonances in names such as "Shire Lane", (the name of a road in Hurst Green) and the "River Shirebourn" (the Shireburns built Stonyhurst).

The school runs its own publication company, St Omer's Press, which publishes religious literature, and first began when the college was located at St Omer in Flanders.

Sport

Rugby

has played a big part in the life of the school, despite only supplanting football as the school's primary sport in 1921.

The school has produced sixteen international rugby players (England (5), Ireland (6), Scotland (1) Italy (1), the USA (1) Bermuda (1) and the Bahamas (1)), as well as players for the Barbarians and the British and Irish Lions. Current pupils of the school have won places to represent Spain, Mexico (under 19s) the Irish Exiles and the Welsh Exiles (under 19s). Old boys have also played at varsity level and have won blues for Oxford or Cambridge.

thumb|The Ambulacrum, used for sport, the CCF, and indoor marquee, one of the first structures of its kind in Britain, built in 1851.

Stonyhurst's coaches have included former England coaches Dick Greenwood and Brian Ashton who coached the first XV.

Stonyhurst Football

Stonyhurst Football, inherited from the College of St Omer (along with Stonyhurst Cricket), was a sport played between the handball walls on the Playground. The Corps was granted the honour of representation at the Coronation of 1910 and sent members to the Royal Review at Windsor in 1911. It also appeared on parade annually for the spectacle of the Corpus Christi celebrations until the practice became obsolete after Vatican II.

Combined Cadet Corps (CCF)

After the Second World War, school OTCs were succeeded by the Combined Cadet Force. Stonyhurst's comprises the following platoons named after Stonyhurst's seven Victoria Cross winners: This follows a long tradition of service from Stonyhurst pupils: many Old Stonyhurst (O.S.) were killed in the two World Wars and are commemorated on the war memorial at the end of the Upper Gallery. The Stonyhurst War Records were published in their honour. A memorial at the top of the main staircase records the names of the six O.S. killed in the Boer War.

School organisation

Playroom system

thumb|upright|Lower Grammar Playroom in 2006

Unlike most English public schools, Stonyhurst is organised horizontally by year groups (known as playrooms) rather than vertically by houses, although the girls are also split into junior and senior houses.

Lines

In addition to the horizontal division of the school into playrooms, there is also a vertical grouping which cuts through the year groups, the "lines", and is used mostly for competitive purposes in sport and music. The lines and colours are as follows:

Campion (red) (named after St Edmund Campion)
St Omers (yellow, though brown for sporting attire) (named after St Omer, the town the school was founded in)
Shireburn (green) (named after the Shireburn family which built Stonyhurst)
Weld (blue) (named after Thomas Weld who donated Stonyhurst to the Jesuits)

thumb|Top Refectory, today used for social functions

Sister schools

Stonyhurst College has one sister school in Penang, Malaysia, called Stonyhurst International School Penang.

Stonyhurst Association

thumb|right|upright|The South Front viewed from the gardens

After less formal arrangements had been made for many years, the Association was formed in 1879.

Alumni

Stonyhurst has educated prominent individuals in many areas, from statesmen to sportsmen, and actors to archbishops.

Joseph Mary Plunkett, Irish signatory of the Irish Proclamation of Independence leading activist in the Easter Rising, for which he was executed
John Francis Moriarty, Attorney General for Ireland
Richard More O'Ferrall, Governor of Malta and Irish landownder.
Frederick Weld, New Zealand prime minister
Eduardo Lopez de Romaña, president of Peru
Lieutenant Maurice James Dease, was the first posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross during WWI, fought and died at the Battle of Mons
Thomas Meagher, Irish poet, leader of the Young Ireland movement, American Civil War Brigadier General, and Acting Governor of the Montana Territory.
Daniel Carroll, brother of John and cousin of Charles, one of only five men to sign both the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution.
John Carroll, brother of Daniel and cousin of Charles, served as first bishop and archbishop in the United States, founder of Georgetown University.

Contemporaries

Joe Ansbro, Scottish rugby international
Crispian Hollis, Bishop of Portsmouth
Michael D. Hurley, Cambridge don engaged in literature, philosophy and theology
Paul Johnson, writer, artist and popular historian
Gabriel Leung, Dean of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong
Mark Thompson, former Director-General of the BBC
Chris Morris, satirist, BAFTA winner
Tom Morris, theatre director, producer and writer, and Tony Award winner
Matt Greenhalgh, screenwriter, BAFTA winner
Tim Hetherington, photographer, Oscar nominee
Patrick Rock former government deputy director of policy for Prime Minister David Cameron and convicted sex offender*
Bill Cash, MP for Stone, Staffordshire and prominent Brexiteer
Patrick McGrath, novelist

Notable masters

Brian Ashton, history master and England rugby coach.
Giovanni Antonio Grassi SJ (anglicized as John Anthony Grassi (1775 – 1849); Italian Jesuit who led many academic and religious institutions in Europe and the United States, including as 7th President of Georgetown University and the Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide in Rome.
Christopher Hollis (1925–1935), author, Member of Parliament; father of Bishop Crispian Hollis; brother of Sir Roger Hollis, Director of MI5; sometime President of the Oxford Union.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, classics master and poet.
Stephen Joseph Perry, astronomy master. Until the appointment of Giles Mercer in 1985, the headmaster had always been a member of the Society of Jesus.

:St Omer, Bruges, Liège (1593–1794)

:See: Heads of St Omer, Bruges, Liège

:Stonyhurst (1794–present)

:Presidents

:Fr. Marmaduke Stone SJ (1794–1808)

:Fr. Nicholas Sewall SJ (1808–1813)

:Fr. John Weld SJ (1813–1816)

:Fr. Nicholas Sewall SJ (1816–1817)

:Rector and Headmaster

:Fr. Charles Plowden SJ (1817–1819)

:Fr. Joseph Tristram SJ (1819–1827)

:Fr. Richard Norris SJ (1827–1832)

:Fr. Richard Parker SJ (1832–1836)

:Fr. John Brownbill SJ (1836–1839)

:Fr. Francis Daniel SJ (1839–1841)

:Fr. Andrew Barrow SJ (1841–1845)

:Fr. Richard Norris SJ (1845–1846)

:Fr. Henry Walmesley SJ (1846–1847)

:Fr. Richard Sumner SJ (1847–1848)

:Fr. Francis Clough SJ (1848–1861)

:Fr. Joseph Johnson SJ (1861–1868)

:Fr. Charles Henry SJ (1868–1869)

:Fr. Edward Purbick SJ (1869–1879)

:Fr. William Eyre SJ (1879–1885)

:Fr. Reginald Colley SJ (1885–1891)

:Fr. Herman Walmesley SJ (1891–1898) In 1999, the Lancashire Constabulary conducted "Operation Whiting", which looked into allegations of abuse at the school dating back to the 1970s. This resulted in two convictions, one of which was quashed on appeal. On 14 May 2002, in evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, journalist David Rose described the operation as "a scandal in itself" and an "expensive... fiasco".

Another priest, Father Paul Symonds, at Stonyhurst between 1972 and 1979, was arrested in November 2009 for having allegedly abused a 13-year-old boy for three years. The case was dropped by the CPS Lancashire, a year later and was revealed in March 2014.

In 2014, Stonyhurst was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £31,547.78 in legal costs for the prosecution after pleading guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 for health and safety failings after a stonemason working for the college developed silicosis, a potentially fatal lung disease. The college made the stonemason, who had worked for the college for almost 12 years, redundant, four months after his diagnosis.

References

External links

Stonyhurst's entry in the 1912 New Advent Catholic Encyclopaedia
Stonyhurst Weather Station Met Office entry