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| Motto | Quant Je Puis(Old French) |
|---|---|
Motto in English | As much as I can |
| Type | Public Privateco-educational Catholic boarding and day school |
| Established | 1593; 433 years ago (1593) |
| Founder | Robert Persons under the patronage ofKing Philip II of Spain |
Religious affiliation | Catholic Church (Jesuit) |
| Headmaster | John Browne |
| Students | 524 |
| Location | , BB7 9PZ ,England |
| Former pupils | Old Stonyhursts |
| Patron saint | Aloysius Gonzaga |
| Colours | Green and White |
| Website | stonyhurst |
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Stonyhurst College is aco-educational Catholicpublic school providing education forboarding andday pupils, adhering to theJesuit tradition.[2][3] It is based on theStonyhurst Estate, next to the village ofHurst Green, inLancashire, in theUnited Kingdom. It occupies aGrade I listed building. The school has been fully co-educational since 1999. It is a member of theHeadmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.[4]
A precursor institution of the college was founded in 1593 byFather Robert Persons SJ atSt Omer,[5][6] at a time whenpenal laws prohibited Catholic education in England. It relocated to Stonyhurst Hall in 1794, having moved already toBruges in 1762 andLiège in 1773, after anold boy,Thomas Weld (of Lulworth), granted it the Stonyhurst estate.[5][6] It provides boarding and day education to approximately 500 boys and girls aged 11–18.[7] On an adjacent site, itspreparatory school,St Mary's Hall, provides education for boys and girls aged 3–11.[8]
Its alumni/ae include threeSaints, twelveBeati, twenty-two martyrs, seven archbishops, sevenVictoria Cross winners, aPeruvian president and prime minister, aNew Zealand Prime Minister, a signatory of theAmerican Declaration of Independence and a number of writers, sportsmen, politicians, and European royals.[9]
The earliest deed concerning theStanihurst 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, theShireburn 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.[10][11]
The story of the school may be traced back to establishments inSt Omer in what was then theSpanish Netherlands in 1593, where a college, under the Royal Patronage ofPhilip II of Spain, was founded byFr Robert Persons SJ for English boys unable to receive aCatholic education inElizabethan England.[6] As such it was one of several expatriate English schools operating on the European mainland.[6] In 1762, the Jesuits were forced to flee and re-established their school atBruges.[12][page needed] The school was moved in 1773 toLiège, where it operated for two decades before moving toStonyhurst on 29 August 1794.[13]
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.[13] By the turn of the following century, it had become England's largest Catholic college.[14] Stonyhurst Hall underwent extensive alterations and additions to accommodate these numbers; the Old South Front was constructed in 1810, only to be demolished and replaced with larger buildings in the 1880s.[15]: 195 A seminary was constructed on theestate, and an observatory and meteorological station erected in the gardens.[16] The 20th century saw the gradual hiring of a mostly lay staff, as the number of Jesuits declined.[15]: 164 The seminary at St Mary's Hall was closed, and the school discontinued its education of university-aged philosophers.
Since theSecond World War, the buildings have been refurbished or developed. Additions include new science buildings in the 1950s and 1960s, a new boarding wing in the 1960s, a new swimming pool in the 1980s and Weld House in 2010. The school became fully co-educational in 1999.[15]: 178
The original preparatory school to Stonyhurst,Hodder Place, came into the hands of the Jesuits as part of the estate donated by alumnus Thomas Weld. Originally used as anovitiate, it became a preparatory school to the college in 1807.[17]
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 toHeythrop Hall.[12][page needed] The poetGerard Manley Hopkins, and John Tolkien, son ofJ. R. R. Tolkien, trained as priests there.[18][15]: 140 DuringWorld War II, theEnglish College leftBenito Mussolini's Italy and occupied the hall. After their return toRome, St Mary's Hall opened as a middle school in 1946.[19] 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.[15]: 194 As successor to Hodder Place, St Mary's Hall claims to being one of the oldest surviving preparatory school in Britain.[20]
In 2004, the old gymnasium at St Mary's Hall was converted into new nursery and infant facilities namedHodder House, for those aged three to seven.[15]: 181
The college isCatholic and has had a significant place in English Catholic history for many centuries (including events such as thePopish Plot andGunpowder Plot conspiracies). It was founded initially to educate English Catholics on the continent in the hope that, through them, Catholicism might be restored in England.[15]: 41–54
After the school settled in England in 1794 and theSociety of Jesus was officially re-established in Britain in 1803. Stonyhurst remained the headquarters of their English Province until the middle of the century; by 1851, a third of the province's Jesuits were based there.[15]: 140 Until the 1920s, Jesuit priests were trained on site in what is today the preparatory school. There was a drop in vocations afterWorld War I and the seminary was closed. The number of Jesuits teaching at Stonyhurst fell to a third of the staff within a decade.[15]: 152 Since then, the Jesuit presence has been in decline, but the school continues to place Catholicism and Jesuit philosophy at its core under the guidance of a Jesuit-led chaplaincy team and the involvement of the Jesuits in its governance.[21]
It is a long-standing practice, as with many Jesuit schools around the world, that pupils writeA.M.D.G. in the top left hand corner of any piece of work they do. It stands for the Latin phraseAd Majorem Dei Gloriam which meansFor 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 forLaus Deo Semper which meansPraise to God Always. These are both traditional Jesuit mottoes.[22]
The school has one main church,St Peter's, and five chapels: the Boys' Chapel, the Chapel of the Angels, the Sodality Chapel, theSt Francis Chapel and theSt Ignatius Chapel.[12][page needed] The last two are both within the towers of St Peter's Church. The Sodality Chapel is the home of the relics of the 3rd-century Roman convertSt Gordianus. The Jesuits brought his remains from theCollege of St Omer and held them beneath the altar since 1859. His bones were temporarily removed in 2006 while the chapel underwent restoration, but they have since been returned.[23] The chapel is again used by the re-establishedSodality. 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.[24] St Peter's Church underwent repair and refurbishment in 2010–11.[25]
As a registered charity,[26] Stonyhurst is obliged to provide benefits to the wider community under the terms of theCharities Act 2006. As such, the college is home to the local Catholic parish church, which receives worshippers fromHurst Green every day.[27] Its sports facilities, including the swimming pool and all-weather pitch are available for public use; the latter was used for competitors training for theLondon 2012 Olympic Games.[28][29] Much of the estate has public access.[30] Many of its facilities such as its swimming pool, leisure complex, golf course, grounds and museum are open to the public.[31] The school has relationships with severalstate schools, arranging shared activities with their pupils, in particular those servingspecial needs children.[32] In addition, the school makes available some places to pupils offered on scholarship, bursaries or free of charge;[33] almost a third of current pupils receive financial support for their places.
The French mottoQuant je puis,'As much as I can' 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.[12][page needed]
In 2024, 88% ofGCSE students attained 9-4 grades; there is a 99% pass rate atA-Level; and 89% pass rate for the IB Diploma. 100% ofA-Level leavers take up places at universities (10% toOxbridge) or ongap year schemes.[2] The school's most recent inspection rated much of the education and pastoral provision as 'outstanding'.[34]
Education during the college's early history was based onSt Ignatius'Ratio Studiorum, with emphasis upon theology, classics and science, all of which still feature prominently in the curriculum.[15]: 25–39 The educational practice, observed at theCollege of St Omer, of dividing a class into Romans and Carthaginians continued long after the migration to Stonyhurst but is not employed today; each pupil would be pitched against an opponent with the task of picking up on the other's mistakes in an attempt to score points.[15]: 195
Until Catholics were admitted toOxbridge in 1854, Stonyhurst was also home to "philosopher gentlemen" studying BA courses under the London Matriculation Examination system. Their numbers began to fall after 1894 and the department was closed in 1916.[35]
Stonyhurst College has four main libraries: the Arundell, the Bay, the Square and the More (dedicated toSaint Thomas More).[36]
The More Library is the main library for students while the 'House Libraries' (the Arundell, the Bay, and the Square) contain many artefacts from theSociety of Jesus and English Catholicism. The Arundell Library, presented in 1837 by Everard, 11thBaron Arundell of Wardour, is the most significant; it is not only a country-house library fromWardour Castle but also has a notable collection of 250incunabula, medieval manuscripts and volumes ofJacobite interest, signal among which isMary Tudor's Book of Hours, which it is believed was given byMary, Queen of Scots to her chaplain on the scaffold. ThemanuscriptLe Livre de Seyntz Medicines was written in 1354 byHenry, Duke of Lancaster. To these were added the archives of the English Province of theSociety of Jesus, which include 16th-century manuscript verses bySt Robert Southwell SJ, the letters ofSt Edmund Campion SJ (1540–81) and holographs of the 19th-century poetGerard Manley Hopkins. The Arundell Library has a copy of theChronicles ofJean Froissart, captured at theBattle of Agincourt in 1415, and held the 7th-centuryStonyhurst Gospel of St John before it was loaned to theBritish Library, as well as aFirst Folio of Shakespeare.[37]
Among those collections kept away from public view are numerous blood-soaked garments from Jesuits martyred in Japan, the skull ofCardinal Morton, ropes used to quarterSt Edmund Campion SJ, hair ofSt Francis Xavier SJ, an enormous solid silver jewel-encrustedmonstrance, the Wintour vestments, a cope made forHenry VII, and a thorn said to be from thecrown of thorns placed upon Jesus' head at thecrucifixion.[12]: 137–140
The school owns paintings, including a portrait of TsarNicholas I of Russia and another of the JesuitHenry Garnet. In the Stuart Parlour are portraits of Jacobites includingJames Francis Edward Stuart, and his sonsCharles Edward Stuart andHenry Benedict Stuart. There are also several original engravings byRembrandt andDürer, such as the 'Greater Passion' and the 'Car of Maximillian'.[12]: 137–140
The school has a functioning observatory which was built in 1866.[5] An older observatory, built in 1838, is now theTypographia Collegii, but was once one of seven important stations in the country when theMeteorological Office came under the auspices of theRoyal Society.[38] The records of temperature taken there start from 1846 and are the oldest continuous daily records in the world.[39] During the nineteenth century, the observatory was maintained by the astronomer priests, FrAlfred Weld,Fr Perry and Fr Sidgreaves whose research included astronomy, geomagnetrometry and seismology.[40] AstrophysicistPietro Angelo Secchi, director of theVatican Observatory, also taught astronomy at the college during the period.[5]Sir Edward Sabine chose the observatory as one of his main stations when conducting a magnetic survey of Britain in 1858. Five years later Fr Sidgreaves began the first series of monthly geometric observations, which continued until May 1919.[41] 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.[42] The observatory is today used for astronomical purposes again, whilst also functioning as one of four weather stations used by theMet Office to provide central England temperature data (CET).[43]
There are two choirs: the Chapel Choir, which sings regularly atMass,[44] and theSchola Cantorum, composed of teachers and pupils, of all ages.[45]
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.[46] The college has a traditional theatre, the Academy Room, and a high-tech theatre built atSt Mary's Hall as part of the Centenaries Appeal in 1993.[47] The latter plays host to the annualRibble Valley International Piano Week.[48] Several former pupils have gone on to achieve success upon the stage, includingOSCAR-winning actor and directorCharles Laughton andBAFTA-winning director and producerPeter Glenville.[15]: 188–192
There is a dedicated art studio in addition to a separate design and technology centre. Student artwork is displayed on the walls of the Lower Gallery, including a portrait of theQueen painted by Isobel Bidwell during theGolden Jubilee year; upon receipt of a copy, the Queen'slady-in-waiting said that "The Queen was delighted to see the painting and know that it is on display in the school".[49]
Stonyhurst has provided inspiration for poets and authors who include former classics teacherGerard Manley Hopkins, whose poems feature details of the local countryside, and former pupilSir Arthur Conan Doyle whose "Baskerville Hall" was modelled on Stonyhurst Hall, and who namedSherlock Holmes' nemesis, Moriarty, after a fellow pupil.[44][50]J. R. R. Tolkien wrote part ofThe 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).[50]Poet LaureateAlfred Austin, and the poetOliver St John Gogarty ("Stately plump Buck Mulligan" in James Joyce's Ulysses) were educated at the school, (as were the sons ofOscar Wilde andEvelyn Waugh).[15]: 188–192 George Archer-Shee, at the centre ofTerence Rattigan's playThe Winslow Boy, is an alumnus.[51]
The school runs its own publication company, St Omer's Press, which publishes religious literature, and first began when the college was located atSt Omer inFlanders.[52]
Stonyhurst College Rugby Union Football Club (SCRUFC) has played a big part in the life of the school, despite only supplanting football as the school's primary sport in 1921.[12][page needed] Sporting rivalry is particularly prominent against fellow Catholic independent schoolsAmpleforth College,Mount St Mary's College andSedbergh School inCumbria. The Stonyhurst Sevens take place annually.[53]
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.[15]: 188–192 Most recently they include Iain Balshaw andKyran Bracken, who both played for England when they won the2003 Rugby World Cup, whilst another member of that team,Will Greenwood, went toStonyhurst Saint Mary's Hall, where his mother taughtmaths until 2007.[54] Current pupils of the school have won places to represent Spain, Mexico (under 19s)[55] theIrish Exiles and the Welsh Exiles (under 19s).[56] Old boys have also played at varsity level and have wonblues for Oxford or Cambridge.[57]
Stonyhurst's coaches have included former England coachesDick Greenwood andBrian Ashton who coached the first XV.[58]
Stonyhurst Football, inherited from theCollege of St Omer (along with Stonyhurst Cricket), was a sport played between the handball walls on the Playground.[12][page needed] The game was discontinued with the advent ofassociation football but was re-established in 1988 when a "Grand Match" was played at Great Academies; traditionally a "Grand Match" was played onShrove Tuesday and was the primary Stonyhurst Football match of the season.[15]: 116 The teams were England vs France (although during theCrimean War England vs Russia was played and more recently England vs Ireland was played in the 1980s).[15]: 116 The last game took place in 1995.
The StonyhurstOfficer Training Corps assembled for the first time on 16 October 1900, in the Ambulacrum, overseen by The First Volunteer Battalion, theEast Lancashire Regiment who gave instruction in drill and musketry.[59][60] The Corps was granted the honour of representation at the Coronation of 1910 and sent members to the Royal Review at Windsor in 1911.[61] It also appeared on parade annually for the spectacle of theCorpus Christi celebrations until the practice became obsolete afterVatican II.[62]
After theSecond World War, school OTCs were succeeded by theCombined Cadet Force.[63] Stonyhurst's comprises the following platoons named after Stonyhurst's sevenVictoria Cross winners:[60]
Some pupils have gone on to receive places at theRoyal Military Academy Sandhurst.[64][65][66][who?] This follows a long tradition of service from Stonyhurst pupils: manyOld Stonyhurst (O.S.) were killed in the two World Wars and are commemorated on the war memorial at the end of the Upper Gallery.[67] The Stonyhurst War Records were published in their honour. A memorial at the top of the main staircase records the names of the sixO.S. killed in theBoer War.
Unlike most English public schools, Stonyhurst is organised horizontally by year groups (known as playrooms) rather than vertically by houses,[68] although the girls are also split into junior and senior houses.[69]
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.[70] The lines and colours are as follows:
Stonyhurst College has one sister school inPenang,Malaysia, called Stonyhurst International School Penang.[71]
After less formal arrangements had been made for many years, the Association was formed in 1879.[15]: 154 In 1985, it was granted charitable status by theCharity Commission. Its primary objective is to foster a strong spirit of union amongst past pupils and friends of Stonyhurst, with a strong charitable emphasis.[72]
Stonyhurst has educated prominent individuals in many areas, from statesmen to sportsmen, and actors to archbishops.[15]: 188–192 Seven alumni have been awarded theVictoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry; paintings of them adorn the walls of the Top Refectory in the school. The school's alumni include threesaints, twelveBeati, seven archbishops, sevenVictoria Cross winners, aPeruvian president, aBolivian president, aNew Zealand prime minister, a signatory of theAmerican Declaration of Independence and several writers, sportsmen, and politicians.[73][15]: 188–192
Notable alumni include:
Contemporaries
Since the college's foundation inFlanders in 1593, there have been 78 headmasters, (variably known as presidents, rectors, superiors and directors).[78] Until the appointment of Giles Mercer in 1985, the headmaster had always been a member of the Society of Jesus.[79]
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James Chaning-Pearce, a priest who taught at the school, was jailed for sexually assaulting pupils between 1987 and 1995. The youngest victim was a boy of 12.[80] 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, journalistDavid Rose described the operation as "a scandal in itself" and an "expensive... fiasco".[81]
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.[82] 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 theHealth and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 for health and safety failings after a stonemason working for the college developedsilicosis, 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.[83]
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