Bishop Wordsworth's School

Bishop Wordsworth's School, No. 11 The Close. The cathedral spire is visible in the background.

The school was founded in June 1889, when the Bishop of Salisbury, John Wordsworth, announced to his friend Canon Woodall, "I should like to see Salisbury a great educational centre. I should like to found a school which shall be equal to the greatest and best of our public schools." His initial desire that working class boys were not to be admitted caused much controversy. Fees were initially set at £1.10s.0d, and boarding fees were £2 per term; however, the fees were raised to £9 in 1894 to meet the unexpected costs of the school. During the first year, classes were taught in the bishop's palace of Salisbury itself. Bishop Wordsworth personally donated £3000, which was used to purchase an area of land in the cathedral close and to build the school's first buildings. After Bishop Wordsworth's death, the school was renamed Bishop Wordsworth's School, having been previously known as "The Bishop's School".

In 1905, the school became a grammar school, its buildings consisting of the current Chapel Block and Bishopgate. Between 1905 and 1927 the School also used buildings in the Friary and also on New Street in Salisbury. Until 1928 the school admitted both boys and girls, but from 1927, with the founding of a girls' grammar school in the city called South Wilts Grammar School, the school admitted boys only.

In 1931 a hall, science laboratories and a library were built. By the 1930s, the school had achieved a reputation for pioneering educational work, and in 1936 became a public school. In 1948 the governors accepted voluntary controlled status, which meant being funded by Wiltshire County Council as local education authority and accepting its supervision. Boarding at the school in the Bishopgate buildings ended in the 1950s, and the buildings were used for teaching thereafter. During the Second World War, pupils from the Priory School in Portsmouth moved to BWS to avoid the bombing of the city.

The school now educates boys aged 11 to 18. Sixth form classes are shared with students from South Wilts Grammar School as part of a large-scale collaboration.

In 2002, a major redevelopment of the school's site and buildings commenced. A new classroom block and drama studio were followed by an extensive sports hall and physical education facilities, and a sixth form block was finished in July 2010. The old sports hall was converted to house the art department, and the design technology block has been expanded. In 2011 a new cookery room was completed.

In 2004 the school was awarded its first specialism in Languages. In 2008 the school achieved an additional specialism in Science. As part of its specialist work the school has supported all of the city primary schools in Salisbury in Languages, and many with Science too.

The school converted to academy status in 2011. It has five houses, named after Bishops of Salisbury: Poore, Osmund, Jewell, Martival and Ward.

Entry to the school is regulated by the 11-plus.[5] Applicants sit the test in Year 6, at the age of 10 or 11. The exams are held in September at the school itself. There are also limited twelve plus and thirteen plus admissions, similarly by examination. Sixth Form admission is administered by the head of Sixth Form, and is granted on the basis of GCSE results, a personal statement and recommendation from the candidate's former head of school. Current pupils must achieve more than six A*–Bs (including Maths and English) in their GCSEs to continue their studies in Sixth Form, as well as a relatively high grade in the options they propose to take.[6]

Sir William Golding, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, was a schoolmaster teaching Philosophy and English in 1939, then English and Religious Education from 1945 to 1962. Lord of the Flies was Golding's first book, written in 1954, and it is widely believed that its main characters were based on Golding's students.

Golding also regularly sang with Bishop Wordsworth's School choir. He was known affectionately as "Scruff" by the pupils due to his sometimes unkempt hair and beard and his carefree dress sense.[7] After Golding's death in 1993, the school choir sang at his memorial service in Salisbury Cathedral. In March 2005 a plaque was placed at the school to commemorate Golding's time as a teacher.[8]

Headmaster Happold was also noted for the foundation of the "Company of Honour and Service". Father Kenelm Foster O.P. wrote:

"[the Company is] a sort of modernist Grail (for Boys) or Solidarity which Dr Happold founded in 1935 at Bishop Wordsworth's School, Salisbury. This is his nucleus, his 'order', his new aristocracy, which is to permeate England: a little cohort of leaders, of seers, of doers." (Cited in Happold, 1964, pp. 33).

Alan Harwood was a notable organ scholar and taught music at Bishop Wordsworth's School. After Harwood's death in 2003, composer Sam Hanson MA ARCO (organist/director of music at St Peter's Church, Bournemouth, formerly organ scholar at Jesus College, Cambridge), dedicated a requiem to him.

Former headmaster Clive Barnett HMI (who left the school in 2002) is patron of the charity EdUKaid, a role he shares with Baroness Kinnock.

1890–1928 Mr. Reuben Bracher

1928–1960 Dr. Frederick Crossfield Happold D.S.O.

1960–1964 Mr. Ernest Ethrin Sabben-Clare

1964–1974 Mr. Robert Cabot Rowsell Blackledge[9]

1974–1992 Mr. Glyn Evans

1992–2002 Mr. Clive Barnett

2002– Dr. Stuart Smallwood

The "Old Wordsworthian" AGM and lunch is traditionally held after the Cathedral service and Founder's Day celebrations in July.

Military

• Lieutenant Colonel Walter Edward Maxfield DSO, 1st Battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles, CEF (‘The Bishop’s School’: 1890-1892) [10][11]
• Colonel Douglass, William Sholto Thesigerwst OBE, Royal Engineers[12][13][14]
• Lieutenant Colonel Ian Blower MBE, Royal Corps of Signals
• Lieutenant Colonel Tom Adlam, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, Victoria Cross recipient[15][16][17]
• Lieutenant Colonel George Woolnough MC, The Wiltshire Regiment (Duke of Edinburgh's)[18]
• Captain Chris Moon MBE, Royal Anglian Regiment[8][19]
• Lieutenant Richard Crisp, Special Air Service Regiment, executed by enemy forces during SAS/SOE Operation Bulbasket[12][20]
• Flight Sergeant F N Robertson, DFM, No 261 Sqn, Hurricane fighter ace with 11th most kills of any Commonwealth pilot[21] in World War II[12]
• Flight Sergeant Dudley Cockle BEM, Royal Air Force airman; recipient of the British Empire Medal

Sports

• Dudley Cockle, cricketer
• David Egerton, England rugby international player[8]
• Richard Anthony Hill MBE, former Saracens and England international rugby union flanker | player/captain/winner RWC 2003[8]
• Richard John Hill, coach and former Bath and England international rugby union scrum half | player/captain[8]
• John Shaw, England XI hockey captain and Olympian[8]
• Tom Heathcote, Bath Rugby Fly Half[22]
• John Coundley Racing driver [23]
• Jonathan Copp (BWS: 1969-1977) England and Great Britain Olympic hockey squad coach[8]
• David Walters, Croquet champion and Welsh Croquet Association officer
• James McIntosh, English Channel swimmer [24]

Business

• Colin Sharman, British chairman of Aviva Group and former chairman of KPMG International, since November 2012, he has been the Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy to Morocco[25]

Arts

• Ralph Fiennes, actor[26]
• Joseph Fiennes, actor[27]
• Major Anthony Robert Klitz, Middlesex Regiment, artist[28]
• Hamish Milne, concert pianist and professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music
• David Oakes, actor[29]
• Otto Plaschkes, movie producer[30][31][32]
• Andy Sheppard, jazz musician[33]
• Nigel Shore, principal oboist with the Komische Oper Berlin.[34]
• Peter Thursby, sculptor[35]
• David Bates, conductor[36]

Education

• Prof. Basil Chubb MA (Oxon), professor of Irish history at Trinity College Dublin, author, and interned during the Second World War in Stalag Luft III
• Prof. Andrew Copp, neurobiologist[37]
• Prof. Andrew Tym Hattersley MA MRCP (London) DM (Oxon) FRCP FMedSci FRS,[38] Head of The Exeter Diabetes Genetics Centre,[39] Professor of Molecular Medicine, Peninsula Medical School, University of Exeter,[40][41] Consultant Physician, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, great-grandson of Bishop Wordsworth, the Bishop of Salisbury, who founded BWS.[42]
• Prof. Chris Sangwin, mathematician, University of Edinburgh[43]

Legal

• Kenneth Donald John Macdonald, Baron Macdonald of River Glaven QC, Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, Director of Public Prosecutions (England and Wales) (DPP), head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) from 2003 to 2008[44]

Politics

• David Munro, Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey 2016-2020
• Tom Copley, Labour Party London Assembly Member

Religion

• The Right Reverend Meryvn Alban Alexander, the 8th bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton, from 1974 to 2001
• The Very. Rev Major Wilfred Frank Curtis, AKC, Royal Artillery,[45] Anglican priest[46]

Journalism

• Andrew Harvey, BBC newsreader[8]
• Anthony Hayward, journalist and author

Other

• Sir Cecil Herbert Edward Chubb, 1st Baronet, last private owner of Stonehenge
• Sir Frank Noyce CBE, member of the Governor-General of India's Executive Council from 1932 to 1937,[47][48] and member of the Indian Public Schools' Society (IPSS)
• Sir Graham Smith, HM Chief Inspector of Probation from 1992 to 2001[49]
• Ralph Whitlock farmer, broadcaster, conservationist, journalist and author

• Happold, Frederick Crossfield, Bishop Wordsworth's School 1890 – 1950. Privately printed for Bishop Wordsworth's School, 1950, 124pp.
• Happold, Frederick Crossfield, Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century Man. Pelican Original, 1964.
• 'Roman Britain in 1954: I. Sites Explored: II. Inscriptions', The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 45, Parts 1 and 2. (1955), pp. 121–149.
• United Kingdom Census 1901
• British Army Medals & Honour Rolls 1914-1920

• Official website
• Old Wordsworthians' Association
• Statistics from the Department for Education