Prior Park College

Prior Park College
Motto Deo Duce Deo Luce
Established 1830
Type Independent school
Day, full boarding & weekly boarding school
Religion Catholic
Headteacher James Murphy-O'Connor
Chair Mr A M H King
Founder Congregation of Christian Brothers
Location Ralph Allen Drive
Bath
Somerset
BA2 5AH
England
Coordinates: 51°21′52″N 2°20′35″W / 51.364444°N 2.343056°W / 51.364444; -2.343056
DfE number 800/6001
DfE URN 109347 Tables
Ofsted Reports
Students circa 590 students
Gender Mixed
Ages 11–18
Houses Allen, Arundell, Burton, Clifford, English, Fielding, Roche, St Mary's, Baines
Colours Navy and Cyan          
Website College homepage

Prior Park College is a mixed Roman Catholic public school for both day and boarding students. Situated on a hill overlooking the city of Bath, Somerset, in southwest England, Prior Park has been designated by Historic England as a Grade I listed building.[1][2]

One wing of the mansion includes a chapel of our Lady of the Snows, built in 1863 by Scoles and Son which is Grade I listed; there is also a chapel in the original house.[3][4]The chapel is unfinished, with the pillars at the back remaining unsculpted as they were in 1863. The adjoining 57-acre (23 ha) Prior Park Landscape Garden is now owned by the National Trust.

The Prior Foundation consists of Prior Park College, Prior Park Prep School (Cricklade), the Paragon Junior School (Bath) and Prior Park School Gibraltar. [5]

Overview

Founded in 1830 to be England's first Catholic university, Prior Park College has remained a Roman Catholic school. It was established by the Benedictine, Bishop Baines, as a seminary, and provides co-educational schooling for students aged 11 to 18 in the Catholic tradition and ecumenical spirit.

In 2008, students achieved the best A-level results in the history of the school, with over one-fifth of all students getting three A's and 77% receiving A and B grades.[6]

In July 2009, Giles Mercer retired. He had been head teacher since 1996, and with his previous position as head of Stonyhurst College, he became the "longest serving Catholic senior school headmaster in England"[7] His successor was James Murphy-O'Connor, nephew of former Prior Park pupil Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor.

The school is part of the Prior Park Foundation which includes the Paragon School in Bath and Prior Park Preparatory School in Cricklade, Wiltshire.

History

The Palladian hillside mansion housing Prior Park College was designed and built by John Wood, the Elder in 1742. He was commissioned by Ralph Allen: "To see all Bath, and for all Bath to see"[8]

in 1828 Bishop Baines purchased the mansion for £22,000 and used it as a seminary called Sacred Heart College.[9] Renovations were made according to designs by H. E. Goodridge in 1834. The seminary was closed in 1856 after a fire in 1836 that caused extensive damage and subsequent renovation caused financial insolvency. It was later bought by Bishop Clifford who founded a Roman Catholic Grammar School.[10]

The Chapel was designed by J. J. Scoles in 1844 but not completed until 1863, following 18th-century French models such as Chalgrin's St. Philippe-du-Roule in Paris. Pevsner describes it as "without any doubt the most impressive Chapel interior of its date in the county".[11]

The grammar school closed in 1904 and was occupied by the army during the First World War and by a series of tenants until 1921, then the Christian Brothers founded a boys' boarding school in 1924. Prior Park College continues to occupy the main house. In 1993 11.3 hectares (28 acres) of the park and pleasure grounds were acquired by the National Trust and have been the subject of a detailed restoration programme.

Prior Park Landscape Garden was laid out between 1734 and 1744 with the Allens benefiting during the first phase from the advice of their friend Alexander Pope. The Palladian bridge and lake that it spans were added in 1755; the final phase with the green slopes from the house to the lake are thought to have been planned by Capability Brown in the 1760s.[12][13] The garden is now owned by the National Trust.

The mansion has been subjected to fire twice. The 1836 event left visible damage to some stonework.[14] The 1991 fire gutted the interior, except for parts of the basement.[15] Rebuilding took approximately three years. Unusually, the blaze started on the top floor, and spread downwards.

Facilities

Prior Park uses The Monument Field, a National Trust-owned site[16] named after a triangular Gothic building with a round tower erected by Bishop Warburton. It has a circular staircase and contains a tablet inscribed in Latin in honour of Ralph Allen.[17]

Since 2000, improvements include the indoor swimming pool,[18] an Information and communications technology Centre, classroom extensions including the Mackintosh Dance Studio opening in September 2006, the Art & Design Centre opening in September 2014[19] and the new Sports Centre, which opened in April 2015.[20]

Sports facilities are located at the National Lottery-funded University of Bath Sports Village, the training camp of the England rugby union and netball teams, Bath Rugby Club, and the Great Britain rugby league team.

Prior Park Preparatory School

In 1946 a preparatory school was required for the independent Catholic senior school based at Prior Park College in Bath. This facility was run by the Congregation of Christian Brothers as nothing was deemed suitable in the City of Bath. The Brothers obtained the Cotswold stone "manor house" which was largely rebuilt in the 19th century and known as The Hermitage, at Calcutt Street in Cricklade. Reputably originally built on the site of a medieval hermitage. The land comprised 31 acres which included vegetable gardens, greenhouses, orchard and land suitable for playing fields. The house could accommodate 62 boys and a proposed extension would increase this to a total of 100.

The Christian Brothers took over the house on 26 August and opened the school on 18 September 1946. With a headmaster and four teaching brothers and supplemented by Brother Novices, who spent two years at the school to gain experience before moving to teacher training college. Others included lay staff for subjects that were not specialisms of the brothers. The drawing room of the house was converted to a chapel (now the school library) and was blessed by the Bishop of Clifton when he opened the school. In 1947 more classrooms, a refectory and recreation rooms were built. New dormitories were built in 1962 and in the mid 1960s there were 100 boarders. A new chapel and hall were added in 1967. In the 1970s day boys were accepted.

On 7 March 1980 the Christian Brothers told the lay members of staff that they would be leaving Cricklade and Bath immediately. The school was sold, and from 1981 was under lay management under the Headship of John Bogie. Day girls were later admitted and it then became a fully co-educational boarding and day preparatory school. Gerard Hobern took up the Headship in 1994 and opened an ICT suite, fully equipped sports hall in 2000 and astroturf pitch in 2008. In 2009 the school opened its own Pre-Prep department in the walled garden. Mark Pearce became Head in January 2011 and the school now has around 250 pupils from age 3 – 13.

Notable former pupils

References

  1. ↑ Historic England. "Prior Park College (1394453)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  2. ↑ "Prior Park (Now Prior Park College)". English Heritage Images of England.
  3. ↑ Historic England. "Church of St Paul, with West Wing (1394459)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  4. ↑ "Church of St Paul". English Heritage Images of England.
  5. ↑ "The Prior Foundation". Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  6. ↑ "Education League Tables — Performance results from Prior Park College". BBC News - Education. 15 January 2009.
  7. ↑ "Pupils, parents and staff honour longest-serving headteacher". Bath Chronicle. 8 July 2009.
  8. ↑ "Ralph Allen Biography". Bath Postal Museum. Retrieved 21 August 2009.
  9. ↑ "Brief History". Diocese of Clifton. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  10. ↑ "Prior Park, Bath, England". parksandgardens.ac.uk. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  11. ↑ Pevsner N, 1958, North Somerset and Bristol, page 115
  12. ↑ "Green Priorities for the National Trust at Prior Park". questia.com. Retrieved 20 August 2009.
  13. ↑ "Prior Park Landscape Garden". National Trust. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
  14. ↑ Colvin, Howard; Mellon, Paul (2008). A biographical dictionary of British architects, 1600-1840 (4 ed.). Yale University Press. p. 1143. ISBN 978-0-300-12508-5.
  15. ↑ Gillie, Oliver (6 April 1994). "Craftsmen restore country house to former glory: Sculptors use delicate skills to recreate rococo ceiling destroyed by fire.". London: The Independent. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
  16. ↑ "Prior Park Garden". National Trust. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
  17. ↑ Tunstall, James (1847). Rambles about Bath, and its neighbourhood. p. 128.
  18. ↑ "Prior Park College on www.isbi.com". Independent, Private, Boarding, Special, Day and International School directory. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
  19. ↑ "New art and design centre at Prior park College is full of big artistic visions". Bath Chronicle. 22 January 2015.
  20. ↑ "Prior Park College opens £5 million sports centre". Bath Chronicle. 22 April 2015.
  21. ↑ "Stephen comes home in glory after Brit Award". classicalx.com. 26 September 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  22. ↑ Fairall, Barrie (3 February 1995). "Cronin reborn as the demolition man". London: independent.co.uk. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
  23. ↑ "Psalm of Lydia Sweeps". 28 January 2008.
  24. 1 2 "Prior Park College". anglo-chinese.com. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
  25. 1 2 "Prior Park Gossip Bowl 2007" (PDF). Retrieved 15 March 2008.
  26. ↑ "Sir Cameron opens the Macintosh Studio at Prior Park College". cliftondiocese. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
  27. ↑ Thomson, Alice; Sylvester, Rachel (14 February 2009). "Cardinal Comac Murphy-O'Connor:Recession may be jolt that selfish Britain needs". London: timesonline.co.uk. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
  28. ↑ "Former prior park students win bafta". somerset.greatbritishlife.co.uk. 14 February 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  29. ↑ Stanford, Peter (28 March 2007). "The Rt Rev John Ward". London: guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 25 August 2009.

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