Rossall School

Infobox UK school
name = Rossall School


size = 175px
latitude = 53.8957
longitude = -3.0424
dms =
motto = "Mens Agitat Molem"
'Mind Over Matter'
motto_pl =
established = 1844
approx =
closed =
c_approx =
type = Independent
religion = Church of England
president =
head_label =
head = Dr. Stephen Winkley (Oxon)
r_head_label = Chaplain
r_head = Revd. Stephen Cooper
chair_label = Chairman of Governors
chair = Mr. D. S. Stockton
founder = Revd. Canon St. Vincent Beechey
founder_pl =
specialist =
specialist_pl =
street =
city = Rossall, Fleetwood
county = Lancashire
country = England
postcode =
LEA =
ofsted =
staff =
enrollment = 660
gender = Coeducational
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 18
houses = 12
colours = Red, White and Navy Blue color box|Red color box|White color box|Navy
free_label_1 =
free_1 =
free_label_2 =
free_2 =
free_label_3 =
free_3 =
website = http://www.rossall.co.uk/
website_name = www.rossall.co.uk

Rossall School is a British, co-educational, public school (an independent school in England) in between Cleveleys and Fleetwood, Lancashire. Rossall was founded in 1844 by St. Vincent Beechey as a sister school to Marlborough College which had been founded the previous year. Its establishment was "to provide, at a moderate cost, for the sons of Clergymen and others, a classical, mathematical and general education of the highest class, and to do all things necessary, incidental, or conducive to the attainment of the above objects.""The Rossall Register 1844-1894" - Anguline Research Archives - p.44] Along with Cheltenham and Marlborough, Rossall was part of a flurry of expansion in education during the early Victorian period. These schools were to later be complemented by others such as Clifton, Wellington, Malvern and Radley.

Set in a convert|161|acre|km2|sing=on estate next to Rossall Beach, Rossall is also a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and was granted a royal charter on October 21, 1890. It accepts students between the ages of 11 and 18 and also has an associated preparatory school. Rossall's campus has a large array of facilities for extra-curricular activities and the school is home to the Lawrence House Space Science and Astronomy Centre, the only facility of its type in the UK. Rossall has constantly adapted itself to different attitudes in education over the years, for example being the first school to have a Combined Cadet Force as well as being one of the first schools in the UK to introduce the International Baccalaureate and a dedicated international study centre on campus. [ [http://www.boardingschools.hobsons.com/advice.jsp?id=advice_overseas_choosing_school_international UK Boarding Schools - private schools, public schools and boarding schools in the UK ] ]

History

Foundation

The idea of founding a boarding school on the Fylde coast initially came from a Corsican called Zenon Vantini who owned the local North Euston Hotel in Fleetwood.cite book|title=The Centenary History of Rossall School, William Furness|author=Gale and Polden|date=1944|pages=4] Since its opening, the North Euston Hotel had not had the numbers of visitors that Vantini had hoped for. His idea was to open two schools in the vicinity of Fleetwood, one for boys, the other for girls, totalling 1,000 students to boost local economic activity in the hope that this might boost visitor numbers to Fleetwood and thus help his hotel. Due to high child mortality rates in the early Victorian period, Vantini hoped that the schools could be funded in the long term by a form of tontine insurance scheme, whereby the cost to educate those children who reached their teenage years was offset by those who had died in infancy.

Vantini called a meeting at the North Euston Hotel to discuss the foundation of the schools with local businessmen and clergy. It was at this point that it was decided that any school that was to be founded would be directly affiliated to the Church of England. This was to be the first major Church of England school in the north of England and a sister school to Marlborough College which had opened the previous year. It was soon established though that there was little hope of founding the girls school and the idea of the girls school was soon abandoned, with the boys' school pupil numbers reduced to 200.cite book|title=The Centenary History of Rossall School, William Furness|author=Gale and Polden|date=1944|pages=5] Consequently, Vantini's involvement with the scheme steadily dissipated, Rev. St. Vincent Beechey, the parish priest of Fleetwood, soon took the reins.

Beechey soon set about finding the funds required to set up such a school. Beechey managed to get the financial support of Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood, The Earl of Derby as patron, the Duke of Devonshire as vice-president and Archbishop Sumner, then Bishop of Chester and later Archbishop of Canterbury, as visitor. As a result of Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood's financial problems from over-investing in the development of Fleetwood, he agreed to lease his ancestral home of Rossall Hall to the school for 21 years, with the option of buying it for £7,000 after ten years. The Northern Church of England Boarding School, re-named Rossall College under the reign of William Osborne, opened on 22 August 1844.

1844 to 1914

Initial problems were not unusual for boarding schools of the time, though Rossall did nearly shut down in its infancy because of huge outbreaks of Scarlet Fever. The foundation stone to the school chapel, now the Sumner Library, was laid in 1848 by the first ever Bishop of Manchester, James Prince Lee - the diocese having only been created that same year. Rossall's swift and successful development can be seen by its inclusion in the book 'The Great Schools of England.' [cite book|url=http://www.archive.org/details/greatschoolsofen00stauuoft|title=The great schools of England : an account of the foundation, endowments, and discipline of the chief seminaries of learning in England; including Eton, Winchester, Westminster, St. Paul's, Charter-House, Merchant Taylors', Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, etc. etc|date=1865]

The current chapel was constructed in the 1860s and the school underwent further development from the 1880s to 1900 to accommodate more students and to create further facilities such as the gym which still stands. In 1874 Rossall hit the headlines as it became the first Church of England school to play a Catholic school, Stonyhurst College, in an inter-school sports fixture by playing them at cricket. A number of Protestant newspapers warned against such activities advising Rossall parents to be wary of encroaching papism. [cite book |title=Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School |last=Mangan|first=J.A.|year=2000|publisher=Routledge|location= |isbn=0714680435|pages=61|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=irW3lfgplM4C&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=stonyhurst+rossall+&source=web&ots=14DQU5sjhg&sig=nx5SzZTpis9AGS9vs33ckZHVDC4&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA61,M1]

Two decades later, Rossall had its first major experience of warfare with roughly one hundred O.R.s serving in the Boer War, nearly half of them winning distinctions or mentions in despatches. Seventeen old boys however died in active service, all of whom are now commemorated in the stalls of the school chapel. [cite book|title=The Centenary History of Rossall School, William Furness|author=Gale and Polden|date=1944|pages=63]

Rossall was widely considered to be in top 30 public schools in the UK by the end of Queen Victoria's reign also earning itself a place in the Public Schools Yearbook and the Public School News section of the Cambridge Review. [cite journal|url=http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content?content=10.1080/0046760032000151492|author=William Whyte|date=6 November 2003|pages 601 - 626|title=Building a public school community 1860-1910|doi=10.1080/0046760032000151492|journal=History of Education|volume=32|pages=601] Despite some financial difficulties as a result of fund embezzling by a bursar, by the end of the 1920s Rossall's academic results were amongst the best in the country with record numbers achieving scholarships to Oxbridge and attaining distinctions in the Higher Certificate examinations.cite book|title=The Centenary History of Rossall School, William Furness|author=Gale and Polden|date=1944|pages=96]

1914 to 1945

During the world wars large numbers of Old Rossallians lost their lives in combat, 297 in World War One alonecite book|title=The Centenary History of Rossall School, William Furness|author=Gale and Polden|date=1944|pages=126] - the majority of whom are now commemorated in the extension memorial chapel. Rossall has had the privilege of being allowed to have a memorial plaque placed at St Georges Chapel by the Menin Gate in honour of its fallen, alongside schools such as Rugby, Eton and Harrow. [ [http://archive.thisislancashire.co.uk/2007/11/12/1041286.html This Is Lancashire - Memorial for Great War pupils ] ] 1,617 ORs fought in World War One ['The Tide Flows On' - Derek Winterbottom (2006, Manx Press), p.51] , 300 of whom received war honours.

Lawrence House Astronomy & Space Science Centre

Rossall is also home to the Lawrence House Astronomy & Space Science Centre - the only centre dedicated solely to the teaching of Astronomy [cite web| url=http://www.rossall.co.uk/astronomy/ | title=School website: Astronomy | accessdate=2007-04-20] . The project consists of the telescope in Rossall's Assheton Observatory as well as a building of its own containing a lecture theatre, classrooms and a portable planetarium. The telescope is of particular note - being convert|12|ft|m long, 18 inches wide and dating from 1870. [cite news|publisher=Lancashire Evening Telegraph|url=http://archive.thisislancashire.co.uk/2003/12/5/517430.html|title=Space is the star at school centre|date=5 December 2003] The project has been funded by the Lawrence House Trust and predominantly run by Dr. Nick Lister, originally the head of D.T. at the school and now Astronomer in Residence. Dr Lister studied at Plymouth University before getting his PHD from University College London. He is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and was recently appointed as vice-president of the Association for Astronomy Education, where he succeeded Dr Robert Massey of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, who has now become president of the organisation. [http://www.rossall.co.uk/astronomy/169 Rossall School Astronomy - About Dr Nick Lister] ]

When initial assessments were being made for the feasibility of restoring the observatory, both the telescope and observatory were in a poor condition as a result of years of neglect and an arson attempt by some local children. However, the telescope is made predominantly from brass and thus suffered minimal corrosion and damage. Most importantly the lens of the telescope survived unscathed allowing for restoration. [ [http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/products/journals/aag/aag_October00/aag504.htm AAG: News 10-2000 ] ] This was carried out at first by several dedicated parents and governors of the school, amongst them Syd Little.Soon after the basic restoration ideas were raised for a larger project allowing the teaching of astronomy on a larger scale. After getting clearance from the original owners of the telescope to go ahead with the project, Rossall was given funds from the Lawrence House Trust, an educational charity, to go forward with their plans. The centre had an official opening on Tuesday 26 September 2006 with Old Rossallian and former Astronomer Royal Sir Francis Graham Smith in attendance. [ [http://www.blackpoolcitizen.co.uk/display.var.937403.0.starring_role_for_top_astronomer.php Starring Role For Top Astronomer (from Blackpool Citizen) ] ] The centre's motto is 'Astronomy For All' meaning that it offers courses to Rossall Students but also at a small cost to the general public. Courses also range from beginner to advanced to ensure that anybody who wishes to study Astronomy can do so.

Possibly because of its emphasis on practical astronomy as a subject, Rossall School was depicted as the school attended by Dan Dare, the fictional space hero in The Eagle comic who was a favourite character of boys of the 1950s–60s.

References

Further reading

*'Rossall School, Its Rise and Progress' - Canon St Vincent Beechy (1894)
*'History of Rossall School' - John Frederick Rowbotham (First ed. 1895, John Heywood)
*'The Centenary History of Rossall School' - W Furness (1945, Gale and Polden)
*'A Very Desolate Position' - Peter Bennett (1977, Rossall Archives)
*'Rossall Will be What You Make it' - Peter Bennett (1992, Rossall Archives)
*'The Tide Flows On' - Derek Winterbottom (2006, Manx Press)
*'A Short History of the Rossall School Corps.' - Lt.-Col. L. H. Trist (1960, pp. 27. Fleetwood Chronicle: Fleetwood)
*'Alleyn’s and Rossall schools : the Second World War, experience and status'- Donald Leinster_Mackay (1990 , Leeds : Museum of the History of Education, University of Leeds.)
*'Hymns for use in the chapel of Rossall School' - Herbert A. James. (1880, R. Clay, Sons, & Taylor: London)
*'Rossall. An Ode, by O. Seaman ... for the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the School' - Charles Harford Lloyd (1894, London & New York : Novello, Ewer and Co)

External links

* [http://www.rossall.co.uk/ Official site]
* [http://www.rossallianclub.co.uk/ Rossallian Club Website]
* [http://www.rossallfoundation.co.uk/ Rossall Foundation Website]
* [http://www.rossall.co.uk/astronomy/ Lawrence House Astronomy and Space Science Centre Website]
* [http://www.rossallsummerschool.org.uk/ Rossall Summer School Website]
* [http://www.oldrossallianlodge.co.uk/ Old Rossallian Lodge]
* [http://www.privateschoolnews.co.uk/index.php?s=rossall Rossall School in the Press]
* [http://www.rossallbeach.co.uk/rossallschoolp.htm/ A Pictorial History of Rossall]