It was originally a boarding school for boys, girls have been admitted into the Sixth Form since 2008 and the school has been co-educational since 2015. As of Michaelmas Term 2023, the school has 842 pupils: 522 boys and 320 girls. There are seven boys' houses and five girls' houses.[4]
The present site, to which the school moved in 1882, is on the south bank of the River Severn.[1]
were providing education in the town, complemented by the foundation of Shrewsbury Abbey in the 11th century.[7]
These were all broken up in the Reformation,[8][9][10][11] although there is a mention of a grammar school at Shrewsbury in a court case of 1439.[12]
Shrewsbury School was founded in response to those interruptions to the town's ancient traditions in education in the Reformation: the disruption caused significant local ill feeling,[13] and by 1542, townspeople were beginning to petition Henry VIII for remedy. They devised a scheme hoping to use the proceeds from the dissolution of Shrewsbury Abbey for a renewed provision of education. They were not immediately successful.[8]
Sir Rowland Hill
Reginald Corbet
Two of the statesmen involved in the petitions to the Crown to re-establish the ancient traditions of education in Shrewsbury represented by terminating the Saxon collegiate foundations in the town
Also involved in the founding petitions was Reginald Corbet (who married Hill's heiress, Alice Gratewood), a justice of the peace for Shropshire and commissioner for chantries in the county, who was paid ten shillings in 1548 "for a supplication exhibited to the Lord Chancellor to obtain a free school."[19] Significantly, there was also a receipt for 20 pence to bribe the Lord Chancellor's servant to win his ear.
Shrewsbury School was founded by charter granted by King Edward VI on 10 February 1552.[8]
The school began operation in a house and land purchased from John Proude in 1551,[20] together with three rented half-timbered buildings, which included Riggs Hall, built in 1450. These are now the only remaining part of the original buildings occupied by the institution. Archaeological excavations of the sites of these first buildings in 1978 revealed finds going back to the Saxon period, along with relics of the school, now in the town collections.[20]
Matthew Parker granted a special license to send Shrewsbury's foundational headmaster Thomas Ashton to the town; later Elizabeth I would direct Ashton to write the ordinances.
The early curriculum was based on Continental Calvinism under its foundational headmaster, Thomas Ashton (appointed 1562). Prior to his appointment a special license had been obtained from Mathew Parker, Elizabeth I's first Archbishop of Canterbury, on the grounds that that Ashton not being available would damage the progress of the school's foundation.[21] Ashton was a contemporary of Roger Ascham at St John's, Cambridge: Ascham was a writer on theories of education and served in the administrations of Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, having earlier acted as Elizabeth's tutor in Greek and Latin between 1548 and 1550.[22]
Early pupils were taught the catechism of Calvin. The school attracted large numbers of pupils from Protestant families in Shropshire, North Wales and beyond, with 266 boys on its roll at the end of 1562.[23]
Early pupils lodged with local families. For example, Sir Philip Sidney (who had a well-known correspondence with his father about his schooling)[24][25][26] lodged in the castle ward with George Leigh, who had been Member of Parliament for Shrewsbury.[27] In this period Elizabeth I's favourite Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester also visited the school to see his nephew Thomas Sidney and attended a service at St Mary's Church.[28]
Sidney attended the school along with his lifelong friend Fulke Greville (later Lord Brooke),[29][30] The literary output of these school-day associations became significant: in 1579 Francis Bacon joined their circle, which also included Mary Sidney (Philip's brother, by then Countess of Pembroke).[31]
Ashton resigned his headmastership in 1568. From 1571, Ashton was in the service of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, was involved in the education of his son the 2nd Earl,[15] and was employed in confidential communications with Queen Elizabeth I and the Privy Council.
Having achieved a reputation for excellence under Ashton, in 1571 the school was augmented by Elizabeth I. By 1581, the school had 360 pupils, and it was described by William Camden in 1582 as "the best filled [school] in all England";[3] the population of the town grew by about 5% when the boarders returned during term time during this period. In 1585 the schoolboys stood in battle array with bows and arrows by the castle gates when the Earl of Essex entered the town.[20]
In 1578 Ashton returned to Shrewsbury, where he had been ordered by an indenture of Elizabeth I[32] to set out the ordinances governing the school, which were in force until 1798. Under these regulations, the borough bailiffs (mayors after 1638) had the power to appoint masters, with Ashton's old St John's College, Cambridge having an academic veto.[21] Shrewsbury has retained links with the college, with the continued appointment of Johnian academics to the Governing Body, and the historic awarding of "closed" Shrewsbury Exhibitions.
Scholars from the school were from time to time employed by the local community to draw and witness bonds for illiterate tradesmen in this period; for instance Richard Langley (whose father, a prosperous tailor, had purchased the Shrewsbury Abbey site after the dissolution) could remember being asked by a cooper in 1556 to witness a bond "at what time he was a scholar in the free school of Shrewsbury" aged about fifteen.[33]
1600s
In 1608 the town and the school were in fierce dispute about who should be appointed second master. The headmaster, John Meighen, wished to promote the third master, Ralph Gittins; the town wished to appoint Simon Moston on the recommendation of St John's College, whose fellows had a say in the appointment of new masters. When the town's bailiffs came to install their preferred candidate on 31 August 1608, the building had already been occupied by about 60 women from the town (including three spinsters, two widows, the wives of mercers, tailors, weavers, butchers, shoemakers, tanners, glovers, carpenters and coopers) taking the headmaster's side and preferring Gittins on the basis that only the son of a burgess could serve as second master. Jamming the school benches against the doors, they barricaded themselves in the school until the following Saturday, passing a "great hammer" between themselves which had been used to gain entry to the school. The authorities sought to read the Statute on Rebellion, but the women made such a noise nobody could hear it. The incident provoked a mass of litigation in the courts of Chancery and Star Chamber in Westminster.[34]
A house (today called Stone Grange) was built for the school in 1617 in the nearby village of Grinshill as a retreat in times of plague.[35][36]
Historic prospect of the school with the castle, and the gate in the town walls
The stone buildings on Castle Gates, including a chapel, dormitories, library and classrooms, were completed by 1630, with Ashton's successor, John Meighen, founding a chained library in 1606,[37] though the library had begun making acquisitions by 1596, with a terrestrial globe by the first English globe maker Emery Molineux being its first acquisition.[38] The bookcases in the library (with the books chained to them) projected from the walls between the windows on both sides of the room forming alcoves for study: an arrangement that may still be seen in Duke Humphrey's Library in Oxford. The completion of this room was celebrated by the masters and Bailiffs on 1 October 1612 by taking cake and wine in the new space.[20]
Shrewsbury was occupied on behalf of the King during the Civil War, who briefly made the town his capital[8] from September 1642.[39][40] A council of war was appointed for the whole district, of which Lord Capel was president. This council held its meetings in the school library, and some of the school's books were damaged during this time.
Around September 1642 a contentious "Royal Loan" was made to Charles I of £600 (around 75% of the money in the school exchequer at the time); a further £47 was lent to the corporation of the town. The loan was acknowledged under seal by the king in the following terms:
Charles Rex
Trusty and well beloved we greet you well. Whereas ye have, out of your good affection to our present service and towards the supply of our extraordinary occasions, lent unto us the sum of £600, being a stock belonging to your school founded by our royal predecessor King Edward the Sixth, in this our Town of Shrewsbury. We do hereby promise that we shall cause the same to be truly repaid unto you whensoever ye shall demand the same, and shall always remember the loan of it as a very acceptable service unto us. Given under our Signet at our Court at Shrewsbury this nth[clarification needed] of October, 1642.
To our trusty and well beloved Richard Gibbons, late Mayor of our Town of Shrewsbury, and Thomas Chaloner, Schoolmaster of our Free School there.
This was considered a misappropriation of the school's funds. This was litigated in the Court of Chancery and before the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal by the corporation of the town after the end of the civil war. The record of the royal loan appeared in the school register at the time of the November audit of 1642, but was torn out by the time the matter was before the courts. The borrowed funds were never recovered.[8]
Richard Baxter led proposals to convert the school into a university during Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth. This did not come into being, although university education did finally arrive in the town in 2014.
During the Commonwealth period following the execution of Charles I, Richard Baxter suggested the establishment of a university to serve Wales at Shrewsbury, using the school's premises, but due to lack of financial provision it came to nothing.[20] Had that scheme come to fruition the town of Shrewsbury would have the third oldest university in England behind Oxford and Cambridge.
Restoration and 1700s
Richard Hill, "the Great Hill" tutor to the Boyle family was an old boy of the school.
Celia Fiennes visited the school in 1698 and recorded the school as follows: "Here are three free schooles together, built of free stone, 3 Large roomes to teach the Children, wth severall masters. Ye first has 150£ a year ye second 100 ye third 50£ a year and teach Children from reading English till fit for ye University, and its free for Children not only of ye town but for all over England if they Exceed not ye numbers... ".[41]
In the early eighteenth century, Daniel Defoe also visited the school, noting: "Here is a good Free-school, the most considerable in this Part of England; founded by King Edward VI and endowed by Queen Elizabeth, with a very sufficient Maintenance for a Chief or Headmaster, and three Under-masters or Ushers. The Buildings, which are of Stone, are very spacious, particularly the Library, which has a great many Books in it. The School-masters have also very handsome Houses to dwell in; for that the Whole has the Face of a College."[42][43]
A wing was added to the buildings on the original site during the Georgian period, connected to Rigg's Hall and spanning the old town wall. Although this building was listed at grade two it was demolished around 100 years after the school had vacated the building when Shropshire County Council, who operated the buildings as a public library were engaged in major restorations works in the 1980s because the structure was by then unsound.[20]
In 1798, a specific Act of Parliament, The Shrewsbury School Act,[44] was passed for the better government of the school.[45][46][47] The act contains an oath to be taken by the governors, and confirmed Lord Chancellor as visitor (as for all Royal foundations).
This statutory scheme was later amended by the Court of Chancery, in 1853.
1800s
The school had just three headmasters during the 19th century.
Samuel Butler was appointed headmaster in 1798. Writing at this time he observed: "This school was once the Eton or the Westminster of Wales and all Shropshire",[3] and under his leadership the school's reputation, which had receded from the Civil War, again grew.[48] In 1839 an incident known as the "Boiled Beef Row" took place, where the boys walked out of the school in protest at the food, and the praepostors were all removed from office.[8] In this period (1818–1825) Charles Darwin attended the school.[49]
The school's original Castle Gates premises had little in way of provision for games. Under Dr Butler, there were two fives courts and playgrounds in front of and behind the buildings, but after the arrival of Dr Kennedy football was permitted, for which the school acquired a ground in Coton Hill (north of Castle Gates).[51]
The school continued in the 1600s buildings on its original site, until it was relocated in 1882, when Moss moved the school from its original town centre location to a new site of 150 acres (61ha) in Kingsland (an area of land which at one time belonged to the Crown and granted to the Corporation at "a rather remote period, the exact date of which appears not to be known", but apparently before 1180[53]), on the south bank of the River Severn overlooking the town. A legacy of this move can be seen in the school premises being referred to as "The Site".
Known locations (on what is now the grounds of the school) of the guild arbours for the pageantry in the early modern period and before
In the later Renaissance, this land had been devoted to elaborate performances, with grand arbours being built by the guilds.[54] Some of the arbours survive, such as the for the Shoemakers (now in the Quarry Park).[54]
The school was relocated in the current Main School Building which dates from 1765 and had at different times housed a foundling hospital and the Shrewsbury workhouse, before translating to this current use. In order to meet this new purpose, it was remodelled by Sir Arthur Blomfield (whose other educational commissions include Marlborough College and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford).
At this time, the original premises were converted to a public Free Library and Museum by the Shrewsbury Borough Council, opening in their new role in 1885;[55] over the course of the 20th century the library purpose gradually took over the whole building, to which major restoration was done in 1983.[56][51]
Blomfield also designed School House, to the east of the Main School building which was constructed during the 1880s.[57] The new Riggs Hall (which had existed from Tudor buildings at the old site[58]) was also built at this time,[59] as was Churchill's Hall[60] and Moser's Hall:[61] these buildings are the work of William White.[62][63][64]
The school's current chapel, built in 1887
A gothic chapel was built for the school (also by Blomfield) in 1887, though it has been noted that "Christian religion played only a very small part in the life of the Public Schools... [and] at Shrewsbury the Governors refused to allow Butler to address the school at a service" prior to this increased focus in the Victorian period.[29] Its south and east windows in the chapel are by Kempe, employing medieval narrative style for lives of saints, scenes from the history of the school.[65]
Other buildings have since grown up around the edge of the site, with sports pitches in the centre, with diverse buildings being added to the new site over the last 130 years.
1900s
The current main school building and a since replaced boat house in 1908
The main school building suffered a major fire in 1905.[66][67] Moss was succeeded in 1908 by Cyril Alington, then Master in College at Eton. Alington, though a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, was a sportsman, evidenced by the 1914 appointment as his secretary of Neville Cardus, the future cricket journalist who had joined the school in 1912 as the school's assistant cricket professional.
The flag of Shrewsbury School
At the time of his appointment as Headmaster, Alington was younger than any of the masters on the staff, so to bring in new blood into the teaching staff, he recruited several former Collegers from Eton, most notably The Rev. Ronald Knox. Alington wrote the school song and commissioned its flag (a banner of arms of its coat of arms),[68] and he was an energetic builder; the school Alington Hall (assembly hall) is named after him. In December 1914 he wrote a poem, "To the School at War", which was published in The Times.[69][70] After leaving Shrewsbury, Alington went on to serve as Chaplain to the King to King George V from 1921 until 1933, and then Dean of Durham, from 1933 to 1951. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine on 29 June 1931. "An accomplished classicist, a witty writer especially of light verse, and a priest of orthodox convictions ..."[71]
During the Edwardian period Oldham's Hall was built (1911).[72]
The First World War saw 321 former members of the school die serving their country.[73] A war memorial was added to the school in 1923 for these fallen.[74] This memorial was added to after the Second World War to include the 135 members of the school who fell in that conflict.[75] The monument includes a statue of Sir Phillip Sidney, the Elizabeth soldier, poet and courtier (who himself was an alumnus of the school and died of wounds sustained at the Battle of Zutphen in 1586),[76] and faces the Main School building down an avenue of linden trees, known as 'central'.
The current library building was added in 1916.[77]
Mountaineer Andrew Irvine, who, with George Mallory may have reached the summit of Mount Everest in the 1924 British Everest Expedition attended Shrewsbury during the First World War.[78] During the 1920s the Georgian villa houses at Severn Hill[79] and Ridgemount[80] were acquired by the school and adapted into boarding houses. Severn Hill, the linear decedent of the house of which Irvine was captain, holds his ice axe from the expedition, discovered in 1933 by Wyn Harris.[81]
High cross given to the town of Shrewsbury by the school in 1952, replacing the lost medieval cross, to celebrate 400 years of relations between the two
In 1952, the school was 400 years old. It received a royal visit to mark the occasion,[82] and presented the town with a new cross[83] for the historic site of the town's high cross (which had been removed in 1705) at the termination of the market street which was a starting point for civic and religious processions in the medieval town and a significant location (the place of execution of Earl of Worcester and others after the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, and of Dafydd III, last native Prince of Wales in 1283).[84]
The future Deputy Prime Minister of the UK Michael Heseltine attended the school immediately after the Second World War on a scholarship.[85] A number of the founders and writers of the satirical magazine Private Eye attended the school in the 1950s.[86]Willy Rushton was also at the school at this time.[85] The comedian, actor, writer and television presenter Michael Palin of Monty Python's Flying Circus attended the school shortly afterwards and a scholarship is now available named for him.[87]
Between 1963 and 1975 Donald Wright served as headmaster. The Times has called Wright a "great reforming headmaster". While there, working with the Anglican Diocese of Liverpool, Wright took a leading role in the building of a new Shrewsbury House, the school's mission in Liverpool, which was opened in 1974 by Princess Anne. He secured many leading churchmen to come to preach in the school chapel, including Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury. After retiring as a headmaster in 1975, Wright became the Archbishop of Canterbury's Patronage Secretary, chaired the William Temple Foundation, and served as Secretary to the Crown Appointments Commission.[88]
In the 1960s, Kingsland House, another 19th century gentleman's residence was acquired by the school and adapted for use for central catering for all pupils (previously food had been arranged in houses).[89] A new science building was also added in the 1960s.[90]
In 1988, another Georgian villa house, the Grove, was bought and adapted for use as boarding house.[91] In 1996 a new IT building, the Craig Building, was added.[90]
2000s
Two of the newer boarding houses, for girls, are named for Mary Sidney and Emma Darwin, whose brother and husband, respectively, were both prominent Old Salopians.
Since the turn of the millennium, the school's site has seen investment, beginning with the addition of a statue of alumnus Charles Darwin to the site to mark the millennium, which was unveiled by Sir David Attenborough.[92]
Girls were admitted to the school for the first time into the sixth-form in 2008, and the school became fully coeducational in 2015.[94]
Two new boarding houses have been built, one named after Mary Sidney (completed 2006),[95] and one after Emma Darwin (completed 2011).[96]
Further additions to the site have been made: an indoor cricket centre (2006)[97] and a new swimming pool (2007);[98] the rowing facilities were extended with a new Yale Boat house, which was opened by Olympian Matt Langridge in 2012;[99] A new Computing and Design faculty building, "the Chatri Design Centre" was established in 2017, re-purposing and redeveloping a former humanities building;[100] and in 2015 a new building, Hodgeson Hall, was built to house the humanities departments.[101]
The latest boarding house, opening in September 2023, is named in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, who visited in 1952.
In 2023 a new boarding house was opened, named to honour Elizabeth II.[103]
Sports
The main sport in the Michaelmas (autumn) term is football, in the Lent term fives and rugby, and in summer cricket. Rowing takes place in all three terms. The kit of many of the sports teams shows a cross pattée from the crown in the school's coat of arms,[104] which is a practice that has been in place for at least 150 years. During much of the twentieth century, this cross was used solely by the school's boatclub.[105]
Admission of girls in 2015 has seen the introduction of hockey and netball, with cricket and tennis played during the summer term.
The present school buildings in Kingsland are arranged around the sports fields which have nine grass football pitches, two Hockey Astroturf and a 4G artificial football pitch (completed in 2023); almost all boys play football in the Michaelmas term, with girls playing football in the Lent term.[106]
The original hand written 'Laws of the game' for association football of 1863 on display at the National Football Museum, Manchester; note the reference "Mr Steward, The Captain of Football at Shrewsbury School"
Football
Football, as a formal game, was incubated at the public schools of the nineteenth century and Shrewsbury had a key role in the game's development.[107] Salopians were prominent in the early history of the organised game at Cambridge University, according to Adrian Harvey "Salopians formed a club of their own in the late 1830s/early 1840s but that was presumably absorbed by the Cambridge University Football Club that they were so influential in creating in 1846".[108] The school has an 1856 copy of the Cambridge rules of football, predating the 1863 rules of the FA.
In these early years, each of the schools had their own versions of the game, and by the 1830s the version played at Shrewsbury had become known as "douling", taking this name from the Greek word for slave: the goal had no cross bar, favoured dribbling, and was being formally supported by the school's authorities to the extent it was compulsory. While, at the beginning of the 18th century, however, the school authorities deemed football "only fit for butchers boys", an attitude common at the other public schools,[109][3] by the 1840s, all boarders were required to play Douling three times a week unless they were excused on medical grounds.[110]
From 1853, the national press was publishing reports of football at the school, although at this time matches were predominantly between the various Houses. The school's first captain of football was appointed in 1854, and a school team was formed in the early 1860s for external mataches.[111] Also by the 1860s football was sufficiently well-established for all Houses to field 1st and 2nd XI sides across all age groups.[110]
The Arthur Dunn Challenge Cup (annual football cup competition played between the Old Boys of public schools started in 1903) was contested by Shrewsbury and Charterhouse in the first ever final, and shared by the two institutions following two draws, with two Morgan-Owen brothers choosing instead to turn out for Shrewsbury, instead of playing internationally in a Wales vs. Ireland game for which they had been selected.[112] Shrewsbury has won the Arthur Dunn Challenge Cup a total of 11 times, including the Centenary Cup Final in 2003,[113] a replay of the first final in 1903. A club of Old Salopians attending the University of Cambridge, who had started playing association football in 1874,[114] entered the FA Cup in 1875-76, but scratched when drawn away to Oxford University.
In 2024, Shrewsbury School were crowned English Schools Football Association (ESFA) National Champions.[115]
A rowing VIII of the school's training on the River Severn
Rowing
The Royal Shrewsbury School Boat Club (RSSBC) is one of the oldest school rowing clubs, having begun as an unofficial sport frowned upon by the authorities, in the late 18th or early 19th century and the first official event being known to have happened in 1839, complete with military bands.[116] The boat club was finally officially constituted in 1866.[117]
Since the boat club began rowing at Henley Royal Regatta in 1912, they have won 14 times. Shrewsbury is only seconded in victories at Henley to Eton, having won specifically:
Elsenham Cup: 1919
Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup: 1955,[118] 1957, 1960, 1961, 2007
Ladies’ Challenge Plate Winner: 1932
Special Race for Schools/Fawley Challenge Cup: 1975,1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985[119]
Royal Shrewsbury School Boat Club Rowing Blade, the cross pattée emblem (taken from the Tudor crown in the school's arms) is commonly used by sports teams.
Shrewsbury is one of only two public schools to have bumps races, the other being Eton, between the houses. They are rowed over four evenings at the end of term in July. There are usually three boats entered per house. On the fourth evening there are prizes for the leaders of the chart and the Leadbitter Cup for the boat which has made the most bumps over the four nights. The event is marshalled by senior rowers and rowing prefects, usually masters.[120] The crew training is mainly pupil driven, though in preparation for Henley the school's First VIII rowers often do not take part, and therefore the boats are composed of other rowers and some non-rowers. Previously, races were run every day until there were no more bumps (i.e. until they were nominally in speed order). This historical set-up could lead to weeks of racing and it was therefore abandoned in favour of a four-day version more than 100 years ago.[citation needed] Otherwise, it is only Oxford and Cambridge that continue to have bumps. Shrewsbury and Eton both race bumps in fours whilst Oxford and Cambridge race in eights.
The town's rowing club, Pengwern Boat Club, has close historical links to the School's rowing activities, and for a time they jointly rented a boat house at the site of the current Pengwern club house.[121]
The Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt (RSSH or "the Hunt") is the oldest cross-country club in the world, with written records (the Hound Books) going back to 1831 and evidence that it was established by 1819.[124] The sport of "the Hunt" or "the Hounds", now known as a Paper Chase, was formalised at the school around 1800. Two runners (the "foxes") made a trail with paper shreds and after a set time they would be pursued by the other runners (the "hounds"). The club officers are the Huntsman and Senior and Junior Whips. The hounds start most races paired into "couples" as in real fox hunting; the winner of a race is said to "kill".[125] Certain of the races are started by the Huntsman, carrying a 200-year-old bugle and a ceremonial whip, dressed in scarlet shirt and a black velvet cap shouting:
All hounds who wish to run, run hard, run well, and may the devil take the hindmost
In his 1903 semi-autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh, Old Salopian Samuel Butler describes a school based on Shrewsbury where the main protagonist's favourite recreation is running with "the Hounds" so "a run of six or seven miles across country was no more than he was used to".[127] The first definite record of the Annual Steeplechase is in 1834, making it the oldest cross-country race of the modern era.[124]
The main inter-house cross-country races are still called the Junior and Senior Paperchase, although no paper is dropped and urban development means the historical course can no longer be followed. Every October the whole school participates in a 3.5-mile run called "The Tucks", originally intended to prevent pupils attending a local horse race.[128] It is now run at Attingham Park.[129]
The school also lays claim to the oldest track and field meeting still in existence, which originated in the Second Spring Meeting first documented in 1840. This featured a series of mock horse races including the Derby Stakes, the Hurdle Race, the Trial Stakes and a programme of throwing and jumping events, with runners being entered by "owners" and named as though they were horses.[124]
Cricket
Cricketer, commentator and selector James Taylor played for the school.
Cricket was being played at Shrewsbury at least as long ago as the 1860s.[130] A reference was made to an effort to set up a game with Westminster School in 1866 (declined by Westminster) in a House of Commons debate by Jim Prior in 1961.[131]Neville Cardus was the school's cricket professional in the early twentieth century.[132]
Boys' 1st XI season focuses on the Silk Trophy, which competed for by Shrewsbury, Eton, Oundle and an overseas touring side at the end of each summer term.[133]
The school competes in the HMC Twenty20 having made the finals day each year since 2010, winning the competition in 2011 and 2013.[134] The school won the Lord's Taverners Trophy in 2005.[135]
Eton Fives is a major sport within the school, and there are 14 Fives courts.[140] At the end of the Lent Term the school competes in the Marsh Insurance National Schools Eton Fives Championships, which are held in rotation at Shrewsbury, Highgate and Eton.[141][142]
A world record was set at the school in 1989 for the longest ever game of fives (at 39 hours of playing);[143] this was eclipsed by Uppingham School in 2019.[144]
Minor sports
Minor sports include: shooting, fencing, basketball, golf, equestrian, badminton, swimming, hockey, rugby and squash.[145]
Performing arts
Heritage
Early flowerings of English drama in the Tudor period
The 1679 Shoemakers Arbour (now removed to the Quarry Park); originally located along with many other guild arbours on the Kingsland site. A legacy of the pageantry and performance heritage of the town and school on the early modern period.
Locations of the guild arbours for the pageantry in the early modern period and before on the Kingsland site
By the early modern period that cultural practice had developed to the extent that multiple arbours were built over the territory.[54]
Under Thomas Ashton drama flourished. He made it a rule that, boys in the senior form had, every school day, to "declaim and play one Act of Comedy" before breaking from school, and the school put on frequent public Whitsuntide and mystery plays concerned with moral romance, scripture, and history. In 1565, for instance, Julian the Apostle and another unnamed performance of Ashton's were performed before a large audience, which "listened with admiration and devotion". Queen Elizabeth I, on a journey to the West Midlands in 1565 intended to visit Shrewsbury to see one of these performances, but "her Majesty not having proper information mistook the time and when she came to Coventry, hearing it was over, returned to London". The Quarry park in the town had long been a place for sort and cultural activity in the old town, and this was the site of many of these plays, and a bank there cut in the form of an amphitheatre was established near the rope walk. Such plays were, according to Thomas Warton, probably the first fruits of the English theater.[148]
On several occasions the school put on pageants for the visiting Council of the Marches, as in 1581 when the Lord President, Sir Henry Sidney, leaving the town by barge, was greeted by several scholars on an island down stream of the castle dressed as green nymphs with willow branches tied to their heads reciting verses across the water:
And will your honour needs depart, and must it needs be so. Would God we could like fishes swim, that we might with thee go.
The Lord President was brought close to tears.[149]
Title page of A collection of ball-dances perform'd at court by Mr. Isaac, John Weaver (1673–1760), James Paisible: "A collection of ball-dances perform'd at court: viz. the Richmond, the Roundeau, the Rigadoon, the Favourite, the Spanheim, and the Britannia" (1706)
Originating ballet and pantomime
John Weaver, the father of English ballet,[150] and the originator of pantomime,[151] was the master at the school in the 1600s.[152] He was responsible for the codification of dance.[153]
He documented courtly dances which were a feature of courtly ritual in the Tudor and Steward period, and were a sincere instrument of statecraft to the holders of public office in those times.[154] In 2023 the school hosted the inaugural "John Weaver Festival of Dance", which included competitive performance of the art, along with an exhibition, which displayed Weavers own papers and material from Soulton Hall relating to its historic dancing pavement.[155]
Contemporary Offer
Orchestras, ensembles and choirs
The school has the following orchestras ensembles and choirs:[156]
The Symphony Orchestra;
The Wind Orchestra;
Big Band;
Concert Band;
Brass Ensemble
String Ensemble
The Chamber Choir
The Chapel Choir
The Community Choir (includes local members who are not part of the school)
Jazz Band
String quartets
Junior and Senior string ensembles
Clarinet and sax groups
Tuba and horn quartets
Musicals
Every other year (and sometimes more often), Shrewsbury puts on its own homegrown school musical which is taken to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. These have included:[157]
Two stone statues of Philomathes and Polymathes in Jacobean dress, on the original buildings; also featured on the contemporary school library
Philomath and Polymath
The original buildings and the present school library both have carved stone figures on the buildings. They represent, on the left Φιλομαθης Philomathes [he who loves learning] (a character first penned by King James I in philosophical dialogue known as Daemonologie) and on the right Πολυμαθης Polymathes [he who has much learning]. The first figure has taken his hat off to settle to learning; the second figure is about to place his hat back on, having attended to his studies.
The original carvings are from 1630 and are accompanied by a table which says:
MDCXXX [1630]
ΔΙΔΑΣΚΑΛΕΙΟΝ
ΕΑΝ ΗΣ ΕΣΗ
This is based on a quotation from Isocrates, "ἐαν ἠς φιλομαθης, ἐσει πολυμαθης", which means "If you are studious (loving learning), you will be(come) learned"; Διδασκαλειον means 'school'.[165]
Although the school left the premises by the castle in 1882, it retained, significantly, the ownership of these statutes which remain in the Renaissance building.[166]
Houses
School House in 1899
The School, as of Michaelmas Term 2023, has 842 pupils.[167]
There are seven boys' houses and five girls' houses, each with its own housemaster or housemistress, tutor team and matron. Each house also has its own colours.
The houses and their colours are:
House
Colours
House Master/Mistress
Notes
Churchill's Hall
Dark Blue & Light Blue
Mr John J. C. Wright
Opened in 1882, listed building
The Grove
Cornflower Blue and White
Mrs Clare H. L. Wilson
Converted to girls' house in summer 2014
Ingram's Hall
Green & White
Mr Sam C. Griffiths
Opened in 1900
Moser's Hall
Deep Red & Black
Mrs Lauren R. Temple
Opened in 1884, listed building
Oldham's Hall
Chocolate Brown & White
Mr Henry S. M. Exham
Opened in 1911, listed building
Ridgemount
Royal Blue & Old Gold
Mr Ed A. J. Phillips
Opened in 1926, listed building
Rigg's Hall
Chocolate & Gold
Mr Matthew W. D. Barrett
Opened in 1882, listed building
School House
Black, Magenta & White
Mr Morgan C. Bird
Opened in 1882, listed building
Severn Hill
Maroon & French Grey
Mr Adam R. Duncan
Formerly known as Chances
Mary Sidney Hall
Dark Blue & Pink
Mrs Anita J. Wyatt
Opened in September 2008
Queen Elizabeth Hall
Royal Purple and Dark Green
Miss Sally Pearson
Opened in September 2023
Emma Darwin Hall
Wedgwood Blue & Green
Mr William R. Reynolds
Opened in September 2011
A single house will hold around 70 pupils, School House slightly more.[168][169] Having about 80 pupils, School House used to be divided into Doctors (black and white) and Headroom (magenta and white) for most sporting purposes, whilst being one house in other respects, but this distinction was abolished in around 2000.[170][171]
There are many inter-house competitions: in football, for instance, each house competes in four different leagues (two senior, two junior) and three knock-out competitions (two senior, one junior).[172]
School song
The school has its own song, "Carmen Salopiense", written in 1916 by Cyril Alington who was Headmaster at the time.[68]
Masque
To celebrate the 400-year anniversary of the school's foundation, in 1952, a masque was written which set out the history, great figures, and values of the school.
The school awards a number of prizes, some of which have been running for many years; among these are:
The Sidney Gold Medal, established 1838, is the top award Shrewsbury offers. It originally came with a purse of 50 sovereigns and was awarded to the top classicist going on to Oxbridge. The Trustees commissioned Sir Edward Thomason to cut the original die, and the image was based on a miniature painted by George Perfect Harding and owned by Dr Kennedy, now in the School collection. The medal was discontinued in 1855 when the stocks were exhausted, but was revived again in 1899. In 1980 the Salopian Club decided that the Medal should be open to all disciplines and not purely the Classics. Since that time the majority of recipients have excelled in the sciences.[175]
The Arand Haggar Prize, established 1890, original known as "The Mathematics Prize", an almost unbroken run of the annual competition paper stretches back to 1890, making it one of the longest continually-run mathematics competitions in the country.[176]
The Bentley Elocution Prize, established 1867: candidates are required recite well a poem of at least sonnet length, introduced by Thomas Bentley, whose career at the School spanned more than 50 years. Past winners include Sir Michael Palin.[177]
The Miles Clark Travel Award, established 1994, recipients of this award have, for instance, cycled around the world for over four years, cycled back to the UK from Siberia, and cycled by tandem from the north coast of Canada to Tierra del Fuego – a number of accounts of these travels have been published.[178]
HRH the Duke of Teck (later Marquess of Cambridge) on 11 May 1911[181]
George V visited the town of Shrewsbury in 1914, and laid a foundation at the school for a new library by electrical switch from the town's square.[182]
The future Edward VIII, then Prince of Wales, visited in 1932 to celebrate the Jubilee of the school's move to the Kingsland site.[183]
The Princess Royal opened the new Shrewsbury School Club, called the Shewsy, in Everton in 1974.[185]
Princess Margaret, in 1984, while officially visiting a new library in the town, lunched at the school and had a look at the new Art school.[183]
The Queen Mother came to Kingsland Hall during the headmastership of Donald Wright in the 1990s.[185]
King Charles III when Prince of Wales opened the new music school in 2001.[186]
Praepostors
The schools' prefects are known as præpostors.[187][188][189] The word originally referred to a monastic prior and is late Latin of the Middle Ages, derived from classical Latin praepositus, "placed before".The use of praepostor in the context of a school is derived from the practice of using older boys to lead or control the younger boys. Privileges associated with the office are a particular tie showing the school's arms and the right to cycle a bike to lessons. Defining the role in 1821, Dr Butler wrote:
"A præpostor is one of the first eight boys to whom the master delegates a certain share of authority, in whom he reposes confidence, and whose business it is to keep the boys in order, to prevent all kinds of mischief and impropriety..."[29]
Awards
House and school ties and scarfs are awarded achievements in co-curricular activities.
The school currently awards around £4 million in fee remissions.[190] Various measures of financial assistance are available to students associated with need and with ability, as set out below:[191]
Academic scholarships
Four Butler Scholarships (up to 30% of fees)
Six Kennedy and Moss Scholarships (up to 20% of fees)
Seven Alington Scholarships (at least £2,000 per year)
Art scholarships
Art scholarships are awarded annually, most of which carry a fee remission of 10%, and larger awards are sometimes made.
Music scholarships
Music scholarships are awarded each year, worth up to 30% of the fees and the scholars receive free music tuition on two instruments.
All-Rounder Scholarships
A small number of Sir Michael Palin All-Rounder Scholarships are awarded each year.
Other scholarships and bursaries
Scholarship awards are also made for drama, sport, and design and technology, and sixth-form scholarships are also available.[192] Bursary support grants are also available.[193]
Ancient library
The school's Ancient Library contains a first edition of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, acquired on publication.
The school has an ancient library,[194] containing various significant antiquarian books and other items.
The collection includes:
Charles Darwin's school atlas, along with books, manuscripts and letters[195]
Some forty medieval manuscripts, including a fine twelfth-century Gradual from Haughmond Abbey near Shrewsbury, and the Lichfield Processional with its unique liturgical English plays of circa 1430 and polyphonic music[197]
There are dozens of organisations known as 'societies', in many of which pupils come together to discuss a particular topic or to listen to a lecture, presided over by a senior pupil, and often including a guest speaker, they are largely run by the students[citation needed].
Paired Reading Society (students visit a local primary school, where they work with younger children on a one-to-one basis in order to help develop their reading skills).
Pupils are admitted at the age of 13 by selective examination,[4] and for approximately ten per cent of the pupils, English is a second or additional language.[1] The fees at Shrewsbury are up to £15,194 a term for UK boarding students and up to £16,004 a term for international boarding students, with three terms per academic year in 2023/24.[220]
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(November 2023)
The "Old Salopian Club", now known as the Salopian Club, was founded in 1886.[221] A number of reunions, clubs and activities are arranged by the club. The post nominals OS are used to denote Old Salopians.[222]
Sports
Former members of the school have various sporting clubs:
Rowing is arranged by the "Sabrina Club",[223] which fields crews, including for Henley Royal Regatta[224] as well as supporting the school crews at various events
Old Salopian golf, yachting, fives cross country, tennis, football, squash and basketball are also provided for.[226]
Careers, arts and activities
Arrangements for cultural engagement of former members if the school, for instance concerts and plays and art exhibitions are also put on, and there is a programme around careers.[227][228]
Social action
Shrewsbury House
A mission in Everton, Liverpool, called "Shrewsbury House" was established in 1903.[229] It is less formally known as "the Shrewsy" and is a youth and community centre associated with St Peter's Church Everton.[230] Michael Heseltine was first introduced to social issues in Liverpool which the took up in the 1980s at this mission.[231]
Medic Malawi
The charity Medic Malawi, which includes a hospital, two orphanages and The Shrewsbury School Eye Clinic has an ongoing relationships and support from the school community.[232]
Other activities
During the coronaviruspandemic of 2020 the school donated over 1,600 items of personal protective equipment to the NHS, including face shields it had 3D printed in its technology labs.[233] It also opened up rooms in its boarding houses for the use of NHS staff.[234]
Steam locomotive
One of the Southern Railway, Class V, Schools Class4-4-0 locomotives designed by Maunsell and built at Eastleigh and was named "Shrewsbury". Its SR number was 921 and its BR number was 30921. It entered service in 1934 and it was withdrawn in 1962 from use on railways. A name plate (one of two) is preserved in the Admissions Offices/Registry of the school.[235]
Farm house
The school maintains a farmhouse at Talargerwyn in Snowdonia.[236][237] This is used for outward-bound type activities and research trips.
Foundation
In 1965 the school established "The Foundation", which is one of the oldest school development offices in the country.[238]
Controversy
In September 2005, the school was one of fifty independent schools operating independent school fee-fixing, in breach of the Competition Act, 1998. All of the schools involved were ordered to abandon this practice, pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 each and to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information had been shared.[239][240]
Shropshire is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England, on the border with Wales. It is bordered by Cheshire to the north, the Welsh county of Wrexham to the north and northwest, Staffordshire to the east, Worcestershire to the southeast, Herefordshire to the south, and the Welsh county of Powys to the west. The largest settlement is Telford, while Shrewsbury is the county town.
Telford is a town in Shropshire, England. It is the administrative centre of Telford and Wrekin borough, a unitary authority which covers the town, its suburbs and surrounding settlements. The town is close to the county's eastern boundary, and near the River Severn.
Newport is a market town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire, England. It lies 7 miles (11 km) north-east of Telford town centre, 12 miles (19 km) west of Stafford, and is near the Shropshire-Staffordshire border. The 2001 census recorded 10,814 people living in the town's parish, which rose to 11,387 by the 2011 census.
Oswestry is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads.
Haberdashers' Adams Grammar School is a selective state grammar school for high-achieving boys and girls aged 11–18 with boarding for boys, located in Newport, Shropshire, offering day and boarding education. As of 2024, boarding fees are £14,553 per year for years 7-11 and £15,954 per year for Sixth Form. Haberdashers' Adams was founded in 1656 by William Adams, a wealthy member of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers. In January 2018, the school changed its name from Adams' Grammar School to Haberdashers' Adams. In July 2022, the school announced that it would become fully co-educational, starting from September 2024.
Market Drayton is a market town and civil parish on the banks of the River Tern in Shropshire, England. It is close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is located between the towns of Whitchurch, Wem, Nantwich, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Newport and the city of Stoke on Trent. The town is on the Shropshire Union Canal and bypassed by the A53 road.
Wellington is a market town of Telford and a civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England. It is situated 3 miles (4.8 km) north-west of Telford town centre and 12 miles (19 km) east of Shrewsbury; the summit of The Wrekin lies 3 miles (4.8 km) south-west of the town. The population of the town was 25,554 in 2011.
Wem is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, 9 miles (14 km) north of Shrewsbury and 9 miles (14 km) south of Whitchurch.
Samuel Butler was an English classical scholar and schoolmaster of Shrewsbury School, and Bishop of Lichfield. His grandson was Samuel Butler, the author of the novel Erewhon.
Bayston Hill is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is 3 miles (5 km) south of the county town Shrewsbury and located on the main A49 road, the Shrewsbury to Hereford road.
Pengwern Boat Club is the community rowing club in Shrewsbury, UK. It was founded in 1871.
Wrekin College is a private co-educational boarding and day school located in Wellington, Shropshire, England. It was founded by Sir John Bayley in 1880. It is now co-located with a preparatory school, The Old Hall School, founded by 1835. The two schools merged their governance and formed one trust in 2007.
Hadnall is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It lies on the A49, some 9 km north-north-east of Shrewsbury. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 688. The Welsh Marches Line runs just outside the village and there was once a railway station. Today, Hadnall has a primary school, a successful village shop, a pub and two AA Rosette restaurants.
Soulton Hall is a Tudor country house near Wem, England. It was a 16th century architectural project of Sir Rowland Hill, publisher of the Geneva Bible. Hill was a statesman, polymath and philanthropist, later styled the "First Protestant Lord Mayor of London" because of his senior role in the Tudor statecraft that was needed to bring stability to England in the fall out of the Reformation. The building of the current Soulton Hall, undertaken during the tumult of the Reformation, is therefore associated with the political and social work that laid the path for the subsequent English Renaissance.
Weston-under-Redcastle is an estate village of the Sir Rowland Hill legacy estates. It is a civil parish in Shropshire, England. It lies 10 km by road east of Wem. Historically, it has been part of the manor of Hawkstone.
Lord Hill's Column is a monument located outside of Shropshire Council's headquarters, Shirehall, in the town of Shrewsbury, Shropshire. It is a column of the Doric order and measures 133 ft 6 in (40.7 m) in height. It commemorates General Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill, with a 17 ft (5.2 m) tall statue standing on the top of the column. The column is shorter than the 44.5m 'Monument to British Liberty' at Gibside, but the combined height of the column and statue is higher in total. The column was built between 1814 and 1816; its diameter is 2 ft (0.6 m) wider than Nelson's Column, and, not including the pedestal, is 15 ft (4.6 m) higher.
Cyril Argentine Alington was an English educationalist, scholar, cleric, and author. He was successively the headmaster of Shrewsbury School and Eton College. He also served as chaplain to King George V and as Dean of Durham.
Bridgnorth Endowed School is a coeducational secondary school with academy status, located in the market town of Bridgnorth in the rural county of Shropshire, England. Founded in 1503, The Endowed School is a state school and is a specialist Technology College. The age range of the school is 11–18 years. It was previously known as the Bridgnorth Grammar School, and the school celebrated the 500th anniversary of its foundation in 2003. Former pupils include Professor Peter Bullock, a soil scientist who was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Shrewsbury is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, 33 miles (53 km) northwest of Wolverhampton, 15 miles (24 km) west of Telford, 31 miles (50 km) southeast of Wrexham and 53 miles (85 km) north of Hereford. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 76,782.
Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery was founded in 1835 as the Museum of the Shropshire and North Wales Natural History and Antiquarian Society Society in Dogpole, Shrewsbury, England. In 1853 the collections were moved to Vaughan's Mansion on College Hill, which became known as the Shropshire and North Wales Museum. After 160 years and two subsequent homes the museum returned to Vaughan's Mansion and the Music Hall Complex after a major redevelopment of the site.
↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 2. Oxford University Press. 2004. p.684. ISBN0-19-861352-0.Article on Thomas Ashton by Martin R. Speight.
↑ Vicesimus (Ed.), Vicesimus (1794). Models of letters, for the use of schools and private students. Being an epitome of the large octavo volume, entitled, Elegant epistles: and containing select letters from the best English authors, with many translated from the French, which have never appeared in any miscellaneous collection. Vol.2. London: Printed for T. Longman, B. Law [etc.] p.38.
↑ Zouch, Thomas (1809). Memoirs of the life and writings of Sir Philip Sidne: The second edition. London: J. Mawman; T. Payne. p.20.
↑ Beryl Copsey (April 1985). Read All About It! Grand Opening of Shrewsbury's free library 100 years ago. p.18–19.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
↑ A plaque erected by The Rotary Club of Shrewsbury, commemorating the club's 60th anniversary in 1985, reads: "Castle Gates Library erected by Edward VI in 1552, Shrewsbury School occupied this site until 1882. The stone buildings were built 1594–1630. Judge Jefferys and Charles Darwin were educated here. Re-opened as a library in 1983 after complete renovation."
1 2 "School song". Shrewsbury School. 28 March 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
↑ Noakes, Vivien, ed. (2006). Voices of silence: the alternative book of First World War poetry. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Pub. ISBN978-0-7509-4521-9. OCLC71239052.
↑ Harvey, Adrian (2005). Football: The first hundred years. Routledge. p.251.
↑ Shephard, Roy J. (18 September 2017). A history of health & fitness: implications for policy today. Cham, Switzerland. ISBN978-3-319-65097-5. OCLC1005231187.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Partridge, Eric, 1894-1979. (1984). A dictionary of slang and unconventional English: colloquialisms and catch phrases, fossilised jokes and puns, general nicknames, vulgarisms, and such Americanisms as have been naturalised. Beale, Paul. (8thed.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN0-7100-9820-0. OCLC12662772.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
↑ HICKMAN-ROBERTSON, PATRICK. (2019). ADVENTURES IN A BACKWATER GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT: and other scenes from the unremarkable life of... a son of the suburbs. [S.l.]: MATADOR. ISBN978-1-83859-167-0. OCLC1105242332.
↑ Sharon Gamson Danks. (2010). Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation. New Village Press. ISBN9781613320792. OCLC1027611636.
↑ HUGHES, SIMON. (2020). THERE SHE GOES: liverpool, a city on its own. the long decade. [S.l.]: DECOUBERTIN BOOKS. ISBN978-1-9162784-4-8. OCLC1135292206.
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