History of Stonyhurst College
The earliest deed concerning the "Stanihurst" dates from 1200 AD and can now be found in the Arundell Library in the college, whilst the earliest evidence of a building on the site is from 1372 when John de Bayley was licensed to have an oratory there; the archway in the Bayley Room, within the 'Blind Tower', is believed to date from the fourteenth century, and may well be the only remnant of that earlier building.
Cromwell spent the night at Stonyhurst and is reputed to have slept on a table, in the middle of the Great Hall, in full armour.
He resolved in 1794 to donate his Lancashire estate, including the buildings, with 30 acres (120,000 m2) of land to the Society of Jesus for the purpose of settling them and their evacuated charges from Northern France and the Austrian Netherlands.
[6][page needed] The original hall has been altered and extended over the years to become one of the largest inhabited buildings in Europe and achieving Grade I listed status from English Heritage.
[8] The story of the school starts at St Omer in what was then the Spanish Low Countries in 1593, where a college was founded by Father Robert Parsons for English boys, unable to receive a Catholic education in Elizabethan England.
As such it was one of a number of expatriate English schools operating on the European mainland during the centuries when Catholicism was proscribed in England.
During subsequent decades, when the Jesuit Order was suppressed in most countries, the college was one of the institutions through which it managed to maintain a continuous existence.
Not taking any chances however, a number of hiding places were created throughout the building should the Jesuits face persecution again, and when Saint Mary's Hall was constructed in the following century, a secret escape tunnel, which still survives, was also built linking the seminary to an exit in the gardens.
[11] When Clifford and his fellow pupils of Liège first arrived at Stonyhurst Hall, the buildings were in an extremely bad state of disrepair, and a temporary structure was built next to the east wing to house the boys.
A number of other buildings were added in the early 19th century, including the new church of St Peter's, in the Gothic style of the chapel at King's College, Cambridge.
By the 1880s new building works began on the school, including removal of the grand stairs in the quad and subsequently the west wing.
The temporary structures of 'Shirk' and the new west wing served the school well, but by late 19th century it needed to expand again and work was started on the south front, including the building of the Boys Chapel and the Academy Room.
The south front took a considerable amount of time to build, because much of the land was swamp, resulting in the need for deeper foundations, which also created extra space.
After Fr Michael Bossy's fifteen-year headmastership, in 1986 the college acquired its first lay headmaster, Giles Mercer.
By the end of the 1980s, the school opened a new indoor swimming pool, new squash courts, a new gym and various refurbished classrooms and playrooms.
As part of the celebrations a play written by Fr William Hewett SJ was performed at the new theatre outlining the history of Stonyhurst.
In 1997, Stonyhurst began its run-up to becoming fully co-educational, and introduced girls to the preparatory school, St Mary's Hall.
On a point of principle, Aylward withdrew Stonyhurst from academic league tables, claiming that they were of little relevance and devalued the worth of the individual.
