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School structure
The school is divided into three sections:
The Pre-Preparatory takes children aged 3-8;
The Preparatory is for boys and girls aged 8-13, and
The Upper School is for boys and girls aged 13-18.
There are currently around 650 children in the Upper School of which about a third are girls, and in 2004 there were plans to increase the size of the school. At the start of the 2004 - 2005 school year, a new boarding and day house for girls were opened.
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Houses
The Upper School boys' houses are:
(Polacks house, which took Jewish boys only, has recently closed)
The girls' houses are:
Hallward's (predominantly day with some boarders)
Before 1987, Clifton was a boys-only school, and was predominantly boarding, although there were day-boy houses.
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Buildings & grounds
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Clifton has a fine set of Victorian era gothic buildings, centred around a quad, containing the Chapel, Big School (Canteen) and the Percival Library. The chapel has a rose window. Bristol Zoo is between the college and Clifton Down.
At the side of College Road, opposite what was Dakyns' boarding house (now East Town and North Town), is the college's memorial arch, which commemorates teachers and pupils who died in the two world wars. The college's buildings, mainly School House, were used as the main HQ where the D-Day landings were devised and planned. The college played a major part in both World Wars; Field Marshal Douglas Haig was an Old Cliftonian who went on to command the British armed forces in the First World War. Through the memorial arch and in front of School House is a life-size statue of Haig. At the edge of the quad is a memorial to those killed in the South African Wars.
On one of the college's cricket pitches, now known as Collins' Piece, the highest-ever cricket score was reached in June 1899, in the School House match between Clark's House v North Town. In this match A. E. J. Collins, killed in the First World War, scored 628 not out, but not under the current rules of the game. He was not the first Clifton schoolboy to hold this record: in 1868 Edward Tylecote, who went on to help England reclaim the Ashes in 1882/3 was a previous holder, with 404 not out in a game between Classicals and Moderns.
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The Close
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The college ground, known as the Close, played an important role in the history of cricket, and witnessed 13 of W G Grace's first-class hundreds for Gloucestershire in the County Championship. Grace's children attended the college.
The close featured in the famous poem by O.C. Sir Henry Newbolt - VitaŃ— Lampada:-
There's a breathless hush on the Close to-night
Ten to make and the match to win
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play, and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat.
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote
"Play up! Play up! And play the game!"
The sand of the desert is sodden red-
Red with the wreck of the square that broke
The gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed its banks,
And England's far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks-
"Play up! Play up! And play the game!"
This is the word that year by year,
While in her place the school is set,
Every one of her sons must hear,
And none that hears it dare forget.
This they all with a joyful mind
Bear through life like a torch in flame,
And falling fling to the host behind -
"Play up! Play up! And play the game!"
Clifton has a commemoration arch, known by pupils as 'mem arch', with the names of all of pupils and teachers who died in the first and second world wars. During the second world war the school was evacuated to a hotel in Cornwall and the Americans used the impressive buildings for the planning of their role in the war. The Omaha D-day beach landings were planned in School House, and as a thank you the school was given an American flag, which is now flown on July 4 every year from the Wilson Tower.
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The Marshal
Unusually, the college employs a master called "The Marshal", whose only job is to enforce discipline, attendance at classes and related school rules (such as dress code, drinking and hair length). Mr French, a well known Marshal from the 1970s, once upbraided a boy called Bascombe, with the classic "'ere Bascombe-lad, what's your name?". Many public houses near the school had photos of the Marshal, who was permanently banned so as to not discourage the attendance of pupils who were regular customers.
By tradition of the college, a Marshal's name is not added to the plaque listing the names of the school's Marshals until after his death.
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School customs
The Head of School is entitled to graze sheep on the Close and attend chapel on a white charger.
If the school clock (on the edge of the chapel in the quad) is hit by a cricket ball driven in a school match, the following school day will be given as a holiday.
Walking on the Close without permission during the week results in a fine (calculated on a cost-per-foot-in-breach basis) administered by the Marshal.
There is a less well-known tradition that if a pupil spends a night in the crypt where John Percival's remains are located the whole school may have a day's holiday, but pupils have tried to do this in more recent years and have not been allowed. It has often been said that a dark figure can be seen walking around the arches by the door to the crypt late at night, and when followed it will vanish.
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Religious community
Like many English public schools, Clifton has regular chapel services and a focus on Christianity, but for the last 125 years there has also been a Jewish boarding house (Polack's); complete with kosher dining facilities and synagogue for boys in the Upper School: this was the last one of its kind in Europe. However, at the end of the 2004-05 school year, the Polack's trust announced that Polack's House would be close due to the low numbers of boyss in the house (although many pupils were turned down this year).
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Alumni
Clifton's alumni include:
Monty Python actor John Cleese (A persistent school legend has it that he was expelled for a humorous defacing of school grounds. In the story, Cleese used painted footsteps to suggest that the statue of General Haig had got down off his stand and gone to the toilet. Sadly, though the prank may indeed have happened, Cleese was expelled for it.),
England cricketer Matt Windows
as well as three Nobel Prize winners:
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Headmasters
Listed in order of appointment - with the most recent listed last:
Canon James Maurice Wilson (1879 - 1890)
Canon Michael George Glazebrooke
Sir Henry Desmond Pritchard Lee
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Notable former masters
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Clifton College Register
The register's motto:
"There be of them, that have left a name behind them, that their praises might be reported..."
The Clifton College Register is the definitive set of records held for Clifton College in Bristol. The Register is kept and maintained by the Old Cliftonian Society. The Old Cliftonian Society OCS is the Society for the alumni of Clifton College - whether pupils or staff. The OCS organises regular reunions at the school and publishes a regular newsletter for alumni.
This important record has been maintained unbroken from the very start of the school in 1862 and lists every pupil, master and headmaster. Each person is allocated a unique and consecutive school number - and for masters and headmasters the number is prefixed with either an M or HM as appropriate. The Register also maintains a record of the school roll in numbers, the Heads of School and summarises the major sporting records for each year.
The Register is periodically published by the Old Cliftonian Society; at present there are three available volumes:
First entries in the Register
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Pupils
P1. Sept 1862 - Francis Charles Anderson (b 14 Nov 1846 - d 1881)
P2. Sept 2006 - Tristan and Miles Fabes-Crook (b 17 Nov/Feb 1988/1989) (Siamese Twins)
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Masters
The early years
Numbers of pupils in the school
1863 - 195 (including the new junior school)
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