Four and a half centuries of service

Abstract

Those celebrating the 450th anniversary of the institution in which they work (as did Bolton School in 1974) would be well advised to look forward quite as hard as they look back. An existence which exceeds four centuries must count for something, even if it be only an extremely tough shell or a Vicar of Bray‐like capacity to adapt to external circumstances. But no institution has a built‐in right to live for ever, and history is littered with the remains of institutions and organisations (or their monuments) which—like the great Cistercian Abbeys of the north of England—were apparently unchallengeable in their hey‐day but which now are little more than names writ in water. If something is to survive as a living and successful entity, it must fulfil a need and, even more, be seen to do so. These reflections have been much in the mind of those looking back this year over the 450 years in which a ‘grammar school’ has flourished in Bolton; and their outline has been sharpened by contemporary noises on the Left which suggest that, at some not‐too‐distant date, the present pattern of the school—an urban, academically‐selected day school in receipt of direct grant from the DES—may be under considerable pressure to change.

Citation

Baggley, D. (1975), "Four and a half centuries of service", Education + Training, Vol. 17 No. 1/2, pp. 5-8. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb001852