As usual the top six senior prefects from Bishop’s attended the Annual Salisbury Mayor making at St Thomas’ Church in the heart of the city last Saturday. In my invitation to them for the event I asked them, slightly flippantly, whether they had read any Thomas Hardy – and that if they had them the spectacle that awaited them would have an unnerving familiarity about it. Salisbury (or Melchester in his novels) may be towards the eastern edge of Hardy’s literary world, but on Saturday in glorious May sunshine you could be forgiven for thinking that you had returned to the nineteenth century. The streets were closed, the procession of the great and good included a marching band, robed councillors, judges, members of the public services and armed forces, local politicians and even the Salisbury Giant and Hob-Nob taking up the rear. Morris Men dancing in the city centre and the Charter Market completed the time warp illusion. Lots of 21st century clutter remained of course, but I felt that it was easy to ignore all of that and simply enjoy the spectacle of the day – after all Sven Hocking is reckoned to be the 763rd Mayor of Salisbury. There is some history – especially bearing in mind that Reuben Bracher, first Head at BWS was also Mayor of Salisbury 1923-24...
The prefects tell me that they enjoyed the morning, and I’m really not surprised. They are always very good at schmoozing back at the Guildhall Reception afterwards, and their presence there makes a real impact as you might imagine. This year, unusually, the Bishop’s contingent was joined by some boys and girls from SWGS which was great to see; BWS has been represented every year since I have been Head, and probably for long before that too. It is very important for the school and for Salisbury. The new mayor almost always stresses the importance of engaging with young people during their year in office, and they are invariably very generous with their time when it comes to school events of various sorts. We, in turn, almost always contribute a significant sum towards the mayor’s charitable campaign, and the presence of our stellar group of sixth form boys and girls is an important signal of the intimate, enduring link between our town and the school. Bishop John’s founding idea was for a great centre of education for local boys and girls at the centre of his cathedral city, and that idea is still lived out today.
This year I was struck once again just how tightly woven Bishop’s is into the tapestry of Salisbury’s history. Not only is the new mayor a BWS alumnus, but there are another two city councillors who hail from BWS. In addition two of the beadles (who carry the various maces and staffs of the city regalia in the mayor’s procession) are ex Bishop’s Boys, and there were many others in the audience at St Thomas’ who had connections with the school or had sent their children here in the past. So at the same time as history was being re-enacted, those essential personal and societal links were being re-cemented as they should be. As they posed in the sun for a photo outside the entrance to St Thomas’ those senior prefects were just the latest incarnation of something that has been happening for well over a century. History in the making.
