For those of you (and there are a few) who spend some of their lives inhabiting another planet, this school has an intimate connection with the Bishops of Salisbury. Just over 130 years ago, Bishop John Wordsworth (the 67th Bishop) decided to set up a school here, in the Cathedral Close; the school was even based in the Bishop’s Palace (now the home of the Cathedral School) for the first few months of its life. With that heritage and lineage it is no surprise that the connection between the Bishop’s office and the Bishop’s School is strong and persistent.
Of course there have been Bishops in Salisbury for a bit longer than there has been a school here. The first Bishop apparently was Saint Aldhelm, who was in charge between 705-710, taking office of the newly formed Diocese of Sherborne just over 1300 years ago and that, of course, was around 500 years before the building of our other assembly hall next door.
The founder is not the only link that we have with the Bishops of Salisbury because those well-known and used letters J, M, O, P and W are also the first letters of the names of five other Bishops. You will have seen the five noticeboards outside the Chapel Block – with the five coats of arms for the five Bishops – and the same on the website too. It aways helps if you know a bit of the history behind the name, rather than just accepting it so who were they, and what did they do?
J is for Jewell – John Jewell was the 35th Bishop of Salisbury. He was an academic of the 16th Century who grew up in the reign of Henry VIII, becoming a strong protestant. This proved to be a problem when ‘Bloody’ Mary came to the throne – so Jewell fled abroad. He came back when Mary died and was made Bishop of Salisbury.
M is for Martival – Roger de Martival, 13th Bishop, whose main claim to fame is that he moved from being Dean of Lincoln (where he presided over the building of a massive Cathedral) to Salisbury – where he promptly oversaw the completion of 404 feet of spire next door.
O is for Osmund – Saint Osmund in fact, 2nd Bishop of Old Sarum who held office between 1078 to 1099. Osmund founded the original Cathedral at Old Sarum – he was a great scholar and theologian, setting up a very strong Christian church community which lasts through to the present day.
P is for Poore (with an ‘e’) – Richard Poore, 1st Bishop of New Sarum. As he was in charge from 1217 to 1228, he had the chance to oversee and direct the plans for the new Cathedral. But he did a bit more than this, because New Sarum – the town that we now know – started to grow in his time. Oh – and he was also responsible for the appeal to support the building of the massive new church – an ecclesiastical fundraiser – some things never change.
W is for Ward – 49th Bishop of Salisbury. Seth Ward was not just a cleric – he was also a mathematician and an astronomer. Like most mathematicians he had strong views and was somewhat argumentative, but his work on planetary motion put him at the very heart of 17th Century physics. From the elliptical to the ecclesiastical he abandoned space for the church, ending his career heading the Diocese of Salisbury for the last 20 years of his life.
So, five Bishops – the rebel, the spire builder, the founder, the planner and the stargazer. Real life stories from over 1300 years of history, and links between what we do here and the history of the great church next door. The five houses have meaning – for all of you in terms of the competitions, the prefects and the assemblies perhaps. But they also have a clear resonance and connect us all to the past as we are part of the life of the Bishop’s School.
SDS
