In the 12th century, the school was no doubt housed near the cathedral at Old Sarum. At the start of the 13th century, the centre of the
Diocese of Salisbury was moved from Old Sarum to its present site, and the choristers must have lodged with canons in the new
Cathedral Close. After 1319, a house was built in the Close to accommodate the school (known as 'The Choristers' House'), and the school remained here for the next 300 years. The choristers were educated in the Chancellor's Grammar School nearby.
In 1335, most of the students of the
College of the Valley Scholars near the cathedral transferred to Salisbury Hall, Oxford, and after that the College was "practically a nursery for a few scholars attending the Cathedral Grammar School" until the
Reformation, when it was dissolved.[8]
In 1714, the school moved to a new School House built for it on the northwest side of The Close. This became known as
Wren Hall. The house connected to it, Braybrooke House, was the home of the Chancellor's Grammar School.[9]
In 1847,
Bishop Hamilton combined the Cathedral School, or Choristers' School, with the Chancellor's Grammar School, and the school was thereafter known as the Cathedral School.[9]
As the site in the Close could not keep pace with the growing number of pupils, in 1946 the school was relocated to the former Bishop's Palace in the grounds of the cathedral. The building is designated as
Grade I listed by
English Heritage.[11]
In 1987, the first girls were admitted. The cathedral became the first in England to have female choristers when it opened its choristership programme to girls in 1991.[12]
A library partly funded by the former bookshop chain
Ottakar's was opened in October 2002. Two members of the Heneage family, who owned the company, were former pupils.[citation needed]
Leaden Hall School
In 2016, Leaden Hall School, a nearby independent school for girls aged 2 to 13, was merged into Salisbury Cathedral School.[13] At first, the Leaden Hall site was to be for younger pupils at the enlarged school.[14]
The Leaden Hall site, owned by the dean and chapter,[15] is west of the former Bishop's Palace, on West Walk, and is bounded to the west by the
River Avon. Its buildings include Leaden Hall (or Leadenhall), which has its origins in one of the first stone houses constructed in the new cathedral close, as a canon's residence.[3] The present house is a 1717 rebuilding to the north, reusing some of the older stonework. Of two storeys under a tiled roof, the west front has four bays (including a later northern bay) and a 19th-century Gothic porch. The building was designated as Grade I listed in 1952.[16]
There was a school on the site from at least 1953.[19] A charity was linked to the school from 1963 to 2018.[20] In 2003 there were 261 pupils, including 40 boarders,[19] and around the time of the merger there were 130.[21]
Location
The school's 27-acre campus[22] is next to
Bishop Wordsworth's School, in the southern part of Salisbury
Cathedral Close, which at 80 acres (320,000 m2) is the largest Cathedral Close in Britain.[23] The main school building is the former Bishop's Palace, parts of which date from the building of the cathedral in the 13th century. The pre-preparatory part of the school is located in newer buildings adjacent to the palace, but uses some of the main school facilities. The boarding house is also in The Close. Sports facilities include football, rugby and cricket pitches, an athletics track, tennis courts/hockey pitches (Astro Turf) and an outdoor swimming pool.
Academics
Scholarships are offered on entry to the school at Years 3 and 6, with choral scholarships offered at Years 4 and 5. An exchange programme with pupils from Union High School, South Africa, is available to Year 7 students.
The school continues to serve its original function of educating choristers of the
cathedral choir. Every year auditions are held for children between ages 7 and 9 and successful applicants receive scholarships to attend the school.[25] It was the first English cathedral to allow girls to become choristers, and is unique in that the girls have equal duties with the boys. Many choristers board in a large boarding house located near the school.[26]
In media
The school featured in a
BBC television documentary entitled Angelic Voices: The Choristers of Salisbury Cathedral, which was first broadcast in March 2012.
Edward Lowe (c.1602–1682): Composer, author & organist. Professor of Music at Oxford University (1671–1682).[27]
Sir Stephen Fox (1627–1716): [Noted in John Evelyn's Diary as ‘…a poore boy from the quire of Salisbury’].[28] Founder of The Royal Hospital, Chelsea; Commissioner of the Treasury.[29][30]
Sir George Ridout Bingham,
KCB (1777–1833): Army Officer in the Peninsular War. Commanded the garrison of St.Helena guarding the Emperor Napoleon.[27][35]
Walter Kendall Stanton (1891–1978): Organist & composer. Director of BBC Midland Radio Music. Editor of the BBC Hymn Book. First Professor of Music at Bristol University.[27][37]
Stephen Clissold (1913–1982): Author: subjects include mediæval mystics, Latin America & Yugoslavia. In 2nd World War, worked with the British Mission to Yugoslavia. He was the interpreter between
Sir Winston Churchill &
Marshal Tito at their first meeting.[27][37][38]
Doctor
Bernard Rose (1916–1996): Don, organist and master of the choristers, Magdalen College, Oxford.
Professor
John Blacking (1928–1990): Anthropologist and ethnomusicologist.[29]
Robert Wilkie (born 1962): Former United Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
References
^Salisbury Cathedral School Motto: "Domine dilexi decorem domus tuae" Psalm 25:8: 'I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of thy house'. [Originally suggested as the School's motto by Bishop George Moberly - c.1885]
^
abPugh, R.B.; Crittall, Elizabeth, eds. (1956). "The cathedral of Salisbury: From the foundation to the fifteenth century".
A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 3. London: University of London. Retrieved 24 October 2020 – via British History Online.
^
abcdefghijOsmond, Stephen E., Register of Past & Present Pupils of the Cathedral School Salisbury (5th.Ed. 2002; publ. Salisbury Cathedral School Association)