Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Crosby

Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Crosby
Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Crosby
	; School badge ; Merchant Taylors main building
Address
	186 Liverpool Road; Great Crosby, Merseyside, L23 0QP; England
Information
Type	7–18 boys Independent day school; Public School
Motto	Latin: Concordia parvae res crescunt; ("Small things grow in harmony" - Sallust)
Established	1620; 404 years ago
Founder	Merchant Taylors' Company
Local authority	Sefton
Department for Education URN	104973 Tables
Head Master	Mr Deiniol Williams
Staff	~80 (full-time)
Gender	Boys
Age	7 to 18
Enrolment	737
Houses	Armours, Harrisons, Stevens, Warings
Colour(s)
Former pupils	Old Crosbeians
School Song	Crescat Crosbeia
Website	Merchant Taylors' Boys School

53°29′02″N 3°01′30″W / 53.484°N 3.025°W / 53.484; -3.025

Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Crosby is a 7–18 boys private day school, located in Great Crosby on Merseyside. The school's motto is that of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors: Concordia Parvae Res Crescunt (Small Things Grow in Harmony).

From September 2025, Merchant Taylors’ Girls’ School will join Merchant Taylors’ Boys’ School to create a single, co-educational senior school. The newly created school will be known as Merchant Taylors’ School and will be co-educational for all pupils aged 4-18, creating one school, one community, with one vision.

History

Establishment

The school was founded in 1620 under the instruction of the estate of John Harrison, a citizen and Merchant Taylor of London, who was born in Great Crosby, and was run under the auspices of the Merchant Taylors' Company until 1910. In 1878, the school moved to its present site, some 1,000 yards from the previous, which now forms part of the Merchant Taylors' Girls' School, with whom the school shares a Governing Board and Bursar.

The first schoolmaster was the Revd John Kidde, who was also at the time the ‘Minister of Crosby’ and a farmer of 3 acres (12,000 m²) to support his family of eight children. Kidde was apparently sacked from the post in 1651 on the grounds of mismanagement, although it is thought he was forced out by Roman Catholic sympathizers on account of his Puritan/Presbyterian ways.^[3]

Boarding school

Until the 1970s, Merchant Taylors' was also a boarding school. It currently caters for over 700 day pupils between the ages of 11 and 18 (with an additional 120 in the Junior School). Lessons run Monday-Friday, 08:40-16:00 (A Saturday working day was abolished in 1981). As a result of these longer school days, holidays are frequently several weeks longer than local education authority dates.

The school is independently run, and, as such, charges tuition fees. Fees were partially subsidised by the Government under the Assisted Places Scheme until the closure of that scheme in 2001. The Schools now run their own means tested Assisted Places Scheme under which about 20% of pupils benefit from free, or reduced-fee places. The schools offer around £1 million a year in bursaries. About 17 per cent of pupils at the two senior schools receive assistance, worth up to 100 per cent of the £11,394 annual fees.^[4]

Recent history

In 2013, Merchant Taylors’ was Crosby’s best performing school with 98% of pupils at the boys’ school achieving five Cs or above in any subject at GCSE.^[5]

Overview

Academic attainment

Academically, the School sees around 60% of grades awarded at A* and A at GCSE and, consistently excellently at A-Level, where 80% and above of grades have been recorded at A*-B. 2012 saw record results at A Level, with the percentage of grades awarded at A* and A 62.3%. The School also enters students for a range of other public examinations, including Extended Project Qualifications, which have been offered since 2011.

Extracurricular activities

The primary sports played by the school are rugby union, field hockey and cricket, however association football as well as samoan cricket have both recently been introduced as an 'official' school sport and looks set to challenge the more established sports over the coming years. The school also has a boat house which is currently on loan to Southport Dragon Boat Club, in the nearby town of Southport for its rowing team. The rowing team compete in national races with a number of boys competing at national level every year. The rugby coaching staff includes former Scottish international Ian McKie, and included Mike Slemen, former England and British and Irish Lions international and England team selector until his death in 2020.

The school also has a Combined Cadet Force, run in conjunction with Merchant Taylors' Girls' School, headed by Contingent Commander, Major (CCF) Helen Irwin. Her predecessors include Lieutenant Colonel (CCF), Mike Slemen, Squadron Leader Mark Stanley RAFAC (formerly RAFVR(T)) and Lieutenant Colonel (CCF), Paul Irvine. The Army section of MTS CCF is badged as Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's Regiment until July 2006). In 2015, Merchant Taylors' CCF celebrated its centenary year. A new banner was presented in the nearby St. Faith's Church, with The Duke of York in attendance.^[6]

In December 2011, the £5.5m Ian Robinson Sports Centre was opened. Facilities include a climbing wall, fitness suite, sports hall and dance studio. The Sports Centre is named after ex Head of Rugby, Ian Robinson, who died on a school sports tour in Australia after a white water rafting accident in 2007.^[7] Other facilities include a heated indoor swimming pool on site (which has been emptied and eventually closed permanently in 2020 due to leaking and other maintenance issues so substantial that the cost of rectifying same remains prohibitive), a language laboratory, extensive playing fields, fully equipped science laboratories, an art and design suite, cricket nets, a self-contained music block and a share of Northern Club's facilities.

Notable people

Former pupils

Old Boys of Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Crosby, are known at the school as "Old Crosbeians"

Peter Atkins, Bishop of Waiapu^[8]
Gordon Ellis, painter^[9]
Charles James Mathews, actor^[10]
Ward Muir (1878–1927), photographer^[11]
Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury^[12]
Ronald White, amateur golfer^[13]
Bertie Wilson, Second Engineer on RMS Titanic^[14]

Headmasters

2022- Deiniol Williams
2019-2022 David J. Wickes
2017-2018 Deiniol Williams (acting)
2005-2017 David H. Cook
1986-2005 Simon J. R. Dawkins
1979-1986 David Ranald Johnston-Jones
1964-1979 Hyam Mark Luft
1942-1964 Thomas John Pinches York
1929-1942 Charles F. Russell
1903- 1929 Henry Cradock-Watson
1863-1903 Samuel Crawford Armour
1861-1863 Robert Oliver Carter
1850-1861 John Burnard
1829-1849 Joseph Clark
1788-1829 Matthew Chester
1758-1787 Wilfrid Troutbeck
1757-1758 Thomas Mercer [acting]
1730-1755 Anthony Halsall
1712-1730 Gerard Waring
1677-1711 John Waring
1661-1677 John Ashworth
1652-1660 Edward Mollinex
1651-1652 John Stevens
1620-1651 John Kidde

Notable teachers and staff

Dame Jean Davies, Director of the Women's Royal Naval Service
John Pugh, Liberal Democrat MP for Southport
Mike Slemen, former England and British and Irish Lions international and England team selector

References

^ "Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby". School Search. isbi Schools. 2007. Retrieved 29 January 2008.
^ "EduBase - Merchant Taylors' Boys' School". Archived from the original on 6 January 2014.
^ "Our History". Merchant Taylors'. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
^ "How to get the best education for less". Telegraph. 19 October 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
^ "Crosby pupils shine as schools toast league table success". Crosby Herald. 31 January 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
^ "Senior Boys › News › Schools celebrate 100 years of the Combined Cadet Force". www.merchanttaylors.com. Retrieved 15 January 2016.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^ "Teacher killed on Australia trip". BBC News. 1 August 2007. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
^ "Atkins, Peter Geoffrey" in Who's Who 2008 (London: A & C Black, 2008 ISBN 978-0-7136-8555-8)
^ Tibbles, Anthony (2023). A Dictionary of Liverpool Ship Portraitists and Marine Artists. Liverpool University Press. p. 28. ISBN 9781837646524.
^ "Mathews, Charles s.v. Charles James Mathews", Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. 17 of 11th ed. (Cambridge University Press), p. 887
^ Ivor Nicholson, "Ward Muir", The Bookman, Vol. 55 (1919), pp. 5–6
^ "Runcie, Robert Alexander Kennedy, Baron Runcie (1921–2000)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/74402. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ "Troon player to captain Scottish boys". The Glasgow Herald. 1 November 1937. p. 4.
^ "Titanic Town". Archived from the original on 7 January 2014.