Bishop's Stortford College
Encyclopedia
Bishop's Stortford College is a co-educational independent school
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...

 for day and boarding pupils from the ages of four to eighteen, with a 130 acre (0.5260918 km²) campus located on the edge of Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire in the county of Hertfordshire in England. It is situated just west of the M11 motorway, on the county boundary with Essex and is the closest large town to London Stansted Airport and part of the...

, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. As an "all-through" school it is a member of both the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference is an association of the headmasters or headmistressess of 243 leading day and boarding independent schools in the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies and the Republic of Ireland...

 and the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools
Independent Association of Preparatory Schools
The Independent Association of Preparatory Schools is a professional association for headteachers of independent preparatory schools in the UK and worldwide. The association is based in Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, England...

.

History

Bishop's Stortford College was founded in 1868 by a group of prominent Nonconformists in East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...

 who wanted to establish a public school
in which Evangelical Nonconformists might secure for their boys an effective and Christian education on terms that should not be beyond the reach of the middle class generally.


They approached the Bishop's Stortford Collegiate School, a non-sectarian school founded in 1850, and acquired the school buildings, naming the new educational establishment as the Nonconformist Grammar School.

Two grammar schools in the town proved confusing so in 1901 the name was changed to the Bishop’s Stortford College and the association became instead a board of governors with nominees from the Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

, Congregational
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

 and Presbyterian churches on the panel.

The school’s first headmaster was the Reverend Richard Alliott and its first pupils were 40 in number. Rev Alliott led the school for 31 years and his successor Francis Young was also in post for 31 years.

It is notable that the school only had five head teachers during its first one hundred years:
  • Rev Alliott (1869–99)
  • F S Young (1900–31)
  • H L Price (1932–43)
  • A N Evans (1944–57)
  • P W Rowe (1957–68)

then:
  • G C Greetham (1971–84)
  • S G G Benson (1984–97)
  • John Trotman (1997—2011)
  • Jeremy Gladwin (2011- )


During its early years, the school built up a strong reputation in the sports field and swimming, and was one of the first schools in the country to have its own indoor heated pool, built in 1895. The Bishop's Stortford College Centenary Chronicle records:
The new bath, which cost something in the region of £5000, was an immense addition to the athletic life and the amenities of the school. Before it was built, swimming was possible only in the summer term, in the part of the River Stort near the cattle market that had been railed off as a town swimming pool; here such things as broken glass bottles would be found at times on the muddy bottom with grave danger to the bathers’ feet. Now, with a heated bath under cover, it was possible to bathe the whole year round, and the swimming standards of the boys improved greatly.


Under the headmastership of Francis Young, the school continued to grow in both size and reputation. Young commissioned many of the red brick school buildings designed in the arts and craft style by Herbert Ibberson (an old scholar with an architectural practive in Hunstanton), acquired the sports fields which occupy 100 acre (0.404686 km²) of land and, in 1902, took over an existing school for boys aged 7 to 13 years. The life of the Bishop's Stortford College Preparatory School, now referred to as the Junior School, began with just eight day pupils and eight boarders.

The Memorial Hall, Bishop's Stortford College’s most distinctive building, was designed in Georgian Colonial style by architect Clough Williams-Ellis
Clough Williams-Ellis
Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC was an English-born Welsh architect known chiefly as creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales.-Origins, education and early career:...

 who was known chiefly as creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion
Portmeirion
Portmeirion is a popular tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village and is now owned by a charitable trust....

 in North Wales. The Memorial Hall was erected in 1922 to commemorate the 62 pupils who had lost their lives in the First World War. A second Roll of Honour was added in 1949, inscribed with the names of a further 154 former students who lost their lives in World War II.

In 1968 the school celebrated its centenary with a visit from the Queen Mother
Queen mother
Queen Mother is a title or position reserved for a widowed queen consort whose son or daughter from that marriage is the reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since at least 1577...

 and in 1978 the first girls were admitted into its Sixth Form. The transition to full co-education throughout the school began in 1995 coinciding with the opening of a new Pre-Preparatory Department for both girls and boys aged 4 to 7 years.

Present day

Bishop's Stortford College today caters for girls and boys from the age of 4 to 18 years within the 130 acre (0.5260918 km²) campus.

Belonging to one of the Stortford houses continues to be a major part of life for all Senior School pupils and Junior School boarders. There are nine houses in total in the senior school; Benson House (girls day), Alliot House (girls day), Young House (girls boarding), Tee House (flexi-boarding girls), Sutton House (boys day), Collett House (boys day), Hayward House (boys day, School House (boys boarding), and Robert Pearce House (boys boarding).

The original school buildings are still in use and many facilities have since been added including accommodation for the Junior School, the Pre-Prep Department and extensions to the boarding facilities. The Charles Edward Centre houses ICT, Physics and Design and Technology and the Leo Price Theatre, which began life as a gymnasium, has been developed into a highly versatile performance venue.

The original indoor bath was replaced in 2002 by a modern swimming facility with a 25 metre, six-lane main pool, learner pool and large spectator gallery.

In 2005, a new home for the Pre-Prep was built with six classrooms, a large assembly hall, library, music room and IT suite.

In 2006, an innovative Science Action Centre was opened housing over 40 interactive displays. Believed to be the only one of its kind in a school in the UK, the centre is open to local schools, as well as being used as a learning resource for the College's own pupils.

The Ferguson Building (opened 2007) was added to the school campus providing a lecture theatre, IT suite and Sixth Form Centre. The Ferguson Lectures were launched at the same time. These focus on contemporary issues and are open to the public.

Facilities for hockey and tennis were extended in 2008, with the construction of a second astroturf and, a year later, a new Art Centre for the Senior School was opened.

The next major development project, currently at the planning stage, is an extension to the Junior School facilities.

Notable Old Stortfordians

  • Dr. John Rae
    John Rae (educator)
    Dr John Rae was a British educator, author and novelist. He was headmaster of Taunton School and then Head Master of Westminster School ....

     Writer and headmaster of Westminster School
    Westminster School
    The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...

     (from 1970 - 1986)
  • Sir Leonard Pearce (1873–1947), electrical engineer
    Electrical engineering
    Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...

  • Grantly Dick-Read
    Grantly Dick-Read
    Grantly Dick-Read was a British obstetrician who is regarded by many as the father of natural childbirth movement. He dedicated his life to educating expectant parents about the benefits of giving birth naturally, with as little intervention from obstetricians and health professionals as possible...

     (1890–1959), obstetrician
    Obstetrics
    Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...

  • Brett Mackay Cloutman
    Brett Mackay Cloutman
    Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Brett Mackay Cloutman VC MC was an English First World War recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.Cloutman was commissioned into the Kent Fortress...

     (1891–1971), First World War
    World War I
    World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

     Victoria Cross
    Victoria Cross
    The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....

  • Sir Charles Collett (1893–1971), Lord Mayor of London
    Lord Mayor of London
    The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...

  • Sir Frank Alexander (1881–1959), Lord Mayor of London
    Lord Mayor of London
    The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...

  • Percy Horton
    Percy Horton
    Percy Frederick Horton MA, RBA, ARCA was an English painter and art teacher, and Ruskin Master of Drawing, University of Oxford from 1949 to 1964...

     (1897–1970), painter
    Painting
    Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

  • Wilfred Bion
    Wilfred Bion
    Wilfred Ruprecht Bion DSO was an influential British psychoanalyst, who became president of the British Psychoanalytical Society from 1962 to 1965....

     (1897–1979), psychoanalyst
    Psychoanalysis
    Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...

  • Herbert Sumsion
    Herbert Sumsion
    Herbert Whitton Sumsion was an English musician who was organist of Gloucester Cathedral from 1928 to 1967...

     (1899–1995), Organist of Gloucester Cathedral
    Gloucester Cathedral
    Gloucester Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the river. It originated in 678 or 679 with the foundation of an abbey dedicated to Saint Peter .-Foundations:The foundations of the present...

  • Clifford Dupont
    Clifford Dupont
    Clifford Walter Dupont, GCLM ID was a British-born Rhodesian politician who served in the internationally unrecognised positions of Officer Administrating the Government and President...

     (1905–1978), first President of Rhodesia
    Rhodesia
    Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...

  • Sir Leader Stirling of Glorat (c.1906–2003), Minister of Health of Tanzania
    Tanzania
    The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

  • Sir Dick White
    Dick White
    Sir Dick Goldsmith White, KCMG, KBE , was a British intelligence officer. He was Director-General of MI5 from 1953 to 1956, and Head of the Secret Intelligence Service from 1956 to 1968.-Career:...

     (1906–1993), Director-General of MI5
    MI5
    The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...

    , 1953–1956, and Chief of MI6, 1956–1968
  • Alec Clifton-Taylor
    Alec Clifton-Taylor
    Alec Clifton-Taylor OBE was an English architectural historian, writer and TV broadcaster.-Biography and works:...

     (1907–1985), architectural historian
  • Edward Crankshaw
    Edward Crankshaw
    Edward Crankshaw , was a British writer, translator and commentator on Soviet affairs.Born in London, Crankshaw was educated in the Nonconformist public school, Bishop's Stortford College, Hertfordshire, England. He started working as a journalist for a few months at The Times...

     (1909–1984), expert and author on the Soviet Union
    Soviet Union
    The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

  • John Glyn-Jones
    John Glyn-Jones
    John Glyn-Jones was a British television and film actor.His father was a Member of Parliament and he was educated at Bishop's Stortford College and Oxford University. He began his acting career in repertory theatre in Oxford and with the BBC Drama Repertory Company...

     (1909–1997), actor
  • Sir Arnold France (1911–1998), Permanent Secretary
    Permanent Secretary
    The Permanent secretary, in most departments officially titled the permanent under-secretary of state , is the most senior civil servant of a British Government ministry, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis...

     of the Ministry of Health, 1964–1968, and Chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue
    Inland Revenue
    The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation tax, petroleum revenue tax and stamp duty...

    , 1968–1972
  • Roger Hilton
    Roger Hilton
    Roger Hilton CBE was a pioneer of abstract art in post-war Britain. He was born in 1911 in Northwood, London and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London under Henry Tonks and also in Paris, where he developed links with painters on the Continent.In World War II he served in the Army, part...

     (1911–1975), painter
    Painting
    Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

  • James Maxwell Fisher (1912–1970), ornithologist
    Ornithology
    Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...

  • Bill Sharpe, keyboardist and founding member of jazz-funk band Shakatak
    Shakatak
    Shakatak are an English jazz-funk band, founded in 1980.-Career:Shakatak scored a number of chart entries, including two Top Ten hits in the UK Singles Chart, "Night Birds" and "Down on the Street" plus a further 12 entries in the Guinness book of British Hit Singles...

  • Denis Arthur Greenhill
    Denis Arthur Greenhill
    Sir Denis Arthur Greenhill, Baron Greenhill of Harrow, GCMG, OBE was the British Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1969 to 1973; an established and respected expert on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, he had the dubious task of expelling 105 Russian diplomats and...

    , Baron Greenhill of Harrow (1913–2000), Permanent Secretary
    Permanent Secretary
    The Permanent secretary, in most departments officially titled the permanent under-secretary of state , is the most senior civil servant of a British Government ministry, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis...

     of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
    Foreign and Commonwealth Office
    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...

     and Head of the Diplomatic Service, 1968–1973
  • Peter Wright
    Peter Wright
    Peter Maurice Wright was an English scientist and former MI5 counterintelligence officer, noted for writing the controversial book Spycatcher, which became an international bestseller with sales of over two million copies...

     (1916–1995), Assistant Director-General of MI5
    MI5
    The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...

     and author of Spycatcher
    Spycatcher
    Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer , is a book written by Peter Wright, former MI5 officer and Assistant Director, and co-author Paul Greengrass. It was published first in Australia...

  • Geoffrey Cotterell (born 1919), novelist
  • Drummond Allison
    Drummond Allison
    Drummond Allison was an English war poet of World War II.He was born in Caterham, Surrey, and educated at Bishop's Stortford College and at Queen's College, Oxford. After Sandhurst training, he became an intelligence officer in the East Surrey Regiment. He served in North Africa and Italy, where...

     (1921–1943), poet
    Poet
    A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

  • John Heddle
    John Heddle
    Bentley John Heddle , known as John Heddle, was a British Conservative Party politician.Heddle was Member of Parliament for Lichfield and Tamworth from 1979 to 1983, and for Mid Staffordshire from 1983 until his death in 1989 at the age of 46...

     (1943–1989), politician
  • Sir Stephen Lander
    Stephen Lander
    Sir Stephen James Lander, KCB is a former chairman of the United Kingdom's Serious Organised Crime Agency , who also served as Director-General of the British Security Service from 1996 to 2002.-Career:...

     (born 1947), Director-General of MI5
    MI5
    The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...

    , 1996–2002, and Chair of the Serious Organised Crime Agency
    Serious Organised Crime Agency
    The Serious Organised Crime Agency is a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom under Home Office sponsorship...

    , 2004–
  • Andy Peebles
    Andy Peebles
    -Early life:The son of a head postmaster, Peebles attended Bishop's Stortford College, Hertfordshire before training in hotel management.After DJing at a college dance he was offered a job at Samanthas in Bournemouth.He worked at Chelsea Village,The Scotch of St James in London and at the Hardrock...

     (born 1948), broadcaster
  • Derek Beales (born 1948)author
    Historian
    A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

  • Alan Lyddiard
    Alan Lyddiard
    Alan Lyddiard is a theatre and film director, best known as an advocate of the ensemble theatre model in the UK...

     (formally Michael Kent) Theatre and Film Director
  • Warwick Morris, British Ambassador to Vietnam
    Vietnam
    Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

     and South Korea
    South Korea
    The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

  • Hugo Barnacle, literary critic and novelist
  • James Duthie
    James Duthie
    James Livingstone Duthie is a former field hockey player, who won the bronze medal with the British squad at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He played club hockey for Southgate.-References:*...

     (born 1957), hockey
    Field hockey
    Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

     player and Great Britain team coach
  • James Baxter (animator)
    James Baxter (animator)
    James Baxter is a British character animator. He was first known for his work on several Walt Disney Animation Studios films, including various characters in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Rafiki in The Lion King, Belle in Beauty and the Beast, and Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.After Notre...

     (born 1967)
  • Ben Clarke
    Ben Clarke
    Ben Clarke , is a former England international rugby union player.Clarke played for Bath Rugby from 1992 to 1996, before joining Richmond F.C. as the first £1-million player...

     (born 1968), England rugby union
    Rugby union
    Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

     player
  • Dick Clement
    Dick Clement
    Dick Clement, OBE is an English writer.Born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England, Clement was educated at Bishop's Stortford College and is best known for his writing partnership with Ian La Frenais. Generally, Clement and La Frenais write comedies, or dramas with a comic tone...

     OBE, Television and Screen Writer
  • Cherish Kaya, Keyboardist and Violinist in Florence and the Machine
    Florence and the Machine
    Florence and the Machine is the recording name of English musician Florence Welch and a collaboration of other artists who provide music for her voice. Florence and the Machine's sound has been described as a combination of various genres, including rock and soul...

  • Huw Beynon, Broadcaster and Journalist for 3 News
    3 News
    3 News is the television, internet and radio news service of New Zealand's TV3. Its flagship bulletin, which airs every evening at 6:00pm, is anchored by Hilary Barry and Mike McRoberts. Carolyn Robinson and Simon Shepherd are weekend and substitute anchors...

     in New Zealand
  • Nick Shearman (born 1970) Graphics Editor, The Wall Street Journal

Notable teachers have included
  • Brendan Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken
    Brendan Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken
    Brendan Randell Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken PC was an Irish businessman and a minister in the British Conservative cabinet. Primarily, the 1st Viscount Bracken is remembered for opposing the Bank of England's co-operation with Adolf Hitler, and for subsequently supporting Winston Churchill's...

     (1901–1958), publisher and politician
  • Bernie Cotton
    Bernie Cotton
    Bernard James "Bernie" Cotton MBE is a field hockey coach and former player and captain. He won 73 caps for England and 54 for Great Britain, representing the country at the 1972 Summer Olympics...

    , England and Great Britain hockey player and coach
  • Eric Whelpton
    Eric Whelpton
    Eric Whelpton was the son of the Revd George Whelpton, minister of Trinity Methodist church, Abingdon. From Abingdon School and the Leys School, Cambridge, Eric entered Hertford College, Oxford, then taught at Christ Church Cathedral School.At Oxford, Whelpton became a close friend of Dorothy...

     (1894-1981), travel writer and prototype for Dorothy L. Sayers
    Dorothy L. Sayers
    Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages...

    's Lord Peter Wimsey
    Lord Peter Wimsey
    Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a bon vivant amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders...

  • Walter Strachan, artist
    Artist
    An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

     and linguist
    Linguistics
    Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....


External links

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