St. Michael's College, Tenbury
Encyclopedia
The College of St. Michael and All Angels, in Tenbury Wells
Worcestershire
was a boys school founded by Frederick Ouseley
in 1856 to provide a model for the performance of Anglican church music
. Choral
services were performed daily in term time, and the college possessed a library
that contained many rare books of international importance. Financial difficulties forced its closure in 1985. The buildings are used today as an international school
, which specialises in teaching non English language students.
's Dido and Aeneas
and Handel
's own conducting score from the Dublin premiere of the Messiah
. It was therefore something of a site of pilgrimage for musical scholars. After the school's closure the library was transferred to the Bodleian Library
.
, painted with a representation of St Michael defeating the dragon.
After closure the school buildings were used as the set for the 1986 Halloween television movie
, The Worst Witch
based on the fantasy novel by Jill Murphy
starring Fairuza Balk
and Tim Curry
.
Recordings of the choir are listed in the British Library Sound Archive
and are available on CD in back catalogue editions.
The school chapel is now the parish church for the surrounding village of St Michaels which was created specifically to support the creation of the choir school in the mid-19th century. The village, which follows the northern Hereford border, is only 1 mile deep and 5 miles wide. This tiny hamlet of St Michaels, has a full Henry Willis & Sons
organ which was installed into the new church created to support the then new St Michaels College in the mid-19th century.
Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman
spoke of the College, referring to:
's defeat of the dragon by its colour and the two kinks in the sword.
Tenbury Wells
Tenbury Wells is a market town and civil parish in the north-western extremity of the Malvern Hills District administrative area of Worcestershire, England. The 2001 census reported a population of 3,316.-Geography:...
Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
was a boys school founded by Frederick Ouseley
Frederick Ouseley
Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley, 2nd Baronet was an English composer, organist, and musicologist.He was born in London, the son of Sir Gore Ouseley, and manifested an extraordinary precocity in music, composing an opera at the age of eight years. In 1844, having succeeded to the baronetcy, he...
in 1856 to provide a model for the performance of Anglican church music
Anglican church music
Anglican church music is music that is written for liturgical performance in Anglican church services.Almost all of it is written for choir with or without organ accompaniment...
. Choral
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
services were performed daily in term time, and the college possessed a library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
that contained many rare books of international importance. Financial difficulties forced its closure in 1985. The buildings are used today as an international school
International school
An International school is loosely defined as a school that promotes international education, in an international environment, either by adopting an international curriculum such as that of the International Baccalaureate or Cambridge International Examinations, or by following a national...
, which specialises in teaching non English language students.
Musical library
Supported by friends of Ouseley, the Library contained such important articles as the original score of PurcellHenry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
's Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell to a libretto by Nahum Tate. The first known performance was at Josias Priest's girls' school in London no later than the summer of 1688. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid...
and Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's own conducting score from the Dublin premiere of the Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
. It was therefore something of a site of pilgrimage for musical scholars. After the school's closure the library was transferred to the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
.
History
The school was founded in reaction to the decline of Anglican church music in the Victorian period. Ouseley deliberately sited it in a remote location so as to insulate it from the influence of London. Until its closure the school regularly sang 150 settings of evensong; it was the last educational establishment in England to sing the orders throughout the week. In the school chapel the choir was separated from the chancel by an ornate gilded screen topped by candles. The choir was backed by an organPipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
, painted with a representation of St Michael defeating the dragon.
After closure the school buildings were used as the set for the 1986 Halloween television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
, The Worst Witch
The Worst Witch
The Worst Witch is a series of children's novels written and illustrated by Jill Murphy and published by Puffin Books. The first book was published in 1974. They have become some of the most outstandingly successful titles on the Young Puffin paperback list and have sold more than 4 million copies....
based on the fantasy novel by Jill Murphy
Jill Murphy
Jill Murphy is a London-born English children's author, best known for The Worst Witch series and the Large Family picture books...
starring Fairuza Balk
Fairuza Balk
Fairuza Alejandra Balk is an American film actress. She made her theatrical film debut as Dorothy Gale in Disney's Return to Oz...
and Tim Curry
Tim Curry
Timothy James "Tim" Curry is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California....
.
Recordings of the choir are listed in the British Library Sound Archive
British Library Sound Archive
The British Library Sound Archive in London, England is one of the largest collections of recorded sound in the world, including music, spoken word and ambient recordings....
and are available on CD in back catalogue editions.
The school chapel is now the parish church for the surrounding village of St Michaels which was created specifically to support the creation of the choir school in the mid-19th century. The village, which follows the northern Hereford border, is only 1 mile deep and 5 miles wide. This tiny hamlet of St Michaels, has a full Henry Willis & Sons
Henry Willis & Sons
thumb|250px|St Bees Priory organ, the last major instrument to be personally supervised by "Father" Henry Willis, 1899Henry Willis & Sons is a British firm of pipe organ builders founded in 1845 in Liverpool. Although most of their installations have been in the UK, examples can be found in other...
organ which was installed into the new church created to support the then new St Michaels College in the mid-19th century.
Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
spoke of the College, referring to:
"……..the unique atmosphere of St. Michael’s College, Tenbury. I shall never forget my first impression of the place. There was the climb up from the little market town of Tenbury whence some of the lay clerks make their twice daily journey to Mattins and Evensong to lend men’s voices to the boys’ choir, and there before me stretched an enormous common. In the far corner, in a land of blossoming orchards and backed by the blue distance of Clee Hill, rose a chapel, seemingly as large as Lancing.
Attached to it were Warden’s house, school buildings, cloister and dining hall, all in a style of the fourteenth century, re-interpreted in local materials for the nineteenth century by architect, Henry Woodyer.
After Evensong, where the music was equal to that of the best cathedral choirs, and a walk round the buildings in the quiet of a Worcestershire evening, I visited the large dormitory, which runs almost the whole length of a building parallel with the chapel. Here Christopher Hassall read his poem to the boys and held them spellbound as the stars shone through the narrow Gothic windows in the gabled roof…………"
School crest
The crest on the school tie was a red broadsword on a blue background symbolising St MichaelSt Michael
St Michael was a brand that was owned and used by Marks & Spencer from 1928 until 2000.-History:The brand was introduced by Simon Marks in 1928, after his father and co-founder of Marks & Spencer, Michael Marks. By 1950, virtually all goods were sold under the St Michael brand...
's defeat of the dragon by its colour and the two kinks in the sword.
Organists of the college
- John Capel Hanbury 1856 - 1857
- John StainerJohn StainerSir John Stainer was an English composer and organist whose music, though not generally much performed today , was very popular during his lifetime...
1857 - 1859 (later organist of St. Paul's Cathedral) - Langdon ColborneLangdon ColborneLangdon Colbourne was an cathedral organist, who served at Hereford Cathedral.-Background:Langdon Colbourne was born on 15 September 1835 in Hackney London.He studied organ under George Cooper.-Career:Organist of:*St...
1860 - 1874 (then organist of Beverley MinsterBeverley MinsterBeverley Minster, in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire is a parish church in the Church of England. It is said to be the largest parish church in the UK....
) - Alfred Alexander 1874 - 1877 (then organist of Wigan Parish ChurchWigan Parish ChurchAll Saints' Church, Wigan is the Church of England parish church in Wigan, Greater Manchester.It is a Grade II* listed building.-History:The church is medieval but most of the present building was erected between 1845 and 1850 by the Lancaster partnership of Sharpe and Paley, when it was almost...
) - William Claxton 1877 - 1886
- Walter J. Lancaster 1886 - 1889 (then organist of Bolton Parish Church, Lancashire)
- Allan Paterson 1889 - 1893 (then organist of Malvern Priory)
- James Lyon 1893 - 1896 (then organist of St. Mark's Church, SurbitonSurbitonSurbiton, a suburban area of London in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, is situated next to the River Thames, with a mixture of Art-Deco courts, more recent residential blocks and grand, spacious 19th century townhouses blending into a sea of semi-detached 20th century housing estates...
) - Edgar C. Broadhurst 1896 - 1907
- M. Gordon Burgess 1907 - 1910
- J.P. Davis 1910 - 1911
- Norman Charles Woods 1911 - 1912
- Arthur Baynon 1913 - 1916
- Carlton Borrow 1917
- Vivian Stuart 1918
- Ernest BullockErnest BullockSir Ernest Bullock was an English organist, composer, and educator.-Education:...
1919 - Heathcote Dicken StathamHeathcote Dicken StathamHeathcote Dicken Statham CBE , was a conductor, composer, and organist of international repute.-Early life:...
1920 - 1926 - Stanley Thorne 1926 - 1931
- Laurence Crosthwaite 1931 - 1935
- Maxwell Menzies 1935 - 1952 (duties undertaken by Sir Sydney NicholsonSydney NicholsonSir Sydney Hugo Nicholson was an English choir director, organist and composer, now chiefly remembered as the founder of the Royal School of Church Music . He was born in London and educated at Rugby School, New College, Oxford and the Royal College of Music...
from 1940 and C E S Littlejohn from 1941 while Maxwell Menzies was away in the armed forces) - Kenneth BeardKenneth BeardKenneth Bernard Beard MA BA FRCO CHM was an English Cathedral Organist.-Education:...
1952 - 1959 (afterwards rector chori at Southwell MinsterSouthwell MinsterSouthwell Minster is a minster and cathedral, in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, England. It is six miles away from Newark-on-Trent and thirteen miles from Mansfield. It is the seat of the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham and the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham.It is considered an outstanding...
) - Lucian NethsinghaLucian NethsinghaLucian Nethsingha was an English cathedral organist, who served in Exeter Cathedral.-Background:Lucian Nethsingha was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and educated at St. Thomas' College, Colombo...
1959 - 1973 (afterwards organist of Exeter CathedralExeter CathedralExeter Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter at Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon in South West England....
) - Roger Judd 1973 - 1985 (later Assistant Organist St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle)