1682 – Bishop Gore School, one of the oldest schools in Wales, is founded.
The Bishop Gore School (Welsh: Ysgol Esgob Gore) is a secondary school in Swansea in Wales, founded on 14 September 1682 by Hugh Gore (1613–1691), Bishop of Waterford and Lismore. It is situated in Sketty, close to Singleton Park and Swansea University. In December 2013 the school was ranked in the second highest of five bands by the Welsh Government, based on performance in exams, value added performance, disadvantaged pupils’ performance, and attendance.
History
Grammar school
Established as a Free Grammar School, initially in Goat Street (a site now part of Princess Way in the city centre), for “the gratuitous instruction of twenty boys, sons of the most indigent burgesses, and in the event of a dissolution of the corporation, to sons of the poorest inhabitants of the town”, it has since known several names and locations. In September 1853 the school moved, as the boys-only Swansea Grammar School, to Mount Pleasant into a new building designed by the architect Thomas Taylor. The building was extended in 1869 to a design by Benjamin Bucknall. The building was largely gutted by incendiary bombs during World War II although some of the 1869 building remains as part of the Swansea campus of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.[1][2]
After the war the school was moved to the Sketty area of Swansea where it subsequently became Bishop Gore Grammar school and briefly Bishop Gore Comprehensive School.[clarification needed] It has been on its current Sketty site since 1952 with a large extension built in the 1970s and further Design and Technology extensions in the 1990s.
Comprehensive
Until 1970, Bishop Gore was an all-boys grammar school, then it merged with the girls’ grammar school Glanmôr and Townhill Secondary School to become Bishop Gore Co-educational Comprehensive school in 1971.
School today
Currently Bishop Gore has around 1800 male and female students aged 11–18. The school has a sixth form with separate lounge, facilities and uniform. The headteacher is Ryan Davies (appointed September 2007). Set at the head of Singleton Park, close to the village of Sketty and the seafront, Bishop Gore is built around two quadrangles the red brick building has in the centre the second largest hall in Swansea, second only to the Brangwyn Hall. Each pupil is assigned to a house: Caswell, Langland, Bracelet, Rotherslade or Limeslade (named after beaches on the nearby Gower peninsular), which they retain throughout their time at the school. Highlights of the school year include the Eisteddfod, the inter-house sports tournaments, the productions by Bishop Gore Theatre Company, and the end-of-year balls for the senior students.
In January 2010, an inspection report was published which awarded Bishop Gore the highest possible grades in all categories. As a result of this the school was featured as a ‘best practice’ case study by Estyn and was named in the chief inspector’s annual report – being the only secondary school in Wales to achieve this recognition.
With 88% of pupils in 2015 leaving the school with five GCSE grades A* – C, Bishop Gore is now second only to Bishopston Comprehensive School in terms of this statistic.[citation needed]
Dylan Thomas
The most famous alumnus of Bishop Gore is almost certainly the poet, playwright and author Dylan Thomas (1914–1953). His father, David John (D. J.) Thomas was senior English master at the school, then known as Swansea Grammar School.[3] Not a distinguished pupil, he nonetheless gained attention through publishing his first poem in 1926, “The Song Of The Mischievous Dog” and in 1928 winning the school’s annual one-mile race.[4][5] He left in 1931 to begin work at The South Wales Daily Post as a junior reporter.
Old Goreans
See also: Category:People educated at Bishop Gore School
Notable Old Goreans have included:
Martin Amis, writer
Donald Anderson, Baron Anderson of Swansea, politician
Gareth Armstrong, actor
Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare, politician, Home Secretary 1868–73
Prof Sir John Cadogan, CBE, President of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Rt Rev Graham Chadwick, bishop and anti-apartheid campaigner
Hywel Davies, cardiologist and author
David Dykes, Director of the National Museum of Wales
Prof Sir Sam Edwards FRS, physicist and university administrator
Paul Ferris, writer
Charles Fisher, journalist
Brian Flowers, Baron Flowers, FRS, physicist
Neville George, geologist
Sir Alex Gordon, CBE, architect
Sir William Grove, scientist and judge
Rt Rev Llewellyn Henry Gwynne, Bishop of Egypt and the Sudan
Aneurin Hughes, EU diplomat
Alfred Janes, artist
John Gwyn Jeffreys, FRS, conchologist
Daniel Jones, composer
Ernest Jones, neurologist and psychoanalyst, biographer of Sigmund Freud
Mervyn Jones, Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands
Peter Jones, broadcaster
Sir Archie Lamb KBE CMG DFC, diplomat
Mervyn Levy, artist and critic
Prof Patrick McGorry AO, psychiatrist, Australian of the Year.
John Metcalf, composer
David Miles, economist
Prof Dewi Zephaniah Phillips philosopher
Colin Phipps, geologist and Labour MP
Dylan Thomas, writer
Edmund Tucker, educationalist
Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, writer
International Rugby players
Several Old Goreans have played international rugby, for the Wales national rugby union team or the Wales women’s national rugby union team
Paul Arnold
Roger Blyth[6]
Stuart Davies
Alun Wyn Jones, captain of Wales
Haydn Mainwaring[7]
Richie Pugh, Wales Rugby sevens captain at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
Idwal Rees
Belinda Trotter, played in the first Welsh woman’s team in 1987.[8]
Geoff Wheel
1643 – Jeremiah Dummer, American silversmith (d. 1718)
Jeremiah Dummer (14 September 1643 – 24 May 1718)[1] was the first American-born silversmith,[2][3] whose works are today highly valued.
Life
Dummer was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, the first son of Richard Dummer and his second wife, Frances Burr.[4]
At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to John Hull, the mintmaster at Boston.[4] Hull recorded at the time that he “received into my house Jeremie Dummer … to serve me as Apprentice eight years”.[5] When he was 23 he started on his own and became a prolific and notable silversmith making tankards, beakers, porringers, caudle cups and candlesticks. The fluted band on a plain surface is characteristic of his work.[4][6] He is said to have introduced the ornamentation known as “gadrooning”, curved flutings on the surface of silver.[7]
He held many public offices, and was a Member and Captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Society in 1671 and Constable of Boston in 1675–76.[4] He was appointed Freeman of Boston in 1680, a member of Capt Hutchinson’s Company in 1684, a member of the Council of Safety against Andres in 1689, a Selectman of Boston 1691–92, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk County 1702–15, Treasurer of Suffolk County 1711–16, and was a member in full communion at the venerable First Church.[4]
He was also an engraver, and engraved plates for currency: in 1710 he printed the first paper money in Connecticut.[4] When the government of Connecticut decided in 1709 to issue paper currency, or Bills of Exchange, Dummer was selected to do the engraving of the plates and the printing of the bills. Journals of the Council for 1710 show transactions with Dummer relating to this currency, and in 1712 Governor Saltonstall laid before the Council Board Dummer’s bill for printing 6,550 sheets of this paper currency. Dummer’s former apprentice, John Coney, had the distinction of engraving the plates for the first paper money issued by Massachusetts some years previously, the first issued on the American continent,[8] although some sources also credit Dummer with the engraving of the Massachusetts copper plates.[9]
Dummer was also one America’s foremost early portrait painters. Among his paintings are a self-portrait and portrait of his wife, Anna,[10] together with portraits of many of his contemporaries.[11]
He died on 24 May 1718 in Boston.[1] His obituary printed in the Boston News Letter on 2 June 1718 said:
Departed this life Jeremiah Dummer, Esqr., in the 73rd year of his Age, after a long retirement … having served his country faithfully in several Publick Stations, and obtained of all that knew him the Character of a Just, Virtuous, and Pious Man;[1]
By Gary Price: Reference: NICB Makes High-Resolution Aerial Imagery of Areas Affected by Hurricanes Harvey/Irma Available
What, if anything, should be used instead?
By Whitney Webb: U.S. Air Force Is Spraying 6 Million Acres With Chemicals in Response to Harvey
In addition, the Air Force’s characterization of Naled as an “EPA approved and regulated material” omits the important fact that the EPA is currently re-evaluating the chemical for safety. According to the EPA’s website, “the EPA expects to issue new human health and ecological risk assessments for Naled before the end of 2017.” Scientists and concerned citizens have noted that Naled will likely be banned as the EPA found it to harm 22 out of 28 endangered species exposed to it.
By Ellie Shechet: Summer in the Heartsick Mountains
By Nick Douglas: Fix a Bad Education (or Augment a Good One) With These Videos
By Daniel Terdiman: New York Jets Team Up With Academics To Boost Team’s Prospects
By Gary Wetzel: America’s Most Secret Spy Sub Returned To Base Flying A Pirate Flag
By Jason Torchinsky: Here’s How A Corvette Was Totaled Because Of One Inch Of Damage
By Erik Shilling: Here’s A 1932 MG J2 That Was Just Found In A World War II Artillery Position
By Chelsea Adams: Oscar Dunn, America’s Forgotten First Black Lieutenant Governor
By John P. Weiss: The Best Way to Banish the Madness From Your Life
By Make Everything: How To: Mobile Boxwood Hedges! (Artificial)
By John P. Weiss: The Best Way to Banish the Madness From Your Life
By Grant Melton: One Bowl, No Measurements: Chocolate Cake, As Easy As Can Be
Head in the Clouds from Ivan Bondarenko on Vimeo.
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for November 27 November 27, 2024Picture of the day Eruption of Strokkur (Icelandic for "churn"), a fountain geyser located in the Haukadalur geothermal area, southwest of Iceland.
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for November 26 November 26, 2024Picture of the day Sika deer (Cervus nippon) in Halileo's Dacha Nature Reserve, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine
Widget not in any sidebars
Widget not in any sidebars
Widget not in any sidebars
Widget not in any sidebars