From The Beginning

The following is taken from Glimpses into the Past by Dr Brian Crosby, former Deputy Head Teacher of The Chorister School.

Dr Crosby has written a history of the School entitled Come on, Choristers! priced at £5.00 p&p. All profits go to the School. If you would like to purchase a copy, please contact the School Office. The Chorister School today is a preparatory school of over two hundred pupils, both boys and girls. Included in that number is a relatively small group of boys who receive a financially subsidised education in return for the musical contribution they make at some of the services held in the cathedral. With these choristers lies the long history of the school, for it was the need for a group of boys to be taught how and what to sing that brought the school into existence.

It was the fourteenth century that saw the developments being made in musical harmony introduced into some of the services, and particularly into the Mass celebrated in honour of Mary the Virgin. This was possible because it was additional to the monastic round of services whose format had been established for centuries.

The Lady Mass required youths to take part musically, and by June 1390 the standard of their contribution was adjudged unsatisfactory. This emerges from a complaint made by the monks to Prior Berrington. He approved their suggestion that an instructor (known as the Cantor), capable of teaching the youths what they had to sing, should be appointed.

Berrington, however, died in 1391, and though there are a few references to such an instructor in the later 1390s, it was not until 1416 that regular payments to named lay Cantors for giving instruction in music begin. The earliest surviving contract with one of these Cantors is that with John Steel in 1430. As well as specifying the extent of his personal involvement in services and stipulating the salary and other benefits he would receive in return, it required of him to instruct eight boys and an unspecified number of monks in the whole art of music. The contract includes the earliest known references to the disciplines, 'faburden' and 'counter'. From the contracts with his successors it transpires that the instruction was given daily in two morning and two afternoon sessions.

By the time the monastery surrendered to Henry VIII's commissioners in 1539 the boys were singing at the Jesus Mass, which was celebrated on Friday evenings at the Nave Altar, as well as at the daily Lady Mass in the Galilee Chapel. They also assisted at private Masses, but they were not involved in the daily services of the monks. They did, however, make some musical contribution on major Feast Days, for the rubric in a Durham ritual dated about 1420 refers to them responding 'from a high place' during the great Palm Sunday procession.

The surrender of the Durham monastery did not mark the end of the road, for it was also a cathedral, the administrative centre of the diocese, and Henry VIII was not abolishing dioceses. Just as the last Prior became the first Dean, and the best-qualified monks became the new cathedral clergy, so John Brimley, the last Cantor, merely changed his title too, for he became the first Master of the Choristers (and Organist). No doubt the same boys continued as well.

The new order of worship replaced the monastic round of services with Matins and Evensong, but the boys did not at first sing at these every day. This emerges from the section of the Statutes that dealt with the duties of the Master of the Choristers, for it excused him from attending the weekday services so that he could teach the boys. Their statutory number as regards payment was set at ten, but there were no doubt other boys being prepared so that vacancies caused by voices breaking could immediately be filled. As well as teaching the boys what they had to sing, the Master of the Choristers was officially responsible for their common manner and how they behaved at table. This is somewhat surprising, for at Durham until 1902 the choristers were not required to be boarders, and there is no evidence that any were before the late nineteenth century.

By today's standards we would judge the boys' education unsatisfactory, for their sole instructor's education was itself limited. This was very true of Durham between 1576 and 1681, for every Master of the Choristers had been one of those choristers. Indeed, 20 November 1576 was a memorable day, for on it William Brown ceased being paid as a chorister and started being paid as the Master of the Choristers. He cannot have had an easy time!

However, judging by their own day, the choristers were well educated, for they could both read and write. To sing psalms and anthems they had to be able to read words as well as music, though they did not have to learn Latin, as it was no longer being used in services. That they could also write is apparent from the Treasurer's Books, where they signed for their quarterly stipends. As a result, it was quite common in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries for a chorister to progress to the grammar school, and then to become ordained or serve as a parish clerk.

As the centuries progressed and the overall standard of awareness and knowledge increased, the choristers ceased to be an advantaged group. This was partly because their masters increasingly had musical knowledge, but apparently little else. They were more interested in enjoying themselves and in fee-paying private music pupils than in teaching the choristers. As a result, by the end of the 1780s either the senior chorister or one of the adult members of the choir was receiving an emolument for assisting in the teaching the boys. 1820 marked the end of the Master of the Choristers having any involvement in their general education, for one of the adult members of the choir was appointed then as their schoolmaster. However, whilst this provided continuity it was still unsatisfactory, for that master's own knowledge extended only to English and Mathematics.

When the age of awareness for the general need of education broke in Durham the steps taken were from the top downwards and not from the bottom upwards. The University was founded in 1832, a Diocesan Training College for Teachers followed in 1841, and the grammar school transferred to its new site in 1843. The attempt in 1847 to improve the education of the choristers and make their school a boarding school was resisted by the parents, who were probably aware that the money they had been receiving to clothe and feed their sons would be diverted, as would other sources of income derived from their sons while they were still choristers.

Nevertheless, some improvements were made, for in 1856 the size of the school was increased for the first time from the ten boys it had been since 1541. Even before that date, a Geography teacher had been introduced and one of the clergy had been made responsible for the boy's Religious Education. He coached in Latin those boys thought capable of benefiting from such instruction. This ad hoc situation continued until 1865 when a quick succession of teachers who had qualified at the Diocesan Training College was introduced. Henry Meaden, one of the country's first qualified Science teachers, followed them in 1876. Under him a curriculum resembling that of today came into being. Although he was the only teacher he divided the boys into two groups. A few of the exam papers set by him survive, as do fragments of a Maths exercise and of a Handwriting lesson which had the boys learning a little Science at the same time. Nor was it all work, as a number of Sports Day programmes testify. Under Meaden and his successors the school continued to grow until it reached twenty-four boys, including four probationers.

The next surge forward and the beginnings of the school as we know it today came under Canon Ganderton (1929-57). As he had been Vice-Principal of St John's College he was aware of the need for good educational standards. In his first Speech Day Report he made it clear that he regarded the school as a preparatory school, albeit one with certain limiting features. He spoke of the need for the size of the school to be increased, for other strata to be introduced. This, he advocated, would bring together boys with wider interests and abilities.

The increase in numbers would result in more classes, classes not having such a wide age-range, and the consequent increase in the number of teachers would facilitate a more diverse curriculum. He was also in favour of choristers leaving at a definite age and not continuing until their voices broke, and he was concerned about the amount of time the choristers spent in the cathedral, and that Evensong at 3 p.m. shortened the school day.
These themes featured regularly in his Speech Day Reports until the 1940s. Then, following the 1944 Education Act and an informal inspection of the school, the Chapter agreed that the school would be expanded. This became a fact in September 1948 when eight ordinary boarders (at that stage all the choristers had to be boarders) and four day boys were introduced. At first these extra boys were taught as a separate group, but as numbers continued to rise they were integrated into the new classes that were created.

This continuing expansion meant that Numbers 4 to 5 The College were no longer large enough. When St Mary's College vacated what is now principally the boarding house the school was able to move into it, while still retaining two floors in No. 5. By the time Canon Ganderton retired in 1957 there were over one hundred pupils at the school.

Canon Grove (1957-78) worked at integrating further the different strata, and he established a high academic standard by having subject specialists teaching the higher forms. Numbers increased to about one hundred and thirty, and the retirement of one of the Archdeacons enabled the school to acquire what is now the teaching block in exchange for its rooms in No. 5 and above the Chapter Office.

Under Raymond Lawrence (1978-94) the school's academic reputation was complemented by similar achievements in art, music and the sporting sphere. Funds were raised to provide a Sports Hall on the site, and many rooms were refurbished.

A significant further expansion took in 1992 when the first pre-prep class was introduced. Former pupil Tony Blair, who had just become a member of the Shadow Cabinet, officially opened the pre-prep section in October 1993. With Stephen Drew (1994-2002) the pre-prep continued to grow in size, and the nature of the school changed with the pre-prep section opening its doors to girls as well as boys. A number of rooms changed their functions, the most notable moves being the Headmaster's study and Secretaries' Office to accessible and central places in the teaching block, and the creation of a DT lab in what had been the school kitchen.