The College was founded by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC), who had been running St Bede’s College in Leamington Spa for junior and senior school boys since 1957. Increasing numbers at St Bede’s in the 1960s meant that the MSC needed to seek a larger site for their senior school. 

At the same time, the community of Benedictine nuns at St Mary’s Priory, Princethorpe, was looking to sell the Priory in order to relocate to smaller premises. In December 1965, the MSC purchased the Priory and its grounds, and preparations began for Princethorpe College’s 1966 opening.

A letter in the Foundation Archive collections, written by the College’s first headmaster Father John Kevin Fleming MSC to Mother Prioress of the Benedictine community (who had now relocated to Fernham, Oxfordshire), gives a glimpse into the excitement of opening day: 

 ‘From 8.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. it was simply hectic. Scores of cars and three ‘buses brought about 190 boys. However, the young Fathers, led by Father Clarkson, seemed to revel in the excitement and hubub [sic] and gradually boys were directed to their classrooms. Milk-break was a scene!’

The boys clearly made the most of their new rural surroundings over lunchtime, with Father Fleming recounting how ‘[s]ome of the small newcomers started to mingle with the cows, sheep and calves and then for fun began to chase them […] I think the calves enjoyed the fun but the dignity of the cows and sheep was sorely wounded!’ 

By the time the letter was written, nearly two weeks after the College had opened, parents had also been welcomed to the site on two special open days to see their sons’ new school. 

As school life gradually settled into a routine after all the excitement of the first few days, Father Fleming noted that ‘[n]ow, of course, things are running much more smoothly but there are still a few things to be done’.

This sense of optimism, good humour and resilience, together with reverence for a continuing legacy (Father Fleming states that ‘We have to thank […] the good Sisters who were here before us for all this’), has continued to remain central to the College’s ethos ever since its opening weeks.

As we mark our Diamond Jubilee, we celebrate the achievements and enduring spirit of our school community over the past 60 years, and look forward to seeing the Princethorpe story continue to unfold in the years to come. 

Images:

Cover. Father Fleming entering Princethorpe College, c. 1966. Photograph by John Mitchell 

1-2. Letter from Father Fleming to Mother Prioress, 27 September 1966 (archive ref. PC.8.11.5) 

3. Father Fleming shakes hands with Mère Walburga as the nuns depart Princethorpe, May 1966. Photograph by John Mitchell (archive ref. SMP.24.1.21) 

4. Princethorpe College and St Bede’s prospectus, c. 1970 (archive ref. SB.26.4)