Bury Grammar School - Houses

Houses

The boys' school has four houses, whose colours are reflected in the colour of the badge and the stripes of the tie on the school uniforms. Three were originally created in 1905 in an attempt to introduce some of the camaraderie of boarding school into the academic and sporting life of a day school.The three houses were:

• Hulme (pronounced hyoom), named after William Hulme, architect of Manchester. Colour: sky blue.
• Kay, named after the Reverend Roger Kay, re-founder of Bury Grammar School, after whom the hall (now in the girls' school) is named. Colour: green.
• Derby, named after the Earl of Derby, donor of the land upon which the School stands. Colour: yellow.

In 1919, a new House was introduced:

• Howlett, named after the much loved former headmaster. Colour: red.

In 1920, following the lead of the Boys' school, the Girls' school introduced a House System. There were five Houses, into which girls were placed depending upon where they lived. The Houses were: Lord Kitchener (Bury), Sir Robert Peel (Walmersley), Lord George Byron (Rochdale), Lord Robert Clive (Prestwich) and Samuel Crompton (Ainsworth and Bolton) – all these once famous men had a particular association with the locality (or localities in the case of Crompton) mentioned in parenthesis, but details of such connection is beyond the scope of this entry. In 1950, the House System was changed due to the fact that somes Houses had many more members that others, which rendered inter-House competitions unfair (even in those days, it wasn't just the "taking part" that counted at BGS!). The new houses were named after then famous women: Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (red badge), Frances Mary Buss (green badge), Edith Cavell (blue and white badge), Elizabeth Fry (orange badge), Octavia Hill (originally turquoise, later purple, badge) and Florence Nightingale (yellow badge).

The girls' school uses four letters for forms: L, K, P and N, which are the initials of the surnames of the first four headmistresses (Lester, Kitchener, Perigo and Neild). Membership of different forms does not change the blazer badge colour, but they wear a circular badge which bears the colour yellow for Lester, blue for Kitchener, green for Perigo and red for Neild. These houses are used to form teams, and interform competitions are often held.