School Life at Stonyhurst College - Stonyhurst Parlance

Stonyhurst Parlance

Below is a sample of terms from Stonyhurst parlance. As in other public schools terms have been coined pertaining to various features of life in the school.

• Alaska: The name given to the accommodation detached from the other dormitories.
• Atramentarius: The Atramentarius (now obsolete) would be responsible for the maintenance of ink pots in the desks of each classroom.
• Bread Rooms: The English Department in what was once the College kitchen and bakery.
• Cacus: The Latin word for 'blind', used to denote to the window-less room created above Higher Line Common Room from part of the old Museum (obsolete now that the room has been extended to share the large windows with the common room below).
• Clang Corner: The name given to the area on the ground floor of New Wing where Poets congregate.
• Dungeons: The name given to the small, dark rooms occupied by Poetry boarders in the Shireburn Buildings.
• Lions: In the eighteenth century Lion statues stood at the main gate, which has been known as "The Lions" ever since. The original lions are thought to be those now in the Jesuit Gardens.
• Pipes: The radiators along the Upper Gallery are numbered owing to the 'pipes' system no longer used, where students would leave their work on the specified radiator for their teacher to collect and mark.
• The Plunge: The name given to the old swimming pool, now Lower Grammar and Grammar changing facilities and dormitories.
• Quality Street: The name given to the better accommodation in the Front Quadrangle (now obsolete).
• Sewage Farm: The nickname given to the old Poetry Dormitories above the Top Refectory (now obsolete).
• The Snoring Dormitory: A special dormitory for snorers (now obsolete).