Mystery of the seventh crest

home of Jacob Wilcox Ricketts, a Bristol entrepreneur. Upon his death it passed first to Daniel Fripp and then in 1884 to Reverend Wilkinson, who demolished Vincent Lodge and built his large and imposing redbrick school on the site.

Opened in 1886, it was obviously intended to attract the sons of Bristol’s great and the good, who aspired to send their offspring to the equally great public schools of England. It was probably with this opportunity for publicity in mind that Reverend Wilkinson named the school, Wayneflete; though it could have been because he had been a member of the alumni of Magdalen College.

Although the name of the school has long gone, another aspect of his school’s publicity remains. Around the seven facets of the main three storey bay windows are terra cotta crests of England’s public schools, for which the pupils were being prepared. So far Diane, my wife, and I have identified six of the seven crests. Clockwise from the side adjacent to the main entrance they are as follows: Shrewsbury, Marlborough, Rugby, Harrow, Charterhouse, Westminster. Can you identify the seventh? What of the school? After a relatively short time in 1897 it was sold to E.P Wills, who then gave it to the city for use as a convalescent home for Bristol’s hospitals. Opened with much fanfare, (literally) by Queen Victoria in 1899, in the 1950s it became a maternity hospital, then nurses' home and offices for the area health authority and in 2008 regional offices for Parsons Brinckerhoff Ltd. (Queen Victoria House Redland No 1 Redland Hill, Bristol BS6 6US). whom I thank for permission to take the photographs.