Teaching staff and pupils of Bolton School Girls' Division held a Victorian Day as the school celebrated its 130th birthday. Headmistress, Mrs Richards, walked from her flat to the School dressed as a Victorian headmistress and was followed by her "maid” (Deputy Head, Mr Andrew Green-Howard) who carried her books and hat. Staff and pupils spent the day in Victorian dress and the theme continued through an assembly and many lessons. The School celebrated with an enormous birthday cake at lunchtime.
Mrs Richards commented: “it's been a great day and the Girls’ Division is having a good year; we’ve had our best ever A level results and our GCSE results made us the top independent school in Lancashire and one of the best in the country.”
The Girls’ Division was founded in 1877 when a group of public-spirited Bolton citizens formed a Young Ladies' Day School, which was quickly renamed to Bolton High School for Girls. Housed in a room of the Mechanics’ Institute in Mawdsley Street, the Day School opened its doors to twenty-two girls on 1 October 1877. The School provided a first class education for girls and the earliest pupils were amongst the first women to go to University and enter the professions.
Pupil numbers steadily rose during the school’s first three decades and by the 1890s it had moved to larger premises on Park Road in Bolton. In 1913 Sir William Hesketh Lever, the first Viscount Leverhulme, gave a generous joint endowment to the High School for Girls and the Bolton Grammar School for Boys on condition that the two should be equal partners known as Bolton School (Boys’ and Girls’ Divisions).
The tradition of excellence continues in the context of the much wider opportunities available to girls today. The School offers superb facilities and teaching and is one of the largest independent girls’ schools in the UK.