Last week, Bolton School’s Head of Foundation Philip Britton addressed both Senior Schools to celebrate Lord Leverhulme’s birthday, which is the 19th September. Lord Leverhulme gave a generous endowment to Bolton’s High School for Girls and Grammar School for Boys, enabling them to become Bolton School (Boys’ Division and Girls’ Division) in 1915.
Each year, the Head reflects upon the life of Lord Leverhulme, considering different aspects of his story and what lessons can be taken from his experiences.
This year the connecting thread was the houses that William Hesketh Lever called home. He was born in Bolton in 1851 in Wood Street. We picture a terraced street in central Bolton, with the noise and filth of a Victorian industrial town all around. This was not a privileged background, but it was home.
The next significant anchor point was Thornton Manor, which would remain the family home. This move speaks of aspiration. He was by now a major industrialist, had built Port Sunlight and wished to have the manor house befitting his estate. It is true that unlike many he had the financial backing to make things happen but that must also be linked with the aspiration of knowing what you might wish to do.
Later, that aspiration also led to a country estate, at Rivington. Here we see his vision. At Rivington Lord Leverhulme looked at a hillside and saw a Japanese garden. Again, he was lucky enough to be able to make his vision a reality but what is special is the vision.
Finally, he brought both vision and aspiration to his London home at The Hill, near Hampstead Heath, where he created the Pergola which is still open to the public. A London house and a setting designed entirely to meet and mingle draws both strands together.
So the message to current pupils from Lord Leverhulme’s life was : never settle, have aspirations and have a vision. What is your hillside that could be a Japanese Garden?
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