Colston’s School says it will change its name
A PRIVATE school set up by slave trader Edward Colston is to drop his name – despite a public survey that overwhelmingly called for it to stay.
Colston’s School in Bristol, which was created more than 300 years ago, will change its name to appear more ‘welcoming’ to ethnic minorities.
A poll of 1,000 members of the public revealed that 81 per cent wanted the name to remain. The poll was commissioned by the school, but governors ignored it because pupils, parents and alumni were in favour of a name change.
Tory MP Sir Robert Syms, a Colston’s old boy, criticised the plan, saying Britons ‘should confront our history rather than have a nice shiny new name’.
He said many people were complicit in the slave trade – not just Colston – and described him as a ‘cog in something’.
It comes after a statue of Colston was toppled last year and thrown into Bristol harbour during the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests.
The £15,000-a-year school said the name Colston will ‘forever be associated with the enslavement and deaths of African men, women and children’.
Nick Baker, chairman of governors, said: ‘After a lengthy period of consultation, consideration, and reflection, it became clear that those with a closer connection to the school would prefer to have a name that was more relevant for the pupils and staff of today and tomorrow.’ Jeremy McCullough, the school’s headmaster, said: ‘Changing the name will not change the nature of our happy, diverse and forwardlooking school.’
Edward Colston, a merchant, became a member of the Royal African Company in 1680 when it had a monopoly on the slave trade. By 1689, he had risen to become its deputy governor.
He founded the school as ‘Colston’s Hospital’ in 1710. Today, it is a day school catering for boys and girls from nursery through to sixth form.
Elsewhere in Bristol, Colston Primary School changed its name in 2018, and Colston’s Girls’ School decided to change its name to Montpelier High School this year.