A Christmas story

Our Christmas photograph takes us all the way back to 1997. First printed as a Christmas card, it hints at part of the story of change that forms part of our celebrations of 40 years of co-education at Christ College.

The setting certainly feels familiar, but it captures differences that remind us that nothing in a school is frozen in time – not even a 13th century chapel. Just a few years after the photograph was taken, the curtained reredos behind the altar was replaced by the striking Triptych painted by former Chaplain Morgan Llewellyn and installed in 2001.

Viewed from this side of a different century, the equal balance of boys and girls seems familiar too. Understandably, our current pupils are slightly puzzled that our 40 years of co-education celebrations are marking something that feels totally ordinary to them. As they discover more of the story, they are genuinely surprised how recently the school became co-educational and increasingly fascinated by the years of change that shaped the transformation.   

A photograph of the choir taken just ten years earlier would have told a very different story: only Sally, Rhiannon and Maria would be standing amongst the boy trebles, tenors and basses, with Andrea and Kate joining in the following year. Those girls made history.

A closer look at the 1997 photograph reveals their legacy. The girls who followed the path of those first pioneers make up almost half of the choir, a significant ratio in a school population of 80 girls and 272 boys.

It also records new points of transition that were barely discernible at the time. The 1997 choir includes girls from the 1995 intake to join Bannau, the middle school boarding house for girls, and from the first intake of girls into Alway, which had become a mixed boarding house in September 1997. It also includes some of the last cohort of Donaldson’s boys, whose House re-opened as a House for girls in September 1998.

You'll also spot a youthful Mr Cooper – a face familiar to generations of Old Breconians and our current Assistant Director of Music who continues to lead the choir with expertise. enthusiasm and dedication.  

Just as the 1997 cards were being signed and posted, the choir would have been rehearsing for the annual service of Lessons and Carols, still a fixture in the school calendar since it was introduced in 1906 by Canon Donaldson (Christ College Master 1902-1955 and School Chaplain).

Canon Donaldson had seen many changes during his fifty years at Christ College, but he would perhaps be astonished by the way the school has evolved – not least that the House named after him is filled with girls. At the same time, he would certainly recognise the traditions and values held by today’s inclusive community – including in the annual Carol Service, which says a lot about the shift to co-education during the last 40 years.

We are sure there are many stories from the early pioneering days that will engage and intrigue our current pupils. Whether it is memories of the choir or recollections of very different experiences, share a sentence or a story with Huw or Felicity. We’d really love to be able to be to pass them on. 

And if you have choir photos from the 1980s or 1990s, please let Felicity know as a matter of urgency. We are missing almost all of them and would like to publish a gallery for everyone to enjoy.  

Read more about the service of Lessons and Carols in an earlier post.