Sir John Nelthorpe School

Sir John Nelthorpe School

House System

The House System

The House system at Sir John Nelthorpe School is a long standing tradition that creates competition, promotes good behaviour, encourages teamwork, provides opportunities to take on responsibilities and brings everyone in the school together. Every pupil belongs to a house as do most members of staff. Houses compete for points in a variety of sporting and cultural competitions throughout the year and also gain points through the school 'merit' system. Within the houses each year group elects male and female captains and vice captains who organise team for events and monitor the participation of members of their house. The Sixth Form House Captains and Vice Captains take on overall responsibility for their houses.

Final House Point Standings 2021-22

HousePoints

Pelham

324

Eccles

299

Lardelli

275

Taylor

321

The History of the House Names

Lardelli House

"Miss Lardelli - a greater personality I have never met - lived for us, and to us gave the best years of her life!" This is the impression of the first Headmistress at Brigg Girls' High School by a past Head Girl. A great tribute to a great lady. Miss Lardelli is remembered by so many, she was a Headmistress of real quality, setting the tone of the School from the start. Her concerns were for people, she had tremendous pride in the school and never gave up trying to improve the buildings and the provision.

Miss Lardelli was Head from 1919 to 1935, these were years of laying of foundations, of building up of traditions. The school became a place of happiness and buoyancy and all those who have followed have reaped the benefits.

Miss Lardelli left, as a token of her care for the pupils, a foundation fund that is administered by a group of Trustees; this fund is there in order to assist pupils financially if in need. Many girls have benefitted from this as the money also supplies an annual prize for Sixth Formers.

It is a fitting tribute to one of our Founders that we should have a House named Lardelli House. I hope the members of the House will try to live up to the standard set by her and will receive inspiration from the past, the vivacious, charming, dedicated first Headmistress of Brigg Girls' High School.

Taylor House

Mrs. Gwen Taylor (as Gwen Dent) was among the first 66 pupils at the start of Brigg Girls' High School in 1919. She was in the Upper Fifth Form all the time there was no Sixth Form in those days. In 1923 she entered Birmingham University to read History and after graduation worked for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research until her marriage to Mr. Edgar Taylor brought her back to Brigg. She renewed her association with her old school by being elected to the Board of Governors. Mrs. Taylor has always been a very dear friend of the school and when she died in 1972 she left a sum of money to be invested to provide annual prizes for Art and History.

Eccles House

This house obtains its name from Colonel John Gerald Turton Eccles who died on Boxing Day, 1975. One of the oldest Briggensians, he was still actively involved in a host of activities, some of them heavily demanding. He is buried at Wrawby Church.

It is not necessary, and is barely possible, to list all of his career, offices and responsibilities. A regular Army officer, he returned to the civilian world to build up a large and successful business enterprise with which we are familiar. This would have absorbed most men's energies and priorities. He found time to be a magistrate, a County Councillor (later an Alderman) a Deputy Lieutenant and for one year High Sheriff of the County he loved; he was also Provincial Grand Master of the Freemasons of Lincolnshire. Wherever there was a need, wherever there was a duty, in all manner of good causes Gerry Eccles found time. This included time for his own school: in committee and office for the Old Briggensians and for many years on the Governing Body. Nor were his interests and generous contributions confined to the larger world and the more notable or popular organisations: he had for example a continued interest in, and support for, our own Scout Troop.

The Colonel was a remarkably sincere, friendly, generous man, sensitive to the needs of others and ever ready to deal courteously, helpfully and if necessary, firmly with them. This was so despite, or perhaps because of, the high standards which he always expected and which, above all, he set for himself. It is also for these reasons that it was decided to name one of our four houses after him.

Pelham House

So, which explanation do you want? Which Pelham shall we choose or blame? Sir Edmun Pelham (died 1606), the first English judge to go on circuit in Ireland? Sir William, who raised the Dutch rebels in 1571, and eight years later we find helping to wage 'a pitiless war of fire, famine, and sword' against the Irish? The low-church enthusiast Henry Pelham, who was very briefly Speaker of the House of Commons in 1647 before some lower-church fanatic threw him out? George Pelham, Bishop of Exeter and Lincoln, 'notorious for his greed of lucrative office'? Herbert Pelham (1600-1673) who helped found the Puritan colony of Massachusetts? Edward Pelham of Battle Park, Sussex, 'a man very backward in religion, and his wife a professed recusant'? Peter Pelham (died 1751), who introduced mezzo-tint into America, where he 'executed a series of portraits of clergymen about 1727'? The Rev. Arthur Harvey Thursby-Pelham, who was in the Fifth Form at Eton in 1892?

The funniest by far was Sir Thomas Pelham-Holies, fifth baronet, first duke of Newcastle upon Tyne, and of Newcastle under Lyme, earl of Clare, second baron Pelham of Laughton, and first baron Pelham of Stanmer (1693-1768), politician, sort of head cook and bottle-washer to George I and George II. George III got rid of him. He never let a servant throwaway old clothes, and at his death a lifetime's collection of used liveries was auctioned off, so that for years no coachman or common porter in London wore any but the very second-hand Newcastle colours. At George II's funeral he carefully stood on the Duke of Cumberland's train to avoid getting cold feet. Of his wife, a scholarly and learned lady, he remarked that 'a very wise woman is a very foolish thing'.

To be strictly accurate however you are asked to remember your allegiance is to the Brocklesby Pelhams, descended from Sir William whom we last met thumping the Irish in 1579 - for which Elizabeth I saw fit to knight him. As is the habit with the English landed class, the line of descent is indirect, and the first Baron Yarborough of Brocklesby, created 1794, was Charles Anderson. The name Pelham was re-attached later on. This branch tended to produce soldiers and minor statesmen, and also claim one of the oldest family hunting packs in England, the Brocklesby hounds.

And if all that doesn't impress you, there is the pelham, a double-action bit for difficult horses. But I can't find out which one of them invented it.

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