A Pictorial Celebration of Bradfield

‘Bradfield 175’ is a rich visual tapestry of contemporary and archival photographs that weaves together the present and past lives of the school in a volume lavishly illustrated with more than 200 photographs. A pictorial history that reflects all aspects of Bradfield’s ‘education for life’ philosophy, the project was led by English and Classics teacher Oli Gent with the support of College Archivist, Dr John Cardwell.

Oli’s brief was to review the College’s 175-year history and visually compare the aspects of Bradfield that have changed and those that haven’t.

One of his initial challenges was to consider how this narrative might best be conveyed to create the framework for the archive and contemporary materials.

In the end, the decision was a very natural one, the experience of being at school is a very cyclical one, or rather more like a helix, where you go through the same seasonal rotation with similar activities happening at a similar time but that with each year you as you rise through the helix and progress higher in the system your experience and perspective evolve.

‘We realised that many of the things that definite a month in the College calendar have been defining it for 175 years’

So the publication starts in September with ‘New Beginnings’, comparing new arrivals from 1900 to those in 2024 and then progresses through the year in what will be a cycle that will be very familiar to Bradfieldians and thereby evoke many memories of when they too had those experiences of sports and plays, as well as significant occasions such as Handshaking, Remembrance, Carols in Chapel, The Steeplechase, productions in the Greek Theatre and Commemoration, comparing images from then and now.

Oli has carefully curated these comparisons throughout the publication – hoping that each one might be a favourite page for a particular reader.

When pressed to select a favourite page of his own, Oli is true to his roots as a Classics teacher ‘My favourite is the page tracks a series of Greek Play productions, namely Agamemnon.

Having just seen Agamemnon’s victorious return in the 1892 production, one now sees the same silhouette in 1949. Equally, the scene of Clytemnestra’s vengeance upon him plays out below, labrys in hand. She then stands overleaf in 1976, though now her shadowy cloak is discarded, and she parades in the full pleasure of her deed. Perhaps modernity has brought sardonic ease and liberality to the performance, but the bowed chorus, with their hollow eyes of judgement, span the century. For me, this set of four images, tracking the same play from 1892 to 1976 (page 230 for those interested), is the strand that runs throughout the book: that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

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A Pictorial Celebration of Bradfield

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