As we come to the close of the College’s 175th anniversary year, we celebrate 2025 as a bumper year. It brought many of our community back to Bradfield to enjoy our wonderful school grounds and buildings and to tour the St Andrew’s Study Centre, but also to see the Bradfield 175 Timeline. Both were described as highlights of the Summer Gathering in June, and everyone enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about the college’s early history and how it has developed over the years.

The Timeline has been a very special commemorative project bringing the college archive and the college history together, so that the whole community can learn about and feel proud of Bradfield’s rich heritage. Bloods Corridor has been transformed by the artwork on the walls into a learning resource and it has turned what was a dark corridor into a colourful collage of Bradfield’s history. Beginning in 1751 when the Stevens family moved into the manor at Bradfield and 1850 when Reverend Thomas Stevens founded Bradfield College, the Timeline marks seminal moments in the school’s history, such as the granting of its Royal Charter in 1862 and its Supplemental Charter in 1977 which allowed girls to join, right through to the co-educational school we have today.

One guest at an event noted the beautifully displayed historical Timeline to be brilliant, adding:

“I can imagine lines of patient adolescents, quietly waiting to be allowed into their classrooms, inwardly digesting the history of Bradfield College!”

For those who have been unable to join us this year or who live overseas, we are now thrilled to launch an online version of the Timeline;

Visit the Digital timeline

We hope that the video you will see at the beginning of the presentation gives you the feeling of walking down the Timeline and that you will enjoy exploring the dates, content and images we have included, and you will find it both interesting, enjoyable and perhaps it will stir some memories.

We welcome your feedback and your memories and hope that it will not be too long before you can come and see the 175 Timeline for yourself.