johnpfThe Motto
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The motto of St Tibb's High School is POSSVMVS ET NOS COGNOSCETIS.
Translated into English this reads "We are able/capable, and you will learn about us/become aware of us".
This reflects the original founders' view that girls are just as capable as boys of achieving great things when they reach adulthood and begin their life out in the world, with St Tibb's providing girls with a well-rounded education, both in academic subjects and personal development, so that they have something solid from which to launch their potential.
The Badge
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Although there is a technical heraldic description of the badge written in the original document which sets it out, not too many people these days are familiar with what all those obscure terms refer to, so the description here will be in plain English.
The badge of St Tibb's High School consists of a background of quartered shield whose top-left and bottom-right quadrants are plain white, and its top-right and bottom-left quadrants are primary red.
Laid over this design are three identical castle symbols, two placed side-by-side, one in each of the top two quadrants, and the third castle placed underneath, laid centrally across the boundary of the two lower quadrants.
The red and white quadrants of the shield represent the four largest financial contributors to the original founding of St Tibb's, the red and white signifying their places of origin (Yorkshire and Lancashire; cf. the Wars of the Roses). Although the school is not in any of these locations but situated close by in Cheshire, the four largest financial backers did come from those areas (two from Yorkshire, two from Lancashire) and their inclusion as the background symbolizes their contributions being the foundation for the school.
The three castle symbols are said to represent three actual castles forming a triangle that can be drawn on a map with St Tibb's approximately in its centre. This triangle is said to delineate the main geographical area from which the founders wished to draw the majority of their students. Of course, they soon extended the actual area to include anyone from anywhere who could afford the fees and who fit into their vision of catering to the growing number of middle-class families who could not afford the more prestigious schools for their daughters but still wished them to receive a good education.
The three-castles idea makes for a quaint story and it continues to this day, with the more inquisitive wondering about the real meaning behind the three castle symbols. The three castles which form the triangle do exist, and they do form a triangle that places St Tibb's roughly in its centre, so it is quite possible that this is the original meaning. No one today, however, knows for sure and the real meaning has been lost to history.
(Created in PSP 2022.)
2022-07-27 10:28:59 +0000