- Merchant Taylors News
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- CBE for former Merchants' Governor
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- Merchant Taylors' Annual Ball
- Merchants sponsor charity 1000 mile bike ride
- CCF Inspection Day
- Merchants becomes 'The School for Scandal'
- MTS celebrates record admissions to top medical schools
- Lost famous Delft Plaque found in Merchants' skip.
- MTS CCF Shooting Team wins more trophies
- 2009-10 Head Boys and Girls
- Merchants wins hat-trick of teaching awards
- GCSE Results Press Release
- After-school care a success
- Sixth Formers meet the Prime Minister
- Open Days' Photos
- Prize Giving and Speech Day Ceremonies - Celebrating Success
- My Fair Lady
- Economist enjoy 'Credit Brunch' with Old Boy and City high-flyer
- Introducing our new Bursar
- Sports Days show MTS has real competitive spirit
- Young Medics and Dentists set for bright future
- ICT disruption
- Staff visit Sierra Leone
- Swimming Pool Re-Opened
Lost famous Delft Plaque found in Merchants' skip.
Liverpool's oldest piece of indigenous pottery has been rediscovered after it was found in a skip by Merchant Taylors' maintenance man Jimmy Horrocks.
The Delft Plaque is believed to date back to 1722 yet 10 years ago when sub contractors were converting the school library; it was found in three pieces in their disposal skip.
Jimmy Horrocks, who has been working at Merchants' for 17 years, said: "I can just about remember that I saw a bit of blue and white pottery poking out of the skip and thought it was worth saving. Over the next few days another two pieces appeared so I took them home and repaired them." Jimmy, who has an interest in antique restoration, took a book out of the school library on pottery repairs and carefully mixed titanium oxide from the school's science department with common Araldite glue as he made the invisible repair.
He added: "I thought no more of it and it's been sitting in my loft for 10 years until a chance conversation with my old friend Trevor Hildrey, the school's archivist, revealed it's true significance. Trevor, a former Physics teacher at the school, said: "The Delft Plaque commemorates the purchase of a pew in 1722 in St. Michael's Church, by John and Henry Harrison, who were related to the school's original founder John Harrison, who died in 1618." "We believe it hung in the Church until it was demolished in the 19th Century which is when we think it was acquired by the school." He continued: "It eventually found its way into the present building and was framed and hung on the wall in the school hall. There is a photograph of it hanging next to the World War 1 Memorial. In the mid sixties the hall was converted into the school library. The plaque probably fell from the wall and disappeared behind the bookshelves of the library sometime between the mid sixties and early seventies.
"When it fell, it broke into three pieces and about ten years ago when the library's book cases were refurbished the builders placed the pieces into the skip." Tutor in History University of Liverpool, David Brazendale has hailed the discovery as remarkable. An old boy of the school from 1948 to 1955, David said: "I vaguely remember the plaque from school assemblies but, of course, I didn't take much notice then. But now I have an interest in Liverpool Potteries of the 18th century and I discovered from a catalogue of an exhibition of the National Museums and Galleries that this plaque had disappeared.
"It is particularly important because an earlier Plaque, The Crosby Plaque, which dated from 1716, which showed a scene of Crosby from the early 18th Century, has since been destroyed and this is the oldest piece of Liverpool pottery in existence.
"It is a typical piece of 18th Century red earthenware in the style of the Delft Potteries of Holland, which imitated Chinese porcelain with a thick white glaze and the pattern in blue." He added: "It may well have been made in Liverpool's first pottery which was on the corner of Whitechapel and Lord Street and from what I have seen the repairs have done very carefully and very well, you can't even see the joins." David added: "I wouldn¹t like to put a price on it, but I don't think it would have a particularly high value, but historically it is very important and personally I would like to see the school make a replica but have the original go on permanent loan to the National Museums and Galleries." Jimmy Horrocks concluded; "I am just pleased it's found it's home. I enjoyed making the repairs and preserving something I liked the look of, but I had no idea what it was. I mean you just never know what you are going to find in a skip."
