St Michael's School Crest

Our school crest, like the school,will be 150 years old in 2012. The origins of the crest can be seen in the dated ornamental stone in the brickwork above the ducklings class entrance.

This reflects the date of construction of the building and represnts the crest of the Walter family who owned Bearwood House near Abefford.  The country house is now Bearwood College.The school building was initially gifted for use as a school by John Walter III who was the major landowner in the area when Sandhurst was just a small village.

John Walter, 1818 - 1894

Incidentally John Walter is better known as an editor of the Times newspaper and inventor of the 'Walter Press' and as the MP for Berkshire.

St Michaels Crest
2011

The school crest consist of a stork dipping its beak into a pitcher of water. The Walter family crest as seen in the ornamental stone of the school wall has the pitcher replaced with a whelk shell. Indeed the description of the family crest or blazon  is  'A Stork Ppr., Dipping The Beak Into A Whelkshell Erect Or.' The same family crest can be seen on this beautiful sterling silver Punch Bowl, dated 1795, made by John Sutton.

Silver Punch  Bowl, 1795
Source: ASCAS Newsletter May 2011

Punch Bowl inset showing Walter family crest
Source: ASCAS Newsletter May 2011

Currently in the grounds of  the school is this wonderful sculpture, again reflecting the stork in the school crest.

As an aside, the stork appears as a character in 2 of Aesop's Fables:

• The Fox and the Stork
• The Farmer and the Stork