School History

THE WITCHFINDER TRIALS
The City of Wessex in 1645 was torn between the forces of the King and Parliament, the townspeople declared early on for the puritans whilst the surrounding country, including St. Mary Mede, was for the King.​

In the wake of the battle of Saxon Heights (1645), men like Lucius Tarlbot, Witchfinder Genera1 for Wessex and Mercia and the Reverend Elijah Seer pursued and persecuted their share of witches and warlocks. All they succeeded in doing, however, was maiming and killing many innocent folk, many of whom fled into the forest.​

​In those days, Saxon Heights was forested, untamed and no place for respectable men and women. According to local folklore that which is why a dark coven called the Brood of Tiamat supposedly conducted their rituals there.​

Witchfinder General Lucius Tarlbot did succeed in putting several local women including a Justina Vervain to the torture. Only Justina Vervain was subsequently found guilty however and she was burnt alive as a witch in the square of St. Mary Mede shortly afterwards.​

​”THE” VERVAINE
After the English Civil War and Restoration, the countryside in and around St. Mary Mede returned to normality. The local Squire, Sir Terrance Stryfe was a handsome widower and much sought after by the local families and their unwed daughters. Stryfe, however, went against convention and married in 1692 — well beneath his station, some muttered — a woman named Constance Vervain, great-granddaughter to Justina. It caused a minor scandal, given that Justina was burnt alive by Lucius Tarlbot for witchcraft, and while the local gentry considered themselves above the brutal excesses of the Witchfinder Trials, they remained a superstitious lot. Stryfe and Constance, however, were in love.

Constance convinced Stryfe to build their summer home atop the beautiful hills of Saxon Heights that overlooked St. Mary Mede. ​

THE JACOBITE REBELLION
Wessex and the surrounding settlements continued to grow, including St. Mary Mede, which slowly spread up Saxon Heights.​ Squire Stryfe had his hands full trying to govern his Wessex estates.

In October 1715 an advanced force of Jacobite troops reached the outskirts of the city of Wessex. Most of the population fled however the celebrating Jacobites ransacked several of the estates around Saxon Heights and burned them to the ground though the Stryfe estate was initially untouched.

When the Jacobite forces again returned to the banks of the River Mercia in December, the local people escaped to Wessex for refuge, but Constance refused to leave her Saxon Heights estate. the rampaging Jackobites savagely killed Constance, her children and the remaining household staff. Stryfe was devastated and retaliated with ruthless bloodlust.​

During the fight the main house was engulfed in flames, and Stryfe was burned alive, apparently ending both the Styfe and Vervain lineages.​

THE ‘WILDERNESS’ YEARS
The estate was subsequently purchased and sold multiple times through the next century.​ ​It was always the property of the City of Wessex’s rich and affluent, however the property carried with it “stories”. People wouldn’t call it haunted, but occasionally, someone would report seeing a burning man stumbling through the area, oblivious to the flames and seemingly crying out for his wife and children. The stories could never be corroborated, but the reports would always coincide with mysterious wildfires that would break out in the area.​

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ACADEMY
Finally, in 1870 after the property had been abandoned for over 50 years, it was sold to Dr. Charles Xavier Claremont for a pittance. Dr. Claremont dreamed of running a prestigious private school for the wealthy families of Wessex.​

During construction, the school building again burnt down and it was at this point that it is said the Dr. Claremont underwent a religious experience that resulted in his converting to Roman Catholicism. He built a church in the school grounds, dedicated to St. Thomas Aquinas and invited a local priest, Father Leonard from Wessex to join him in the running of the school which would be named St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic School for the sons of gentlemen.​

It was because of Father Leonard’s sway over Dr. Claremont that the campus for St. Thomas Aquinas Academy grew adding on additional dormitories and study halls.​

In 1891 St. Mary Mede was the scene of a murder of a young lady highly reminiscent of the butchery carried out by Jack the Ripper a couple of years earlier. The murderer was never found and the circumstance behind the murder was hushed up to prevent a public outcry.​

THE 20TH CENTURY
On the 13th October 1913 the town of St. Mary Mede and St. Thomas Aquinas’ School witnessed a number of mysterious disappearances with people claiming that they saw the missing people vanish before their eyes in a shroud of green light. The disappearances ended at the same time as the disappearance of one of the teachers John Smith and a scullery maid Martha the following morning.​

Wilhelm Warner was a student at St. Thomas when Hitler was marching across Europe. Because of his German accent, Wilhelm had already endured three years of torment at the academy, while his parents lost their jobs and friends because of anti-Nazi sentiment and was under threat of internment. None of them were Nazis, but that didn’t matter. Finally, in his senior year, Wilhelm was on the verge of being expelled, because his parents couldn’t afford next semester’s tuition.​

​It is said that he managed to set himself on fire and, despite the obvious pain, he walked the campus grounds, setting portions of the school on fire and exacting his revenge on his cruel classmates.​

The school blamed the tragedy on a freak fire, and the events at Dunkirk managed to distract any deeper investigation.​ The damage was done, unfortunately. The school never fully recovered its prestige from the tragedy, even after it turned into a co-ed grammar school in the 1960s to draw in more students. St. Thomas Aquinas was increasingly considered outdated and old fashioned.​

Finally, on the verge of closing anyway, a rift opened above the school during the Terminus Invasion (2009) releasing a squad of Omegadrones and attacked the school. A Probot also materialised in the grounds of the school.

The local superhero team, theWessex Warriors were decimated trying to protect Wessex from the attack by Omega-drones and Omega-Destroyers. Meanwhile the forces attacking the school were defeated by the teachers and what was assumed to be a group of meta-human students, though a number of students were killed while fleeing the initial attack.

The breach above the school was sealed by the Challnenger-Wildeman family, preventing further Terminus troops coming through however the school had been badly damaged and as a result was abandoned once more.​

THE CLAREMONT ACADEMY
The  history of the school resumed when Duncan Summers opened the Claremont Academy named in honour of its original founder. With its history all but forgotten, the new, progressive school was an attractive alternative to schools in the city itself.

So when Duncan reopened the school, while some protested the loss of its original name and religious affiliation, they still wanted to show their support by enrolling their children in one of the    City of Wessex’s oldest schools. Since then, Duncan Summers has turned the Claremont Academy into a strong academic force.​

While the original manor house and outbuildings have been rebuild to the original external specifications (there have been some internal modifications) the campus and school buildings such as the reception and dormitories have been designed and built to fulfil the needs of a modern school.​

EXOTICS & META-HUMANS
Claremont Academy has the largest publicly acknowledged percentage of exotic students enrolled of any public school in the UK (excluding dedicated meta-human establishments like the Pryde Foundation Preparatory Institute).​

Alaina ‘Bubbles’ Waraich,  Albion House Student (Year 5)