page_title: Bury Grammar School
section_title: Crest
hierarchical_section_title: Bury Grammar School / Crest
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign for Bury Grammar Schools with crest showing swan and key, motto SANCTAS CLAVIS FORES APERIT
context_page_description: Bury Grammar School Boys is an independent day school in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, that has existed since c.1570. It is now part of a group of schools for preschool, junior, senior and sixth form studies.
  The headmaster of the boys' school since 2017 has been Devin Cassidy. The headmaster is a member of the HMC. The current school fees are £10,440 p.a. for senior pupils and £7.758 p.a. in the junior school.
context_section_description: The school's crest dates from c.1840. It depicts a swan holding a key in its beak, under which is the motto in Latin: sanctas clavis fores aperit (English: The key opens sacred doors). Both are considered to have been created by Rev'd Henry Crewe Boutflower, headmaster 1823–58. The swan was used by John, Duke of Berry in the manuscripts known as the Très Riches Heures. Berry may have been an ancestor of Henry Bury, but was more likely chosen due to the similarity in their names, whilst the key is believed to be a play on the name of the re-founder, Roger Kay.
  In a letter to the editor in the first edition of the Bury Grammar School Magazine of September 1881, a correspondent asked:
  Will you kindly inform me what creature owns the head that figures as the school crest? Is it an ostrich, swan, snake, or do you think it is a mythical bird? Also, can you tell me why it was adopted as the school crest? Truly yours, PUZZLED
  The following edition carried a reply:
  In answer to the query of Puzzled in your last issue, I may state, that I have it on the authority of a celebrated local ornithologist that the creature with the key between its teeth is a faithful representation of the head and part of the neck of the once famous Irwell Duck. This rara avis, which in days gone by was found on the banks of that clear and crystal stream from which it takes its name, was celebrated for its pilfering habits. The engraving represents the identical duck, which, it is supposed, abstracted the key from the lock of the Sacred Door; it subsequently alighted on the Island where, quite overcome by the weight of its burden, it was captured in a fainting condition and borne off to the Grammar School, where it immediately expired, still however gripping the key with a death-like tenacity. So struck were the assembled trustees by the determination of the noble bird, that they forthwith resolved that the present arms should be adopted. Yours respectfully, O. K.
  Thus began references to the swan of Bury as The Irwell Duck.
caption: School sign showing the crest
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