1932 to the present: the development of Trinity
Clifton Theological College 1932-1971
In 1932 Stoke House was opened by the Bishop of Malmesbury as Clifton Theological College, a new evangelical college for training men for the ordained Anglican ministry. Dalton House, a women's training college, was also opened in the 1930s. Clifton continued until 1971 when it joined Dalton House and Tyndale Hall to form Trinity College. The legal procedures were completed and appointments were made in 1971, and joint teaching began that October; Trinity College was officially launched on 1 January 1972.
The photo above shows the room in Stoke House that was turned into a chapel for Clifton Theological College. The oil painting of Jesus eating with the two men whom he met on the road to Emmaus was painted specially for the chapel. This room, now known as the Oak Chapel, is kept for private prayer and smaller services. There is a larger chapel in the grounds.
Trinity College 1971 - present
Trinity College's origins go back to the nineteenth century, with eight 'parent' colleges merging over the years until the present college came into being 1971, with its official beginning on 1 January 1972. The three Bristol evangelical Anglican colleges which merged to form Trinity College were:
• Tyndale Hall was started by the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society (now Crosslinks) as the Bible Missionary Training College in 1925. In 1952 its name was changed to Tyndale Hall, to note Gloucestershire's connections with William Tyndale, the Bible translator. Tyndale Hall was in Clifton on the edge of the Downs.
• Clifton Theological College was an offshoot of Tyndale Hall, founded 1932 to train men for the ordained Anglican ministry. It occupied Trinity's present site, Stoke House in Stoke Bishop, which immediately beforehand had been a school, and before that a private house.
• Dalton House was founded in Bristol in 1930 as a women's training college. In the 1950s Carfax Missionary Training College was amalgamated with it, and in 1968 it was joined by St Michael's House, Oxford, which moved to Bristol. Several other Anglican women's colleges had been 'parents' of St Michael's: Mildmay Deaconess Institution in London (1864-1917), St Catherine's Deaconess House (1917-1941), and the Church Sister Training College (1900-1948).
Right photos:
Clifton Theological College coat of arms in a stained-glass window at the foot of the Stoke House stairs
William Tyndale: a modern statue in Millennium Square, Bristol
114 Pembroke Road, home to Tyndale Hall staff and students
