1979: From 'The Cottonian'.

As the Cotton supply priest was vesting for Mass one Sunday at Rocester, a young parishioner, Paul Snape, handed him a Sedgley Park Prize Medal which he had found in the fields.

These medals were instituted by the Rev John Kirk who was President (Headmaster) of Sedgley Park from 1793 until 1797. They were awarded to two or three boys of each `study' (class) who were recommended by their master `for general good behaviour and diligence in learning during the past twelve months'. The medals don't seem to have been given after the School moved to Cotton in 1873. Therefore the nearest we can get to the date of this issue is somewhere between 1793 and 1873.

There is no record of any boy from Rocester going to school at Sedgley Park. However, Thomas B Dwyer of Rocester was at Cotton from 1879 until 1881 and he may have possessed the medal and dropped it somewhere in the neighbourhood.

The obverse side of the medal, which is shown in the photograph, bears the impression of Sedgley Park; the reverse side has in the centre an ornamental bowl supported by three tall, slender supports and surrounded by a wreath of bay leaves, while round the top outer edge are the words `The Reward of Merit'.