Bristol primary school removing Colston from name

A primary school is to drop the name it shares with the 17th Century merchant who was made wealthy by the slave trade.

Colston's Primary School in Bristol said the decision was made after an "open and honest" debate across the school community.

It said it would now look at choosing a new name for the start of the September 2018 term.

In April, bosses of the Colston Hall music venue in Bristol announced it would also have a new name from 2020.

In the 1600s, a significant proportion of Edward Colston's wealth came directly or indirectly from the slave trade.

Head teacher Alex Bell said that the school's "rich" past would not be erased but celebrated digitally.

Edward Colston was born into a prosperous Bristol merchant's family and, although he lived in London for many years, was always closely associated with the city.

By 1672 he had his own business in the capital trading in slaves, cloth, wine and sugar.

In 1680 he became an official of the Royal African Company, which at the time held the monopoly in Britain on slave trading

He donated to churches and hospitals and was a city MP for a short time

Source: BBC History/Nigel Pocock and Victoria Cook