Chronicle Spring 2022

43 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Mackworth Hall By Chris Nathan, School Archivist

The first St Edward’s School site (1863-73) was in the old Mackworth Hall at 27 and 29 New Inn Hall Street, part of which was directly opposite the residence of Felicia Skene. It was here that in 1870 she first met the Reverend Algernon Simeon, then Headmaster, who became a very close friend and confidante over many years. Originally rented by the School’s founder, the Reverend Thomas Chamberlain, Mackworth Hall was well past its best days and in a dreadful state of repair –overrun by rats and structurally in a very precarious, dilapidated condition.

Hygiene was very primitive and, with only cold water available, tin baths in front of the open fire once a week and swimming in the Cherwell were the only means of keeping clean. Sports were played in a small yard attached to the property and in the local parks, where cattle could be relied upon to cause disruption. The first Headmaster was the Reverend Frederick Fryer, one of Chamberlain’s curates who served from 1863-69, before Simeon took the post in 1870. The teaching staff were largely part- time, mostly undergraduates from the university waiting for their own results, and generally of poor quality. Some permanent staff members were hired by Simeon and then transferred to the new site in 1873.

With the landlords, Brasenose College, unwilling to undertake any repairs, Simeon hired the Oxford architect William Wilkinson to survey the property. Wilkinson immediately condemned the building and was eventually responsible for finding the School its new location in Summertown. In 1870 a whole portion of the outer wall of the building collapsed into the street. Simeon agreed to buy St Edward’s outright from Chamberlain and the wheels were put in motion to build his new ‘dream’ School in North Oxford. Together with most of the surrounding buildings, Mackworth Hall was pulled down in around 1875 and the whole configuration of New Inn Hall Street forever altered.

The pupils and staff lived in very difficult cramped conditions. Some

teachers even slept in cupboards under the stairs. Teaching was held mostly in the old music room and beds for the boys were squeezed in wherever possible.

Felicia Skene's house ( with shutters ) opposite the doorway to the St Edward's playground in New Inn Hall Street at the junction with St Michael's Street c.1870