St Edward's, 150 Years

Chapter 1 / Origins and Earliest Days

Chapter 1

ORIGINS AND EARL IEST DAYS

Left: Thomas Chamberlain, founder of the School, taken by his friend, Charles Dodgson (the author Lewis Carroll), 1860.

Below: New plaque in New Inn Hall Street, fitted 2013.

O ne hundred and fifty years ago, in 1863, St Edward’s started life in rented property at 29 New Inn Hall Street, Oxford.The School’s founder was the Revd Thomas Chamberlain, Senior Student and Honorary Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, who came from a modestly wealthy family. His ordained father was described as a ‘landed proprietor’, and Thomas was born in 1810 at Wardington, Oxfordshire. Educated first at Westminster School and then at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1831 he was ordained Deacon and Priest. When Chamberlain was young the Oxford Movement had grown to prominence and was highly influential, causing a great deal of controversy both in Oxford and elsewhere. This form of High Anglicanism, still very much in evidence in Oxford today, was heavily influenced by such important figures as John Keble, John Henry Newman and Edward Bouverie Pusey. Followers such as Chamberlain argued for a return to more beautiful churches and a concentration on the sacraments; they wanted to enrich simple church services and reintroduce robed choirs, incense and vestments. They also wanted to decorate the interior of their churches elaborately, to the glory of God, particularly the chancel, for example using stained glass. There was great distrust of their ideas by many who regarded them as too close to the Catholicism of Rome. Chamberlain was vicar of St Thomas the Martyr in Oxford and he arranged his services there in accordance with the Movement’s ideas, despite the hostility he faced, including physical violence on his way to church on occasion. He has

‘The acorn planted in the rubble of New Inn Hall Street, was at last ready to spread its roots.’ – R.D. Hill

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