St Edward's, 150 Years

St Edward’s: 150 Years

Chapter 1 / Origins and Earliest Days

Right: The first Headmaster, Revd Frederick Wilton Fryer MA, c. 1870. Farright:AlgernonBarringtonSimeon c. 1865.Hebecamethesecond Headmaster in 1870 and later Warden in 1877, with the post of Headmaster (later to be SubWarden) beneath him. It was he who owned the School by the time it moved.

KENNETH GRAHAME

Kenneth Grahame on the use of the cane inNew Inn Hall Street: ‘The lowest class, or form, was in session, and I was modestly lurking in the lower end of it, wonderingwhat the deuce it was all about, when enter the headmaster. He did not waste words. Turning to the master in charge of us, he merely said:“Ifthat”(indicatingmyshrinkingfigure)“isnot up there”(pointing to the upper strata)“by the end of the lesson, he is to be caned.”Then like a blast away he passed, and noman sawhimmore. Here was an affair! I was young and tender, well-meaning, not used to being clubbed and

in 1864 the numbers reached 22, in 1865 there were 34 and by 1866 there were 49. Ages ranged from eight to 18. The academic curriculum was circumscribed and consisted of ‘Repetitions in Latin, Greek and Latin accidence’. Irton Smith (Roll 97) complained that no attempt was made to explain why Greek and Latin should be learnt, while Literature was briny tears. It was the correct card to play in any case, but my emotion was genuine. Yet what happened? Not a glance, not a word was exchanged; but my gallant comrades, one and all, displayed an ignorance, a stupidity, which even for them, seemed to me unnatural. I rose, I soared, till, dazed and giddy, I stood at the very top of the class; and there my noble-hearted colleagues insisted on keeping me until the period was past, when I was at last allowed to descend from that “bad eminence” to which merit had certainly never raised me. What maggot had tickled thebrainof theheadmaster on that occasion I never found out. Schoolmasters never explain, never retract, never apologise.’

been described as ‘ascetic, austere, autocratic and unbending’ (R.D. Hill, A History of St Edward’s School , 1962), yet he had a great passion for educating children. St Edward’s was one of several schools he opened and, luckily for those who have since benefited from their education here, the most successful – indeed, the only one actually to survive. He left the day-to-day running of these schools to others, and in New Inn Hall Street he charged one of his curates with this task, the Revd Frederick Wilton Fryer MA, who became the first of three Headmasters of the School. Chamberlain named it the School of St Edward, King and Martyr, for reasons which he did not record, and the new School’s religious services were of course held in his own church, St Thomas’s. The role of Warden in the School did not come into being until after the move to Summertown. The School premises were less than desirable by modern standards. They were part of what had once been a fine property owned by Lady Mackworth, known as Mackworth House, but had become badly dilapidated by the time the

School was set up. Kenneth Grahame, the world-famous author of The Wind in the Willows , who was a boy at the School in New Inn Hall Street, dated it ‘at about Queen Anne’. There were many rats which apparently ‘swarmed under the floors, in the walls and over the rotten rafters’ (Hill), the structure itself was not in good order and hygiene was very basic, with bathing in moveable tubs which were brought before an open fire in winter and abandoned altogether if the weather was too cold to draw water. Lighting was by candle. One of the upstairs rooms was used as an Oratory. There was a gravelled playground at the back for exercise and the boys also played some games in fields and open spaces in the locality.

assaulted; yet here I was, about to be savaged by big, beefy, hefty, hairy men, called masters! Small wonder that I dissolved into

There were two storeys into which classrooms, dormitories and kitchens were squeezed. Teachers sometimes had to sleep in cupboards (so the next Headmaster, Simeon, said), and space was clearly at a premium. The teaching staff consisted mostly of Oxford undergraduates fitting in teaching round their studies. From a start with just two pupils in 1863, ‘A hundred years ago, this street, cobbled for its entirety, and earlier known as Seven Deadly Sins Lane, did not run north for its full length.At the junction with what is now St Michael’s Street, a twin- gabled house barred its further progress and it swept round at right angles to run out as it does today, in the Corn[market].The whole was named New Inn Hall Street, from the now defunct Hall which was once part of the University.On the corner, but with forty-eight feet of its frontage to the west, was No. 29, a stone-built house which had earlier enjoyed the grandiose title of Mackworth House, the residence of Lady Mackworth.’ – R.D. Hill

School population 1870. This was Algernon Barrington Simeon’s first term as a teacher at St Edward’s and the year he became Headmaster. Simeon in centre, A.H. Chesshire to Simeon’s right in light jacket, W.H. LeedsisonSimeon’simmediateright in cap, D.F. Lewis on Leeds’s right. K. Grahame is at Simeon’s feet. The other teacher shown is A.T.C. Cowie.

Henry Taunt’s photograph of New Inn Hall Street, 1865. Entrance to School playground shown on left.

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