The Building of St Edward's School: A Chronology (1870 - 2020)

P AGE N O : 18 Possession of the School passes from Simeon to three Trustees - Earl Beauchamp, Viscount Halifax and Mr. Hucks Gibbs (later Lord Aldenham) - (Simeon, School Roll 1898). 1891 - Two more stained-glass windows ( Charles Kempe design ) in the Chapel installed on the north side; ‘Penance’ to the memory of Thomas Alexander Roberts, Publisher and of Cecil and Wilfred Wilkinson, both O.S.E. (Hill, 1963). 1892 - St. Edward’s School Society formed just prior to Simeon’s retirement. Wilfrid Cowell appointed first Honorary Treasurer ( a position he held until 1928 ), The Reverend Algernon Simeon the first President (Successive Wardens held this role until 1922) and A.J. Doull (O.S.E.) was the first Honorary Secretary. The Society was to play a key role thereon in, not only in the life of the School, but also with assistance in funding various building projects at St. Edward’s 1893 - Reverend Thomas Hobson appointed as second Warden Oakthorpe, Thorncliffe and Beech Croft Roads laid out on the remaining part of the original Diamond Farm in North Oxford. The School’s architects William Wilkinson and Harry Wilkinson Moore also responsible for designing many of the major new houses in this area. 1895 - A severe frost lasting 3 weeks causes the School some very considerable problems. Walter Young, the School’s main carpenter/plumber is up every night emptying the pipes in the Main Buildings so as to keep water supply going. Even his efforts are in vain when the connection with the main in South Parade also freezes, so cutting off all water to the School for three days (Cowell, February 1932 Chronicle). 1896 - Reverend Thomas Hudson replaces Hobson as the third Warden. 1897 - Field next to the Keble Ground levelled, enabling the junior cricketers to be moved off the main cricket square Further stained-glass window ( Charles Kempe design ) in Chapel installed representing ‘Ordination’, to mark Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. This ‘completed the Chancel’ (Hill, 1963). 1898 - New Fives Courts built, behind and to the north of the Main Buildings, in December Playground enlarged between Chapel and north wall in December by the purchase (£545 (£95,920 today) of what was then called the ‘South Plot’ - in fact this is made up of three smaller plots about 14,000 square feet in all (Box 303) Land south of the New Buildings purchased on which it is planned a new Sanatorium will be built (this never materialized and the land was later offered for sale, without success, and then turned into a driveway into the Woodstock Road) ‘Palisade’ constructed around the Outdoor Bath - just one of a number of improvements following its near closure the year before. Fresh pipes and ‘a new channel’ installed, paid for by the O.S.E. 1900 - Pigs (including Warden Hudson’s own herd) kept in the ‘south east Corner of the School gardens, east of the Quad’. This year they are transferred to the lower end of the present Keble Field. There are also cowsheds down there, and these are later moved northwards as more grazing ground is rented by the School (the existing long shed by Corfe, recently used to store theatrical equipment, was once a cow shed) and reaches Wolvercote by the 1930’s. At this time, the School Farm had a Lady Bailiff, a Miss Woodcock, who lived in the Lodge. The site of the last cowsheds is now covered by the housing estate south of Wolvercote Church. Horses (usually only one - for the mowing machine) originally stabled near the (old) pavilion, but like the cows are moved northwards. ‘Father’ Neale, long