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

P AGE N O : 19 time School groundsman, and his wife introduce chickens and later geese, during WW2. School farming ends in 1961 (Winter 1975 Chronicle) A letter dated 16 October 1900 from a Charles W. Driver, a valuer employed by the School’s bank following a loan request of £20,000 (£3,500,000 today) by Warden Hudson, reports that St. Edward’s had originally purchased just under 6 acres of Freehold land with a frontage of 570 feet to the Woodstock Road and a return frontage of 545 feet to South Parade. The buildings up to this year were ‘in red brick with stone dressings of good elevation in the early English style. They are estimated to have cost nearly £45,000 (£7,875,000 today)’. This amount is at variance with earlier estimates usually tendered by Simeon! 1902 - Further stained-glass windows installed ( Charles Kempe design ) in the Nave of the Chapel. One shows “Charity” in memory of Felicia Skene, Victorian prison reformer and personal confidante of Algernon Simeon. Two others commemorate Joseph Sandell (O.S.E.), and Robert Tamplin (O.S.E.) who lost his life saving others during a fire at the Theatre Royal in Exeter in 1887. A further window representing ‘Hope’ and installed on the south side of Chapel, is dedicated to Alfred Spurling, killed during the Boer War in 1901, the first O.S.E. killed in a major war (Hill, 1963). 1903 - Wooden Panelling completed in Chapel ‘to incorporate memorial tablets of the war dead’. Executed in repousse copper by Messrs. Ramsden & Carr of South West London and affixed to the north side of the Chapel to begin with. Costs were £100 (£11,000 today) for the panelling (by Crosse, the Cabinet Maker) and £5 (£825 today) for each of the five bronze tablets (for the O.S.E. killed in action up to then) Original old willow tree ‘at the waist of the Outdoor Pool subsided in a gale during the Summer Holidays - much lamented by those who knew and used it as a diving board’ (Hill, 1963). 1904 - John Millington Sing appointed the School’s fourth Warden. The first to be unordained and from the existing staff. 1905 - Second School Armoury established in the old Stables area; also new firing ranges are provided, one by the Outdoor Swimming Pool and the other ‘in the Gymnasium’. All coincide with the establishment of the Rifle Club, the precursor to the Officer Training Corps formed four years later Gas lighting, in the form of incandescent burners and globes, replace ‘rows of unlovely (candle) jets’ in Chapel. The original lighting had been ‘by a multitude of naked gas jets. The heat had been intense and there was for many years no ventilation in the roof’ (Hill, 1963) Extra strip of land from Simeon’s Field House property re-leased to the School allowing the construction of a roadway - later known as The Avenue (Oxley, 2015) Concerns raised about the insecurity of the School’s tenure of their cricket field and Council considers it a matter of urgency to secure the use of a cricket field for the School (Council Meeting, March 1905). Duke of Marlborough’s agent advises that the Duke will ‘probably exercise his right of terminating the existing lease with the School in 1908 ‘with a view to using the ground for building purposes’. Council members urged to find ways and possible contacts to emphasise to the Duke the importance of such a facility for the School and the ‘loss of this land would imperil the School’s very existence’ (Council Meeting, June 1905). The Bishop of Oxford promises to represent the School’s views to the Duke (Council Meeting, October 1905) The School’s efforts to sell some of the land it already owned (behind the New Buildings) has proven unsuccessful with only one bid of £300 (£49,500 today) forthcoming. ‘It appeared that land in the Woodstock Road had greatly depreciated in value owing to motor traffic’. The School Council opinion is that no less a figure than £400 (£66,000 today) would be acceptable (Council Meeting, March 1906). This land was never sold