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

P AGE N O : 24

Lower fields levelled under the direction of Major Arthur Macnamara (Common Room) for the ‘Junior Game’. Previously, in Simeon’s time, efforts had been made to prepare a tennis court on the site, but due to poor drainage it eventually became a kitchen garden (May Chronicle). During the excavations some pottery is found which, on further examination, is felt to be Bronze Age Outdoor Swimming Bath restored under the auspices of the Reverend Kenneth Menzies (Common Room) to the ‘condition Leonard Davies (Common Room) left it, when he went to France never to return’. A Cherry tree planted in Davies’s memory now ‘doing well’ Major repairs undertaken including: - Honour Boards in Big School updated (considered one of Harold Roger’s most successful designs) The War Memorial Fund stands at £8,000 (£483,200 today) - apart from the monies required for the Calvary, windows in Cloister and Laboratory needs, it is hoped to build ‘a Memorial Building as well as much needed Class Rooms, Masters’ Rooms, Servants’ Rooms and Dormitories’ Building commences on the new Sanatorium ( Harold Rogers design ), north of the Chapel in what had been the old kitchen garden and orchard and ‘is thus within the School grounds though well removed from the Main Buildings and has direct access to South Parade as well as from the School itself’. Planned to accommodate 10 patients at any one time and allowing for two isolation rooms, the design is ‘planned on very simple lines and is capable of extension without interference with the portion now built’ (Rogers). Also included would be ‘a broad sheltered Verandah, onto which beds may be wheeled’. Once completed this new building would free up the top floor sickroom of the New Buildings for Dormitory space (Hill, 1963) The Matron will have a sitting room, bedroom and Dispensary on the ground floor and above this will be a small ward with Nurse’s Room close by. Each separate area would have its own sanitary and washroom facilities with the Isolation Ward having a small kitchen also. A warmed linen room with a service lift to the first floor will be provided and the whole building will be electrically lit and centrally heated and ‘fire places are provided in all rooms’. The aspect of all wards and day room would be south or south west ‘and a provision has been made for adding another ward so that a total accommodation for 30 may be secured’ Leasehold of Field House secured from the Simeon Estate for £2,500 (£151,000 today), paid for out of the Memorial Fund and the rest mortgaged (Oxley, 2015). This lease is for 75 years School becomes affiliated to the Woodard Society. Simeon had tried to hand over the School to this Society in 1872 ‘but was rebuffed’ (Hill, 1963). 1922 - Start made on a new (third) cricket pavilion to replace the almost derelict 1880 Building, some distance back from and to the south and ‘largely funded by the School Shop’ (Hill, 1963) Renovation of the stone staircase in the Main Buildings The opening of the Cloisters by means of two windows ‘to reveal the Calvary’ (Hill, 1963). Cost is £82 (£5420 today) Oak panels in Chapel completed The subscriptions to the War Memorial Fund reach £8,000 (£528,800 today), far short of the original goal, leading to a greatly modified plan ‘with the (new) Science School having to wait until 1928’ Bathroom and WC installed in the ‘The Hollies’