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

P AGE N O : 41 New Furnace installed in the Indoor Pool area to provide central heating for all but the Sanatorium and New Buildings at a cost of £2,000 (£153,600 today). The new device will supersede eight smaller boilers and ‘causes considerable evacuation’ The main staircase in Big School enforced with the ‘undergirding’ which still survives today (Oxley, 2015). 1924 - Sale of Mrs. Dore’s (mother of William Dore (O.S.E.) killed in WW1) House ‘Bishopstone’ 195 Woodstock Road, where a few boys have been housed for some years, now gives Warden Ferguson even more accommodation headaches (October Chronicle). Thirty-four pupils now live ‘outside the Quad and have to cross the Woodstock Road from Corfe or Bishopstone to reach it’ (Oxley, 2015). In recognition of her generosity to the School over many years, Mrs. Dore is awarded a gift of £50 (£4,085 today), ‘a mark of recognition of her generous kindness to the School in consenting to place rooms for boys to sleep at her house at the Warden’s disposal’ by the School Governors (Governors’ Meeting, July 1924) The commemorative Great War stones embedded in the cloisters presented, funded and unveiled by John Millington Sing Honours Boards in Big School updated The Duke of Marlborough’s agent ‘had visited the site for the proposed St. Edward's Avenue together with Warden Ferguson and ex Warden Sing and promised to discuss the matter with the Duke and give an answer in writing’ (Committee Minutes, May 1924) Central Heating in the Warden’s House not proving satisfactory and ‘Jeffries (Estates Office) asked to complete the missing portion of the new set of pipes in the Dining Hall without delay’ (Governors’ Meeting, May 1924) £300 (£24,510 today) set aside to improve drainage at Field House - (Committee Minutes July 1924) Overall, the School’s freehold land increases from 25 to 97 acres between 1924 and 1934 (Oxley, 2015). 1925 - Reverend Henry Kendall appointed the sixth Warden The opening of the Memorial Buildings means more space being made available in Field House General Sir A.J. Godley unveils the Memorial Buildings during the December Commemoration with a large O.T.C. contingent in attendance and over 200 visitors. The eventual cost of the building is £17,000 (£1,399,100 today) (Council Meeting, November 1924) The new dormitories in the Memorial Buildings are named ‘Halifax and Aldenham’ after two of the original trustees School purchases Apsley Paddox, including ten acres of ‘well-kept land with long frontages’ on the Banbury Road and Green Lane and ‘reaching right across to the Woodstock Road’. The house will hold 50 boys with two Masters and ‘a full complement of servants’. Already fitted with electric lighting and central heating, there are five Adam fireplaces ‘from a London House’. Additionally, there are ‘separate servants’ quarters, garages, stables and fowl houses’. Plans for a possible three football grounds as well as a tennis court and a bowling green are already in hand. A ‘charmingly designed’ entrance drive from the lodge which itself ‘is a pretty little building’. The approach for boys from the School ‘lies straight from the garden door by the Sanatorium, past the Post Office and the site of the old church ( both now demolished ) and Grove House ( once the home of Mr. Tibbs, Mr. Hugh Simeon, Mr. Watkins and Mr. Cowell ) to the new grounds, say five minutes’ walk or ‘trotted in three’ (July 1925 Chronicle)