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

P AGE N O : 49

Four new tennis courts newly installed and ‘playing well’ - south of the Outdoor Bath ‘Rev. Sowby is settled in his new house in the Apsley Orchard’ Laying out of the old playground behind the main buildings completed; the Masters’ Dining Room ( Brooke Kitchin design ) and Antechamber ‘practically complete’ (March 1929) The use of motor mowers and a Motor-Roller has ‘produced considerable results - it is a great sight when it is at work towing a mower’ (July 1929) Steam Ploughs hard at work clearing hedging which extend from Field House to the Canal, thus allowing the Corfe Field to be lengthened, making a much improved junior football ground. A line of willows planted alongside the lower tennis courts The Science Block ( Brook Kitchin design ) opens on 7 th December 1929 by Sir William Bragg, KNE, FRS, President of the Royal Institution. Cost of erection £9,370 (£796,450 today) (Governors’ Meeting, October 1928) Big School and Library no longer serve as Form-Rooms Foundations laid for new Laboratories during the Winter Term School purchases 15 acres beyond the Canal and 11 more on the nearside which had previously been leased at a price of £250 (£21,250 today) per acre ( this later includes 9 acres for Lower 2, the remainder are called the Canal Fields and Avenue Fields ) Two mantelpieces moved from Apsley Paddox House to the Warden’s House (Governors’ Meeting, July 1929) Harold Rogers’ scheme for additional seating in Big School should be accepted ‘but it should exclude the suggested gallery’ (Committee Meeting, October 1929) Masters now in their new Common Room. The North Quadrangle is newly grassed and paved (Governors’ Meeting, June 1929) Permission given to build two cottages behind Field House ‘if seen as fit’ (Governors’ Meeting, June 1929). 1930 - Three new football fields made on the big expanse of level ground between the Canal and the end of St. Edward’s Avenue Stained-glass window installed in the window frame at the foot of the stairs in the Warden’s House. ( Martin Travers design), it is a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Henry Brooke Johnson (O.S.E.) to commemorate his term of office as President of the S.E.S. Society (December Chronicle). It depicts ‘St. Edward and Martyr’ (N. Hunter, 2013) New Laboratories in full use Governors agree a proposal to erect a Classroom Block ( Brook Kitchin design ), to be built by the School’s favourite builder T.H. Kingerlee & Sons; initial quotation is £9408 (£807,206 today) which the Governors are recommended to accept (Governors’ Meeting February 1931). Not only is this a top priority but also it will displace the ‘eyesore of temporary huts’ which stand to the southeast of the War Memorial Buildings - once the time came to have them taken down they are moved a short distance