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

P AGE N O : 51

Further extension to the Sanatorium now under construction Land (formerly called ‘Fair Close’) purchased by the School in the Boathouse area at Wolvercote, paid for by the Chairman of Governors and rented back to the School. In a speech this year the Warden alludes to the fact that the School is ‘now permanently set in the country’ through the acquisition of 41 acres of land ‘on both sides of the canal’ (Box 303) The original Fives Court gutted and rebuilt as the Sing’s Senior Day Room and the School House Reading Room above, owing much to Brook Kitchin’s design and ingenuity ‘Natal’, ‘New Zealand’ and Freddie Yorke’s original Sitting Room joined together to form Apsley and Sing’s Junior Day-Rooms with additional windows in the north and south walls The Beehive completely demolished as felt no longer required, at a cost of £400 (£23,500 today) Beehive removal is largely welcomed - ‘so grotesquely uncomfortable and ill-ventilated (space) that only the incurably sentimental regretted its departure’ (Hill, 1963). New building in its place will house the Apsley Housemaster ( Brook Kitchin design ) Decision taken to build new (fourth) Cricket Pavilion with an immediate contribution of £500 (£44,100 today) coming from the School Society. Overall costs should not exceed £1,400 (£123,480 today) (Governors Meeting, November 1931). The site of the new proposed cricket pavilion will be west of the jumps and north of the gravel pit. Included should be plans for a new rifle range (Committee Meeting, May 1931) The original St. Edward’s Farm given up on the expiry of its lease, ‘with no attempt made to retain the land, which was beyond the railway, almost in Wolvercote’ (Hill, 1963) School purchase 42 Oakthorpe Road (Oxley, 2015) Huts 1,2 and 3 to be converted into a Sanatorium Isolation block to be ‘situated between the Armoury and the wall of the Sanatorium gardens’ (Committee Meeting, May 1931) Scheme presented to Governors for ‘an exchange of land with the owner of the Trout Inn at Godstow, giving further river frontage to the School, and surrendering an equivalent amount near the entrance’ (Committee Meeting, May 1931). Final agreement reached in July 1931 Governors agree a £3,000 (£264,600 today) for ‘the extension of Apsley Paddox’ (Committee Meeting May 1931) Apsley kitchen garden now referred to as the Warden’s kitchen garden (Committee Meeting, July 1931) Plans drawn up for proposed house for married masters behind Cowell’s House (then in the New Buildings). (Committee Meeting, October 1931). This never materialised 1932 - Gallery built in Big School at the southern end to increase the capacity it can hold. Cost £500 (£46,100), paid for by Warden Kendall personally and supplemented by the Governors (December 1933 Chronicle and Governors’ Meeting, March, 1932) Work on Memorial Chapel (once the Vestry) to commence late summer, likewise the new Pavilion and a Water Garden below the Outdoor Pool (July Chronicle) Oak screen added to the Memorial Chapel at the cost of £15 (£1,383 today). (Committee Meeting, February 1932).