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

P AGE N O : 67 School purchases 214 Woodstock Road - first Common Room occupants are the Church family and Bill Eardley (January 1956 Chronicle) New canvas backed chairs for Big School installed Outlines of the School’s long term Development Plan laid out, but needs a major late change due to the unexpected interim sale of Field House (Apsley Paddox), which had not been foreseen. The plan is to cover the period up to 1966. The first priority is a new Music School ( opened in 1962 ), a new Indoor Shooting Range in the ‘Hollies Garden’ ( opened 195 8), and a Workshop Building, a Metal Workshop and a space for Vehicle Maintenance also planned for the Hollies Garden area. The Old Library (Room 18) is no longer needed for the orchestra and could be transferred to other uses ( completed 1961 ). The architects for these works would be Brett, Boyd & Bosanquet , with Brett responsible for Field House and Bosanquet for the Laboratories. Interestingly the builders involved at Field House, Symm & Co, Ltd, are the same company who had built the Chapel eighty years before - their charge for both are approximately the same (Hill, 1963) The War Memorial Fund, launched in 1943, reaches £19,000 (£704,900 today). It closed a year later (Oxley, 2015) Kitchen Yard tarmac surface and drainage improved at a cost of £250 (£9275 today) General Purposes Committee recommends that every boy should have his own ‘Horse-Box’ and each House provided with a Reading Room, Games Room and Trunk Room (General Purposes Meeting, May 1955) New building plan for the School’s accommodation estimated cost is £30,000 (£1,113,000 today). Priorities are:- • Refitting Changing Rooms with 14 showers, new fittings and Lino floor - cost £3,000 (£111,300 today) • Installing a Gym Floor in the Indoor Swimming Bath (removable or fixed) - cost £2,000 (£74,2000 today) • New Masters’ Dining Room- cost £3,500 (£129, 859 today) • Refitting of School House upper floors - £800 (£ 29,680 today) • Add extra Day-Room or 3 Studies and a married Masters’ Quarter in School House at the eastern end - £6,000 (£222,600 today) • Alteration in Corfe House to provide separate bathrooms for the ‘private side’ and the boys - £500 (£18,550 today) • Construction of a general purpose hutted Laboratory on the west side of the present Science Block - £1,500 (£55,650 today) • Extension of Field House to include a new Dormitory and Day-Room (or Studies) - £4,500 (£166,950 today) • Consideration given to a small extension of the organ gallery if it proves to be possible architecturally - £1,200 (£44,520 today)