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

P AGE N O : 7

Masters’ Common Room erected by extending the Box Room in Main Buildings northwards ( William Wilkinson design ). At the eastern end (now Apsley), Reading and Games Rooms are added Main and small Dining Rooms finished in Main Buildings, also first kitchens built ( William Wilkinson design ) Gas Company quote £400 (£60,800 today) for laying a mains supply to the St. Edward’s site, although the School will only be liable for £250 (£38,000 today) with the Gas Co paying the rest. Extended terms are permitted, 10% per annum over 14 years until the total amount is paid (Box 12) 1874 - ‘School House’ is completed, later referred to as ‘Main’ or even ‘Old’ Buildings. Amongst the plants bedded at that time on the south and east walls is ivy from John Keble’s home, Hursey Vicarage. This lasted ‘in its extensive foliage’ until the Beehive is demolished in the 1930s (Hill, 1963) Dormitories in ‘Main Buildings’ are named ‘Ken’ (30-40 beds), ‘Combe’ (30-40 beds) and ‘Keble’ (25 beds). A further dormitory ‘Beauchamp’ is converted into a temporary Chapel until the real one is finished. Chapel building commenced Fives Courts erected ( William Wilkinson design ) against north wall perimeter, the first of much future permanent and temporary building in this area School acquires a cottage with stables in South Parade for the School’s animals (today’s Estates Offices and Reception) (Box 303). Part of this property is converted into workshops. The previous owner is Mr. Davenport, a tailor in Oxford The School leases the Cricket Ground ‘adjoining the Keble Cricket Ground, west of the Woodstock Road’ for one year at the cost of £5 (£740 today - Box 15). The first School cricket square is rolled by ‘voluntary gangs of workers’ (Beatrice Simeon, 1929), including some of the pupils during the holidays 1875 - First Cricket Pavilion erected, in the form of a small hut made of corrugated iron, in the south east corner of the Keble Fields School rents ‘Grove House’ in Middle Way, Summertown for one year from March, where a teacher (the Reverend Ernest Letts) and his wife, preside over fourteen boarders (Box 15 and Hill, 1963) School purchases the land immediately east of the Main Buildings and Woodstock Road, again from the Reverend Henry Edward Bull, Vicar of Lathbury, Bucks for £ 265 (£40,545 today) (Box 15) The School enters into a contract with the Duke of Marlborough to rent three acres of land (then called Graf’s Field) on the west side of the Woodstock Road, at a yearly rental of £20 (£3,060 today) to be used as ‘a Cricket or Recreation Ground on which the tenant may erect a temporary wooden pavilion for his own use’ (Box 15) Maintenance Workshops and Stores Building built along the north wall 1876 - The Bathing Place (also later called the Outdoor Pool or Bath) dug out and completed ( William Wilkinson design ) in a kidney-shape (to accommodate existing overhanging trees) and originally lined with wood. The shallow end is so low that grazed knees are a real hazard. The ‘Bath’ is partly dug out by the boys under the supervision of the Reverend Ernest Letts. Previously the School had used ‘Chubb’s Corner’ for swimming which was on the Cherwell, beyond The Cherwell Inn* (Cowell, April 1933 Chronicle) *The Cherwell Inn no longer exists