Rhubarb Issue 2

I s s u e 2 : A P r i l 2 0 1 2

In the late 1920’s the growth of Oxford,

following the Great War, had been rapid

with housing and light industry moving

in all directions including north – up the

Woodstock Road. Added to this was now the

impact of increased motorised traffic to add

to the traditional horse-drawn vehicles which,

not surprisingly, was of growing concern to

the school authorities. Warden Henry Kendall

had arrived in 1925 and immediately embarked

on an extensive building programme within

the School, with the insistence that some

sort of overhead bridge or subway across

the Woodstock Road should be a priority, if

inevitable accidents were to be prevented.

This was not an insignificant undertaking

and the bridge option was discarded early

on due to the expense involved, leaving

the more complex tunnelling, re-enforcing

and re-channelling of services and sewers

as the way to proceed. It was obvious that

a substantial degree of civil engineering

expertise would be required as well as

the complete blessing of the Oxford City

authorities.

By the second half of 1927 with the

Governors’ approval the Warden

and his Bursar, Walter Dingwall,

were charged with coming

up with ‘a tentative scheme

with approximate estimates

by the next (Spring) term’.

Working with Best & Co,

Civil Engineers of St John’s

Street, Oxford (whose owner

was Harry Best an OSE), the first

plans were shown to the City Engineer in

February 1928 as well ‘as some members of

the planning committee’ whose initial reaction

was cautious but certainly not negative. The

major problems foreseen, even at this early

stage, were that main sewers would have to

be completely re-directed and gas, electrical

and post office companies would all have to

be separately consulted about their lines and

how they might be changed to accommodate

the subway.

Tenders went out to four tunnelling

companies and the bid from Musslewhite

& Frewin of Basingstoke chosen, not least

because it was the cheapest at £1500 (around

£70,000 today). There then followed a very

lengthy correspondence between the School’s

solicitors Morrell, Peel & Gamblen of St Giles,

Oxford and the numerous service providing

companies and, not least, with the Oxford

City Council which was not altogether

co-operative. It was becoming apparent that

not only was the job technically difficult but

the daily traffic on the Woodstock Road would

be severely disrupted over a lengthy spell.

Red tape is nothing new and the needs

to be satisfied in the 1920s were very similar

to today with the added difficulty that the

School was dealing with several different

bodies at the same time whose own self-

interest was quite apparent and pronounced.

Each service provider needed a separate

contract, with the Council insisting on the

‘inside position as the cost of laying sewers is

larger than that of the public services’.

The School would also have to give

up some frontage to the sports

fields as tunnelling would

need to proceed beneath in

some places; this the School

eventually gave in on.

As a consequence, deadlines

were slipping and the Warden

and Bursar were now becoming

visibly more irritated and repeating

that the danger to the School’s 300 plus

pupils and staff having to cross the road,

sometimes several times a day, meant it

was only a matter of time before there was

a serious accident. In the meantime

The

Chronicle

was keeping everyone informed of

progress, or lack of it, and in the July 1928

edition went so far as to say that during the

Summer Holidays the subway would be dug

out ‘and ready for next term’. This deadline

was far too optimistic and the reasons given

in the next school magazine were that ‘it is

an extremely complicated business of high

road and footpaths containing a wonderful

complication of underground lines of

drainage, water, gas, electricity and it may not

be ready as soon as expected’!

Finally in the winter of 1928 the work

was underway again not without incident

when the school contractor went ahead too

fast (probably under Kendall and Dingwall’s

pressure) and without checking each stage

with the Council’s engineers, bringing

with it a whole mass of new indignant

correspondence and an eventual apology

The Subway Story

1928 /1929

Deadlines were

slipping and the

Warden and Bursar were

now becoming visibly

more irritated

“Lord Mayor looking for School subway”

For the past 82 years the short journey from the School’s quadrangle

to the sports fields has been through the subway dug out just north of

the Lodge; taken for granted by most and so long a landmark that its

origination may have been forgotten over time.

The Subway in use circa 1950