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St Edward’s:
150 Years
Chapter 1 / Origins and Earliest Days
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contracted to erect the School House (now the Warden’s rooms,
Apsley and the Common Room), for £8,659. The contract stated
it should be completed and ready for use on or before
1 August 1873, unless bad weather or problems with the
workers intervened; in fact the weather was consistently wet
and this deadline could not be achieved. Simeon had written to
parents asking if boys could be kept home for a month longer,
but about 40 families ignored this plea and presented their boys
on 22 August, with workmen still everywhere and the doors and
windows not yet fitted. Simeon says in his autobiography that
he himself swept out the dormitories and that he ‘worked like a
navvy’ to get everything in some sort of order. Even so, one boy
fell into the well dug for building purposes and two others ran
away, although they fortunately did not get too far.
The Chapel was built between 1873 and 1878 and was in
many respects at the heart of School life. The buildings were
designed to accommodate 135 boys, a number that was first
exceeded in 1915. It had not been the easiest of starts, but by
the end of 1873, after ten years, the School was well underway.
The first foundations for what was to follow had been well and
truly laid. We will consider the Chapel, the heart of Simeon’s
School, in its own chapter.
Summertown, which he described then as ‘a miserable dirty
little village’). In Summertown what is now South Parade was
called Double Ditch, a part of the Royalists’ defences of Oxford
during the Civil War. At the site Felicia Skene and Simeon
‘cut the first sod’ for the building of the School in what had
been a turnip field, where the grand Quad now stands. This
first stage of the building of the School was embarked upon,
amazingly, totally at Simeon’s personal expense. On 15 July
1872, Holy Eucharist was celebrated in St Thomas’s at 8am; the
School choir set out in surplices, with cross and banner, and
processed singing to the site, joined on the way by the choirs
of similarly minded churches, namely St Barnabas and SS Philip
and James. Chamberlain was to lay the cornerstone but he
was in disagreement with Simeon about the site, as the boys
would no longer be able to attend St Thomas’s. Chamberlain
overcame his feelings however, and at the ceremony praised
Simeon’s work and ‘asked for God’s blessing on it’. The School
transferred from New Inn Hall Street to Summertown in August
1873 after several delays. At the time, Simeon was bed-ridden
with a serious bout of diphtheria, but somehow contrived to
conduct work on the School from his bed. Felicia Skene nursed
him through this illness.
At the first site, primitive as it had been, 216 boys had
been educated, of whom 163 had left by the time of the move.
Desmond Hill notes in his history that among them were ‘two
Knights of the Realm, a High Sherriff, two Rural Deans, three
Colonels, a Professor, two architects, a world-class cricketer,
two explorers, a President of the Oxford Union, an Athletics
‘Blue’, and Kenneth Grahame. One in ten of the leavers had
gone to the colonies, and one in seven had taken Holy Orders.’
The first buildings were designed, as were all the buildings
of the 1870s and 1880s, by the local architect William Wilkinson
(who also built the Randolph Hotel and much of North Oxford),
and were put up by Messrs Orchard of Banbury, who had
‘ST. EDWARD’S SCHOOL, OXFORD – The object of
this school is to combine careful religious teaching
under a clergyman and graduate of the University,
with a first-class modern education. Day boys are
not received.Terms, including Classics, Mathematics,
Book-keeping, Drawing, French, Music, and the
elements of Physical Science, twenty-five guineas
per annum: washing and use of books, two guineas
extra.There is an excellent playground.’
An advertisement posted in
The Church Times
, 7 January 1865.
Opposite: School population 1872, just prior
to themove to theWoodstock Road. Simeon
is again in the centre, and was by that point
Headmaster.
Right: A later, and somewhat gaudier
version of the ‘Basher’. The Archivist,
Chris Nathan, wore such a boater in
the mid-1950s when at the School.
It was obligatory to wear it to go to
Summertown or into Oxford.
‘Finally it is hoped that all will remember that they are Christian gentlemen, and that they have
sworn to fight manfully against the world, the flesh and the Devil, and to live in unity and godly love
with one another: and as such, that they will bravely resist temptation and help one another by all
means in their power so to spend their time here that when they go forth into the world they may be
known as true gentlemen, good citizens and faithful soldiers of their common Lord.’
From the School Rules.
The school bell went at 7am (6am in summer) and a hand bell was
rung on the staircase. The expectation was that every boy would
pray before leaving his dorm. The prefect in fact called out prayers
and everyone knelt. Conversation was allowed after three or four
minutes. Half anhour later another bell rang to call everyone to the
schoolroomfor the register tobe takenby aprefect in thepresence
of a master. There was milk at the foot of the stairs to be had on
theway for thosewho had ordered it. Prep followed for 25minutes
(an hour in winter), then the bell rang and the School went to the
Chapel for Prime (15 minutes). Breakfast was porridge and thick
breadwithbutter, and teawas served fromanurn.Therewasmeat,
eggs or fish for those whose parents paid an extra two guineas per
term. After breakfast boots were put on and classes started at nine,
withthreeone-hourslotsandthelasthourbeforelunchbeinggiven
to Gym, Choir practice, Music or Drawing classes and Detention.
Those not doing any of those things could play games of their
choiceor swim in summer. Fromnoon to12.45pmand2pmto4pm
boys could leave the School, but were only allowed to purchase
goodsfromtheSchoolStores.Boundsincludedeverythingnorthof
St Margaret’s Road and west of the Cherwell. When the bell rang
for tea or dinner everyone had towash their hands and brush their
hair ready for entering theHall when the secondbell rang. At lunch
the joints for the boys were carved by the cook and the butler and
the Headmaster carved for the masters. Plates were distributed by
maids. There were then two hours of lessons from 2pm in summer
and4pminwinter.Teaat 6.15pmconsistedof tea, breadandbutter.
Full Evensong with all the psalms of the day was at 7pm and was
followedbytwopreps,withsupperbetween.Supperwasat8.30pm:
bread and cheese and beer. The lower school went to bed during
supper. At 9.30pmthe Seniorswent tobed. Prayers and timewould
be called by the prefect, and lights out was 9.45pm. Hot bathswere
taken once a week, along with the occasional shower.
A SCHOOLDAY AT THE NEW PREMISES
‘No boy may have in his possession gunpowder,
strong acids, poison or other dangerous things.’
[By 1877 catapults were added to this list.]
From the School Rules, published
c.
1876.