Rhubarb Issue 2

r h u b a r b

a r c h i v e s

The Subway Story 1928 /1929

The Subway in use circa 1950

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.

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

expertise would be required as well as the complete blessing of the Oxford City authorities. By the second half of 1927 with the

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

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

Deadlines were slipping and the Warden and Bursar were now becoming visibly more irritated

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

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.

D “Lord Mayor looking for School subway”

12

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