WARWICK SCHOOL

'Warwick School' is an independent school for boys in Warwick, England, and is reputed to be the third-oldest surviving school in the country after King's School, Canterbury and St Peter's School, York. Since these latter two are now co-educational, Warwick School can now claim to be the oldest boys' school in the country. Indeed, while there are several very old European choir schools such as Monserrat and Regensburg still in existence, Warwick School has never been tied to a cathedral and there seems to be no evidence to refute the claim that it is the oldest surviving boys' grammar school in the world.

Contents

Enrolment

History

Notable Old Warwickians

Buildings

Guy Nelson Hall

Bridge House Theatre

Sporting Achievements

References

Further reading

External links

Enrolment

As of January 2006 there were 1,080 boys, aged from 7 to 18, at the school comprising:

★ 1030 day pupils

★ 10 weekly boarders

★ 40 full boarders
The School List of January 2006 shows:

★ 844 boys in the Senior School (ages 11 - 18)

★ 236 boys in the Junior School (ages 7 - 11)

★ 95 members of staff in the Senior School and

★ 16 members of staff in the Junior School.
The headmaster of the Senior School is Mr Edward Halse BSc FRSA and the headmaster of the Junior School is Mr Guy Canning BA.

History

The actual date of the school's founding is unknown, and the first documentary evidence for its existence dates back to 1123, according to Frykman and Hadley. The first historian of the school, A F Leach, who published his work in 1906, concluded that the school could have been founded as early as 914 AD, the date that the town of Warwick is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and was later chartered by King Edward the Confessor (c.1004–1066). He also noted that the school had just moved to its present site on the banks of the River Avon in 1879. For several hundred years before Leach's ground-breaking work, though, it was believed that the school dated back merely to its re-founding by King Henry VIII in 1545 as "The King's New School of Warwick". Several premises have been used over the years, including the Lord Leycester Hospital and St Peter's Chapel over the Eastgate. The destruction of records in various fires means that the location of the school for almost the whole of the 17th century is not known for certain. The truth, therefore, seems to be that the present Warwick School is the legitimate successor of a small-town grammar school which dates from before the Norman Conquest.

The move in 1879 was spurred by the Warwick Educational Charities Scheme of 1875, where a schools' foundation was created that comprised the King's Grammar School, a Middle School for boys (up to 15), and a Girls' High School (opened in 1879). The Middle School was built in the Butts in the centre of Warwick, close to the site of where the old Grammar School had existed between c. 1697 and 1879, the former College of the Vicars Choral in St Mary's churchyard. In 1906, the Middle School and the Grammar School were united on Myton Road, the school's current premises, as Warwick School, with only The King's High School For Girls retaining the original royal name. The old Middle School buildings in the town centre were fully taken over by the King's High School in 1918. After a disastrous fire in 1970, however, the buildings, by now re-named St Mary's Hall, were demolished in 1981, and the site used for new buildings by King's High School in 2006. All that remains of the Middle School is its boundary wall along The Butts.

The name Warwick School, rather than The King's School or The King's Grammar School, gradually crept into use in the 1880s, and this name was fairly well established by the time of the merger with The King's Middle School (which had been briefly re-named The King's County School) in 1906.

Two histories of the school have been published. The first appeared in 1906 at the exact time that the existence of the original Grammar School was under threat, as unpublished accounts in the school archives show. The second was published in 2004; of the two co-authors, Gervald Frykman is the school's first Archivist, and used much recently-discovered material to bring the school's varied fortunes before World War II to life; while Eric Hadley, the editor of the school's yearly chronicle ''The Portcullis'', portrays the school's continued rise in numbers, and its successes, since then.
Next door to the main school is the Junior School, opened in 1889. Although it closed and re-opened several times in the first half of the twentieth century, it has been fully operational since 1938, and now caters for approximately 230 boys from 7 to 11 years of age.

Notable Old Warwickians

::See also

★ Baring-Gould, Sabine (author of ''Onward, Christian Soldiers''), 1846

★ Michael Billington (author, critic & broadcaster)

★ A G K Brown (Olympic gold medallist, 1936) head boy, 1933 – 1934

★ Daniel Byles (Guinness World Record holding ocean rower and polar explorer) 1985 - 1992, Head of House

★ Abiezer Coppe (17th century "ranting" Baptist preacher) c. 1630

★ Harry Greenway (Conservative MP for Ealing until 1997)

★ Geoffrey Healey (co-designer, with his father Donald Healey, of Healey and Austin Healey cars) 1937 - 1939

★ Louis Hilyer (Shakespearean actor) 1975 - 1981

★ Eric Hope (concert pianist) 1928 - 1931

★ Colin Jordan (National Organiser of the British National Party) 1934 – 1942

★ John Masefield (Poet Laureate) 1888 – 1891

★ Denis Matthews (concert pianist) 1932 - 1936

★ Frederick Mulley (politician) 1929 – 1936

★ John Owen headmaster c. 1595 – 1622

★ Martindale Sidwell (organist and choirmaster) staff, 1943 – 1946

★ Sydney Watson (Oxford organist) 1914 - 1921

★ Chris Whiteside (cricketer)

★ M J Trow (writer)

Buildings

Although its 1879 buildings are still in use, there have been many additions since then, and most teaching now takes place in specialised departmental areas. The former Big School has been re-named the Pyne Room in honour of a former headmaster, but the original 1879 oak-panelled dining room is still in use. A brand new Science Centre was built on the site of the original 1879 sanatorium, being brought into use in June 2007.

Guy Nelson Hall

The main hall of the school was built, following an appeal, between 1969 and 1970. It has seating for about 600 people. Alderman Guy Nelson, after whom the hall is named, was a long-serving Chairman of Governors (1938 - 1963).

Bridge House Theatre

The school has its own theatre, holding between 275 and 310 people, the Bridge House Theatre. It was opened on 1st May 2000 by Dame Judi Dench and was designed by Michael Reardon Associates. It was intended from the start to be used both by the school and by local organisations in the town. The theatre is set out as many larger theatres are with both stall and circle seating and space for a small orchestra pit if needed. For information about forthcoming events taking place in the Bridge House Theatre: Bridge House Theatre

Sporting Achievements

Warwick School offers a wide variety of sporting activities, with Rugby Union, Cricket and Tennis among them. On March 28th 2007, the school enjoyed Rugby Union success as the Under 18s Rugby Union team beat Barnard Castle School 24-23 at Twickenham Stadium, to win the Daily Mail Cup for the first time in the school's history.

References

★ History of Warwick School, A F Leach, , , Archibald Constable and Company Limited, 1906,

★ Warwick School: A History, G N Frykman and E J Hadley, , , Gresham Books of Oxford, 2004, ISBN 0-946095-46-9

★ Guide to Independent Schools, Klaus Boehm and Jenny Lees-Spalding, , , Trotman, 2005-11-01, ISBN 0-85660-984-6

★ A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 8: The City of Coventry and Borough of Warwick, W.B. Stephens (Editor), , , , 1969, — The Victoria County History gives a detailed account of the history of education in Warwick from the time of the 1851 census onwards.

★ Warwick School

Further reading

★ Warwick School

★ Warwick School

★ Warwick School in 1961 Roger Wilmut — Mr Wilmut attended the school from 1953 to 1961. Pictures on the site include the New Buildings and Orlits, which were demolished in 1974 and 1995 respectively.

External links

★ Official website

★ What's On at the Bridge House Theatre