SCHOOLS

At the Hollybush Row entrance to St Thomas' churchyard stands a stone building with an inscription which places it as the earliest Charity School so recorded in Oxford:

This parrish school house was built in the year of Our Lord 1702 and in the first year of the reign of Queen Anne at the charge of Mr John Coombes, cityzen and plaisterer of London, borne in this parrish and free * of this city, for the benefit of as many poor children as the rent of this house will pay for their teaching to read and write, the teacher to be ye clerk of this parrish (if duely qualified), but if not the teacher as well as the children to be elected by the churchwardens and overseers of the poor and such elders as have executed both these offices in this parrish with the assistance of the ministers.

* ['free': that is to say that he had been admitted by the University to privileged status which allowed him to carry on. his trade in Oxford].

In 1708, the Corporation of the City of Oxford set up its own charity school for both boys and girls. This was a Bluecoat School, the name deriving from the children's distinctive uniform. The boys, in their boots, yellow breeches, blue coat and blue cloth cap, were housed in various premises during the 185 years of the school's existence, but between 1811 and 1893, the school occupied a site in Church Street, St Ebbe's. The site was then taken over by the City of Oxford Day Technical School which later (in 1934) became the School of Technology, Art and Commerce. This in turn changed its name to the Oxford College of Technology when it moved to new buildings in Gipsy Lane, Headington in 1963; and the College of Technology became Oxford Polytechnic in 1970, and subsequently Oxford Brookes University. The premises in Church Street were swept away during the redevelopment of St Ebbe's in the 1960s: all that now remains of the original Bluecoat School is an inscribed stone which was brought from Church Street to Headington, bearing the words

It is to be found set into the wall near the staircase in the main foyer of Oxford Brookes University.

Nowell School. Iffley

Another charity school is commemorated in Iffley where a plaque on the wall of 103 Church Way reads:

Mrs Sarah Nowell's School. 1822

Sarah Nowell died in 1800, but during her lifetime she had done charitable work in Iffley village where she and her husband, The Rev'd Thomas Nowell. lived. In his will, Thomas established a charity in Sarah's memory (partly with money that she herself had left), and the trustees built the present schoolhouse in 1822. Only sixteen years later a parochial school was founded in Iffley, which by the 1850s had absorbed the pupils of the Nowell School. The parochial school building, also in Church Way and now used as a parish hall, still has the inscription Iffley Parochial School 1838. The trustees of the Nowell charity retained the house at 103 Church Way until 1985 when they sold it at a handsome profit. The full story is told in a booklet by Mrs Sheila Fairfield, Mrs Sarah Nowell's School: charity at work in old Iffley (1988), obtainable at the village shop.

Further indication of the pioneering role played by the Church of England and by the Nonconformist churches in promoting education is provided by the following inscriptions:

- The parochial school of St Clement's stood at the end of Bath Street near the bridge leading to the Angel & Greyhound Meadow. Set into the brick wall of 18 Bath Street is the original foundation stone of the school with the date June 19th 1873. beneath which is the inscription:

Site of the St Clement's Infants' School 1873-1974.

- On the wall of a stone building adjacent to Coombe House near the east end of St Thomas' churchyard and near the brick archway to the former buildings of the Community of St Thomas is a stone with the inscription:

Boys School built by subscription 1839. John Jones MA, Precentor of Christ Church and Minister of this parish.

- St Michael's, Summertown, had its parish school in Hobson Road where a stone bearing the date October 9th 1931 has been set into the brick wall outside No.4. Beneath is a brass plate with the words:

Original date stone of St Michael's School, relocated 1980.

- A building at the south end of New Inn Hall Street, now part of St Peter's College, still bears a roundel high up on the wall with the words Girls' Central School. The building dates from 1899 when the school was made over to the local authority (then the Board of Education), but the school had been started by the Baptist Church in the eighteenth century. The Girls' Central School remained in New Inn Hall Street until 1959 when it moved to Gipsy Lane, Headington with the new name of Cheney Girls' School. The building in New Inn Hall Street has another roundel with the words Pupil Teachers Centre, a reminder of the system under which it was the duty of older pupils to teach younger ones. The Pupil Teachers Centre was closed down in 1909.

-The former offices of the City of Oxford Motor Services in Gloucester Green once housed the Central Boys School which had started life as a Congregationalist school in 1871. It was taken over by the Board of Education in 1898, and the present building was erected in 1901. The school was closed down in 1934 when the last of its pupils were transferred to what was then Southfield School (now Oxford School) in Glanville Road. The building in Gloucester Green has been spared by recent development: the school bell still adorns the roof, the arms of City and University are still visible on the wall, and the frieze over the main door still shows scholars being watched over by St Frideswide and King Alfred.

City of Oxford schools

The City of Oxford built schools of its own as well as taking over church schools.

OHS was founded in 1881 in a fine new building designed by Sir Thomas Jackson which still stands at the corner of George Street and New Inn Hall Street, bearing the arms of both City and University. Here the school remained until 1966 when it moved to form a Comprehensive School (the present Oxford School) by combining with what was then Southfield School in Glanville Road off the Cowley Road. The building in George Street has now become the University's Social Studies Faculty Centre. At the top of the steps at the front entrance is a metal plaque whose inscription barely hides the strong feelings that were voiced when the school vacated the premises in 1966:

Thomas Hill Green (1832-1882), Educationalist, Fellow of Balliol, White's Professor of Moral Philosophy, elected (1876) first University member of Oxford County Council to help found and establish the High School for Boys (1881-1966), thereby completing the City's 'ladder of learning' from Elementary School to University - a project dearest to his heart. Thus were united Town and Gown in common cause.

Originally the counterpart of the OHS for Boys, the Girls school was founded in 1875. It spent the first few years of its existence at 16 St Giles, a house then called The Judge's Lodgings but now St Giles House and part of St John's College. Then it was housed at 38 St Giles for a few terms until 1880 when it moved into a building specially designed for it (also by Sir Thomas Jackson) at 21 Banbury Road. This was to be its home until 1957 when it moved to its present site in Bellbroughton Road. The school became independent in 1976. 21 Banbury Road now houses the University's Department of Metallurgy and Science of Materials. The building bears no plaque, but its origins can be discerned from the date (1879) over the front door and from the cupola on the roof which characterises so many schools of the period.

The date (1910) and the coat of arms of the City can still be seen on the buildings of the former South Oxford School on the north side of Thames Street near its junction with St Aldate's.

College Choir Schools

An education has been available for centuries for the sons of some of Oxford's families in the choir schools of New College (1380), Magdalen College (1480) and Christ Church (1546). All three schools have now moved out of actual college premises (Magdalen College being the last to do so in 1928) and have for a long time past accepted non- singers as well as choristers as pupils.

Just outside the old Grammar Hall in St John's Quadrangle in Magdalen College is a stone in the ground with the inscription:

Here stood the schoolroom of Magdalen College School built in 1480 by William of Waynflete and demolished in 1828 except for the bell tower. This commemorative stone was unveiled by The Rt.Hon. Harold Macmillan. 12 July 1980.

On the wall of 50 New Inn Hall Street is a handsome metal plaque with the inscription:

St Edward's School was founded in 1863 by The Rev. Thomas Chamberlain, Student of Christ Church, Vicar of St Thomas the Martyr, in Mackworth Hall then standing on this site. The school was moved to Summertown in 1873 by The Rev. A. B. Simeon, first Warden.

Not all private educational ventures were as successful as St Edward's School. Above the door of 122 Walton Street, a chapel-like building set back from the road near the junction with Little Clarendon Street, is a stone with the inscription:

This tablet was erected by the Old Boys' Club