Marlborough College

For other uses, see Marlborough College (disambiguation).

Marlborough College
Location
Marlborough , Wiltshire , SN8 1PA England
Coordinates	51°24′58″N1°44′13″W / 51.416°N 1.737°W / 51.416; -1.737
Information
Type	Public school Private boarding
Motto	Latin: Deus Dat Incrementum (1 Corinthians 3:6: God gives the increase)
Religious affiliation(s)	Church of England
Established	1843;182 years ago (1843)
Department for Education URN	126516 Tables
President	Stephen Lake
Chair of Council	Heidi Venamore
Master	Louise Moelwyn-Hughes
Visitor	Justin Welby
Gender	Co-educational
Age	13to 18
Enrolment	1,011 (in 2024)
Houses	16 boarding houses
Colour(s)	Navy & white
Publication	The Marlburian The Heretick Piccalilli Polyglot
Former pupils	Old Marlburians
Website	www.marlboroughcollege.org

A variety of buildings around Court

The listed Science Labs with the tree-covered Mound behind

Marlborough College is a public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. It was founded as Marlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester, George Hull Bowers, for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy. ^[1] It is one of the oldest boarding schools in the UK, and now adopts a co-educational model. In 2023 there were around 1000 pupils, approximately 45% of whom were female. ^[2]

In 2024, the school was included in The Schools Index as one of the 150 best private schools in the world and among the top 30 senior schools in the UK. ^[3] Fees for boarding pupils in 2024/2025 are £50,985 per year. ^[4]

History

Marlborough College, c. 1891

Marlborough was, in 1968, the first major British independent boys' school to allow girls into the sixth form, ^[5] setting a trend that many other schools followed. The school became fully co-educational in 1989, and made a major contribution to the School Mathematics Project (from 1961) alongside initiating the teaching of its Business Studies programme (from 1968). In 1963 a group of boys, led by the future political biographer Ben Pimlott, wrote a book, Marlborough, an open examination written by the boys, describing life at the boarding institute. The writer and television critic T. C. Worsley wrote about predatory old masters at the school in his critically acclaimed autobiography Flannelled Fool: A Slice of a Life in the Thirties . ^[6]

In 2005, the school was one of fifty of the country's most prestigious independent schools which were found by the Office of Fair Trading to have run an illegal price-fixing cartel, exposed by The Times , which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents. ^[7] Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000, and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared. ^[8] Jean Scott, the head of the Independent Schools Council, said that independent schools had always been exempt from anti-cartel rules applied to business, were following a long-established procedure in sharing the information with each other, and were unaware of the change to the law (on which they had not been consulted). She wrote to John Vickers, the OFT director-general, saying, "They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed." ^[9]

The school is a member of the G20 Schools group. Marlborough College Malaysia, a sister school, opened in Johor in 2012. ^[10]

Buildings

The college is built beside the Mound, at the site of a former Norman castle. No remains of the castle can be seen today, though the radiocarbon dating of core samples in the early 2010s indicated that the origins of the Mound date from 2400 BC. This is close to the dates established for Silbury Hill. ^{[11] [12]}

The main focus of the college is the Court, which is surrounded by buildings in a number of architectural styles. At the south end is the back of an early 18th-century mansion, later converted to a coaching inn, which was bought as the first building for the school. ^[13] The main block of what now forms C House, it was built by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset and is a Grade I listed building. ^[14] Next to it are the old stables, now converted into boarding houses. The west side consists of the 1959 red brick dining hall, and a Victorian boarding house now converted to other purposes. The north west corner is dominated by its Victorian Gothic style chapel by the architects George Frederick Bodley and Thomas Garner, which has a collection of pre-Raphaelite style paintings by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope and stained glass by Old Marlburian William Morris.

The rest of the Court is surrounded by buildings in styles ranging from "Jacobethan" (a name coined by Old Marlburian John Betjeman) to classical Georgian and Victorian. The latter, B house (now called B1), was (along with the College Chapel) designed by the Victorian architect Edward Blore, whose other works included the facade of Buckingham Palace (since remodelled) and the Vorontsovsky Palace in Alupka, Ukraine. ^[15]

On the other side of the Mound is the science laboratory, built in 1933. It is an early example of shuttered concrete construction and was listed as a building of architectural significance in 1970. ^[16]

Houses

Pupils are assigned to one of the 16 houses upon entering the school, where they make their home for the duration of their studies, and compete against other houses in sporting olympiads.

The houses are divided between on-campus heritage sites – mostly gathered around the central court – and sites around the western side of Marlborough town. The older on-campus heritage houses are referred to by an alphanumeric title. Newer houses have been given names reflecting their location or commemorating a figure from the school's past. ^[17]

House names

Boys In-College	Girls In-College	Mixed Out-College
B1	New Court	Summerfield
C1	Morris	Cotton
Turner	Ivy House	Littlefield
C3	Mill Mead	Preshute
Barton Hill	Elmhurst
C2	Dancy

When the college became fully co-educational in 1989, three girls' houses were opened – Morris, Elmhurst and Mill Mead; New Court was opened in 1991. Morris was moved in 1995 from A house to Field House, which had previously been occupied by B3 and C2. New houses were built to accommodate C3, which had previously shared C house with C1 (in 1989) and C2 (in 1992). In 2012, the college acquired the Ivy House Hotel in Marlborough High Street which opened as a girls' house in the autumn of that year. ^[18]

Railway locomotive

In 1933, the school lent its name to one of the steam locomotives in the Southern Railway's Schools class, which were named after English public schools. The locomotive bearing the school's name (no. 922, later 30922) was withdrawn in 1961. ^[19]

Masters

"Marlborough College". Caricature of George Charles Bell by Spy published in Vanity Fair in 1902.

• 1843–1851 Matthew Wilkinson
• 1852–1858 George Edward Lynch Cotton
• 1858–1870 George Granville Bradley
• 1871–1876 Frederick William Farrar
• 1876–1903 George Charles Bell
• 1903–1911 Frank Fletcher
• 1911–1916 St John Basil Wynne Willson
• 1916–1926 Cyril Norwood
• 1926–1939 George Charlewood Turner
• 1939–1952 Francis Melville Heywood
• 1952–1961 Thomas Ronald Garnett
• 1961–1972 John Christopher Dancy
• 1972–1986 Roger Wykeham Ellis
• 1986–1993 David Robert Cope
• 1993–2004 Edward John Humphrey Gould
• 2004–2012 Nicholas Alexander Sampson
• 2012–2018 Jonathan Leigh
• 2018– Louise Moelwyn-Hughes ^[20]

Other notable schoolmasters

• Stephen Borthwick, later head of Epsom College ^[21]
• Peter Godfrey (choral conductor)

Notable alumni

Former pupils include the Nobel laureate Sir Peter Medawar, Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, wartime poet Siegfried Sassoon, art historian and Soviet spy Anthony Blunt, writer Dick King-Smith, journalists Frank Gardner, James Mates, Tom Newton Dunn and Hugh Pym, businessman Simon Woodroffe, comedian Jack Whitehall, singers Nick Drake and Chris de Burgh, DJ and producer Frederick Gibson aka. Fred Again, fashion moguls Amanda Harlech and Stella Tennant, and convicted human trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rab Butler, Home Secretary Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor, Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher, Olivia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster, and individuals from the British monarchy including Catherine, Princess of Wales and Princess Eugenie are also Old Marlburians.

See List of Old Marlburians for other notable former pupils. Societies for former pupils include the Marlburian Club. ^[22]

Terms

There are three academic terms in the year:

• The Michaelmas Term, from early September to mid December (new boys, girls and lower-sixth candidates are now usually only admitted at the start of the Michaelmas Half);
• The Lent Term, from mid January to late March;
• The Summer Term, from late April to late June or early July.

Facilities

The Memorial Hall

The Memorial Hall was built to commemorate the 749 Old Marlburians who were killed in World War I. Following World War II, the names of those killed in that war were added to a memorial panel in the entrance hall.

The hall is a semi-circular auditorium of stepped seats. There is a stage at the front. Below the seats with access from the outside rear are a number of music practice rooms. The façade of the hall towards the forecourt and road has two entrance lobbies linked together by eight stone columns. The forecourt is paved with stone.

The Hall holds about 800 people so can no longer be used for assemblies of the entire school. It is now most often used for concerts and theatrical productions where the whole school is not expected to attend.

The Chapel

College Chapel

The current Chapel is the second to be built at the school. The first was opened in 1848 but by 1880 the school numbers had outgrown its space. After consideration of expanding the existing building, it was demolished in 1884 and a new Chapel was designed and built.

The new Chapel, designed in the Late Decorated Gothic style, was dedicated to St Michael and All Angels and was consecrated in 1886. The original colour scheme of greens and browns was much loved by Sir John Betjeman and there are twelve large Pre-Raphaelite murals by Spencer Stanhope which depict various Biblical scenes involving angels. Those on the north side show scenes from the Old Testament while the six on the south side are from the New Testament.

Two other artistic features are the Scholars' Window on the Chapel's south side. The work's creation was supervised in 1875 by Old Marlburian William Morris and designed by Edward Burne-Jones. Initially displayed in the original Chapel, the work was reinstated in the new Chapel c.1885. ^[23] A sculpture of "The Virgin and Child" by Eric Gill is near the west door. Sir Frank Brangwyn, who had been trained by Morris, produced murals for the school chapel of Christ's Hospital (1912-1923) and from around this time until the 1950s, visited Marlborough College, particularly its Chapel, on several occasions to deliver lectures and practical workshops to members of the Marlborough College community. Brangwyn and Walthamstow Borough Council signed a trust deed in 1935 to set up the William Morris Gallery and ‘The William Morris Gallery and Brangwyn Gift’ opened to the public in October 1950. ^{[24] [25] [26] [27]}

In 2010, the Marlborough College Chapel was closed owing to structural defects. After being repaired, it was declared safe to use. ^[28]

Music facilities and performance areas

All music halls and performance areas are fitted with soundproof windows which prevent sound from escaping, even while open, as well as walls engineered to prevent sound crossing at right angles. The floors of the centres also float on a bed of air, so as to maintain good soundproofing.

The Blackett Observatory

The Blackett Observatory

The Blackett Observatory houses a 10-inch-aperture Cooke refractor on a motorised equatorial mount. The telescope dates from 1860 and was used professionally at the Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford University. When the Observatory was relocated to South Africa in the 1930s, Sir Basil Blackett, a president of the Marlburian Club, raised the funds to purchase it and have the observatory built on the playing fields of the college.

In 1997 a restoration effort was started which was finished in 2002 when the telescope was reopened for use. It is currently used to teach astronomy and is also open to local astronomers from outside the college.

Sports history and facilities

A fully operational army-only CCF detachment operates at the college under the supervision of a resident SSI (school staff instructor). ^[29] Weekly parades take place at the parade ground adjacent to the armoury, with occasional off-campus activities, such as range-days or overnight exercises.

Next to the CCF parade ground is a six-lane .22 rifle range. ^[30] Rifle shooting has had a long history at the college, with teams representing the school since 1862. ^[31] By the 1890s, the "difficulty" of finding a replacement sport during the Easter term led to hockey matches being regularly played against Clifton College, with the sport consequently becoming popular with other public schools and sporting communities. ^[32]

See also

• The Heretick – a magazine published by students
• List of independent schools in the United Kingdom
• Education in the United Kingdom
• Marlborough College Malaysia
• Marlborough Mound

References

1. "George Hull Bowers, Dean of Manchester: Papers". Cambridge University Library. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
2. "Marlborough College". Marlborough College. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
3. McNamee, Annie (6 April 2024). "These are UK's best private schools, according to a prestigious ranking". Time Out United Kingdom. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
4. "Marlborough College". The Good Schools Guide. 21 August 2024. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
5. Boehm, Klaus; Lees-Spalding, Jenny. "Marlborough". Guide to Independent Schools. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
6. Worsley, T.C. (1967). Flannelled Fool . London: Alan Ross.
7. Halpin, Tony (10 November 2005). "Independent schools face huge fines over cartel to fix fees". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 7 October 2008. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
8. "OFT names further trustees as part of the independent schools settlement". Office of Fair Trading. 21 December 2006. Archived from the original on 2 April 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
9. "Private schools send papers to fee-fixing inquiry". The Daily Telegraph . London. 3 January 2004. Archived from the original on 25 June 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
10. "Marlborough opens international school in Malaysia". BBC News. 25 August 2012. Archived from the original on 20 November 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
11. The Mound Archived 19 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine , Marlborough College website, retrieved 11 August 2016
12. Leary, Jim; Marshall, Peter (December 2012). "The Giants of Wessex: the chronology of the three largest mounds in Wiltshire, UK". Antiquity Journal Vol. 86, Issue 334. Archived from the original on 1 January 2017. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
13. Marlborough Castle House – Pastscapes Archived 21 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine , Historic England web site, retrieved 11 August 2016
14. Historic England. "C House (Grade I) (1273163)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 18 March 2023.
15. Marlborough Conservation Area Statement – June 2003, page 27 Archived 22 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine , Wiltshire Council website, retrieved 11 August 2016
16. "Listing of the Science Block by English Heritage". Heritagegateway.org.uk. 28 January 1971. Archived from the original on 29 January 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
17. "Houses". Marlborough College. Archived from the original on 21 May 2019. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
18. "Report on purchase by College". Marlboroughnewsonline.co.uk. Retrieved 10 September 2017.^{[ permanent dead link ‍]}
19. Bradley, D.L. (October 1975). Locomotives of the Southern Railway: Part 1. London: Railway Correspondence & Travel Society. pp. 26, 27, 41. ISBN   0-901115-30-4.
20. Mills, Richard (18 May 2017). "First woman appointed as Marlborough College master". The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
21. The Sad Loss of Former Headmaster Stephen Borthwick Archived 19 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine , epsomcollege.org.uk, 16 December 2020, accessed 21 December 2020
22. "The Marlburian Club" . Retrieved 21 September 2024.
23. "Scholars' Window - William Morris". Marlborough College, Wiltshire. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
24. Twohig, E. (2023). "Etchings by Christopher Hughes". The Marlburian Club. Retrieved 4 October 2024. Hughes was a watercolorist and printmaker. Under him, painter-etchers of distinction such as Sir Frank Brangwyn, Martin Hardie and Sir Frank Short visited Marlborough College, each on several occasions, and delivered lectures and practical workshops to pupils.
25. "Marlborough College". Marlborough College. p. 22, 23. Retrieved 4 October 2024. ...Christ's Hospital's Chapel by Frank Brangwyn...The celebrated architect of the chapel Aston Webb, knew the Marlborough College Chapel well, having worked on the design of Field House (now Morris house) completed in 1912...
26. "Frank Brangwyn at Christ's Hospital School, Horsham". Toovey's Antique & Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers. Retrieved 4 October 2024. Brangwyn had begun work on the panels in the chapel at Christ's Hospital School in 1912 though they were not completed until 1923
27. "Frank Brangwyn The artist and founding member of the William Morris Gallery - William Morris Gallery". Waltham Forest Trust (William Morris Gallery). Retrieved 4 October 2024. Frank Brangwyn was one of the founders of the William Morris Gallery. He was a successful artist and an early apprentice to Morris. Brangwyn collected art, and in the 1930s he donated a large part of his collection to the people of Walthamstow, along with many of his own paintings, prints and decorative art. A selection of this work, which is rotated regularly, can be seen in this Gallery. Frank Brangwyn and Walthamstow Borough Council signed a trust deed in 1935 to set up William Morris Gallery and 'The William Morris Gallery and Brangwyn Gift' opened to the public in October 1950. The trust deed created a board of trustees, the Trustees of the Brangwyn Gift, whose role is to advise on the Brangwyn collection at the Gallery.
28. "Notice of closure of the Chapel". Marlborough College. 1 December 2008. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
29. "CCF". Marlborough College. Archived from the original on 3 June 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
30. "Shooting". Marlborough College. Archived from the original on 30 March 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
31. Bradley, Arthur Granville; Champneys, Arthur Charles; Baines, John Ward (1893). History of Marlborough College During Fifty Years, from Its Foundation to the Present Time. J. Murray. p. 302.
32. Somerset, A. (1888). The Boys' Own Annual "Something About Hockey". Leisure Hour Office, London. p. 399. Archived from the original on 4 January 2024. Retrieved 4 January 2024. ... Marlborough and Clifton , have found a way out of this difficulty by making hockey the principal game of the Easter term... matches are played , and as the game extends they will increase in number and importance ...

Further reading

• Hinde, Thomas (1992). Paths of progress: A history of Marlborough College . London: James & James. ISBN 0907383335.

External links

• Official website
• Profile on the ISC website
• Inspection reports by the Independent Schools Inspectorate
• Blackett Observatory