| Blundell's School | |
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| Motto | Pro Patria Populoque (For the country and the people") |
| Established | 1604 |
| Type | Independent School; Boarding School |
| Head Master | Ian Davenport BA |
| Chairman of the Governors | E.D. Fursdon DL MA (Oxon) FRICS |
| Founder | Peter Blundell |
| Location | Blundells Road Tiverton Devon EX16 4DN England |
| Staff | 66 |
| Students | 550 (senior school approx.) /300 (preparatory school approx.) |
| Gender | Co-educational |
| Ages | 2½ to 18 |
| Houses | Francis (Boys)
Gorton (Girls) North Close (Girls) Old (Boys) Petergate (Boys) School (Years 7 and 8) Westlake (U6th) |
| Colours | Red & White |
| Former pupils | Old Blundellians |
| Website | www.blundells.org |
| Coordinates: 50°54′23″N 3°27′58″W / 50.906499°N 3.466174°W | |
Blundell's School is a co-educational independent boarding school (public school) located in Tiverton in the county of Devon, England. The school was founded in 1604 by the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the time, and relocated to its present location on the outskirts of the town in May 1882.
Annual boarding fees are £25,080 per year, however the school also offers flexi-boarding. The school has 350 boys and 225 girls, including 107 boys and 65 girls in the Sixth Form, and is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
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History
Peter Blundell, one of the wealthiest merchants of Elizabethan England, died in 1601 having made his fortune principally in the cloth industry. His will set aside considerable money and land to establish a school in his home town “to maintain sound learning and true religion”. Blundell asked his friend Sir John Popham, the Lord Chief Justice of England, to carry out his wishes, and appointed a number of local merchants and gentry as his first trustees (known as Feoffees). The position of Feoffee is no longer hereditary but a number of notable local families have held the position for a considerable period (the first ancestor of the current Chairman of the Governors to hold that position was elected more than 250 years ago).
The Old Blundell's School was built to be much larger and grander than any other in the West Country, with room for 150 scholars and accommodation for a master and an usher[1]. The Grade 1 listed building is now in the care of the National Trust and the forecourt is usually open to visitors. One ex-Blundell's boy was the writer R. D. Blackmore — in Lorna Doone he used the Blundell's triangular lawn as the stage for a fight between John Ridd and Robin Snell[2].
Peter Blundell's executors established links with Balliol College, Oxford, and with Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and large sums were settled to provide for scholarships for pupils of the school to attend those colleges[3]. The first Sidney Sussex scholar was nominated in 1610 and the first Blundell's Balliol scholar in 1615. The links with these colleges still continue today, although without the closed scholarships.
Recent History
The clocktower contains a statue by Alain John, a pupil of the School and aspiring sculptor, who joined the RAF as a navigator and was killed during the Second World War. The statue was subsequently re-cast at the commission of Neville Gorton, then Bishop of Coventry, and stands in the ruins of the old Coventry Cathedral as a memorial to those who lost their lives in the war.
In recent years Blundell’s has undergone some quite dramatic reorganisation and development[4][5].
In 1989 Ondaatje Hall was opened, following a donation by OB Sir Christopher Ondaatje for it’s construction. Among it’s many facilities is a 150 seat professional theatre, which as well as putting on in-house productions is also used for public performances.
Girls were admitted at 13 in 1993 making the school fully co-ed, and to make room for them the boys boarding house North Close (NC) was converted into a girls house.
In 1997 School House (SH) became a junior house for pupils aged 11–13.
The prep school St Aubyn’s was moved to the Blundell’s campus in 2000[6], taking over the dayboy house Milestones (M) and the Sanatorium, and was renamed Blundell’s Prep School, it currently has about 300 pupils from two and a half years to eleven. The current Headmaster is Nick Folland.
A change to the way the U6 boarders are housed took place when the old Westlake (W) was sold off and the new Westlake was built on the site of the CCF parade ground. Opened in 2004, the new Westlake houses all boys and girls who are in their final year.
The two latest developments to have been completed were the extension to the Music school, and the building of the Popham Academic Centre, which houses the new Economics and Business School department, the new server for the school intranet and a dedicated IT teaching area.
The Russell
One annual tradition is the school's cross country run known as the Russell, named after OB Jack Russell. It was first run in 1887[7], and 2009 saw the 129th run[8]. The Russell has changed over the years with different courses introduced to accommodate the different ages and sexes of pupils at the school. The current senior course is 4.85 miles.
Cricket at the 1900 Olympics
Four Old Blundellians played in the gold medal winning Great Britain cricket team at the 1900 Summer Olympics, the only time cricket has featured in the Olympics. Great Britain was represented by an unofficial touring club team, the Devon & Somerset Wanderers Cricket Club (formed by William Donne in 1894 and made up from Old Blundellians and members of Castle Cary Cricket Club).
See main article: Cricket at the 1900 Summer Olympics
Old Blundellians
The first known society of former pupils, known as Old Blundellians (OBs), was established as early as 1725.
Notable former pupils include the following and those on the separate page at Old Blundellians.
- Brigadier Sir Robert Arundell, Governor of the Windward Islands and Barbados
- Vernon Bartlett, journalist and politician
- Edward Bellew, drainage inspector and winner of the Victoria Cross
- R. D. Blackmore, author of Lorna Doone
- Professor Richard Bowring, Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge
- William Buckland, geologist
- George Bull, theologian and bishop
- Bampfylde Moore Carew, rogue and imposter
- Dom Aelred Carlyle, missionary and monk
- Charles Cornwallis Chesney, soldier and military writer
- Sir George Tomkyns Chesney, soldier and novelist
- Sir Wilfrid Edward Le Gros Clark, surgeon, primatologist and paleoanthropologist who disproved Piltdown Man
- Sir John Eliot, English statesman and Vice-Admiral of Devon
- Charles Rossiter Forwood, lawyer and Attorney General of Fiji
- Francis Fulford, Anglo-Catholic bishop of Montreal
- John Gay, English poet and dramatist
- Michael Gilbert, writer of fictional mysteries and thrillers
- General Sir Douglas Gracey, Commander in Chief Pakistan Army 1948-51
- Thomas Hayter, bishop of Norwich 1749-61, bishop of London 1761-2
- Abraham Hayward, man of letters
- Archibald Hill, Nobel Prize winner
- David Gordon Hines, developer of co-operatives in Tanganyika and Uganda
- Sir John Jeremie, governor of Sierra Leone
- James Amiraux Jeremie, academic and churchman
- C. E. M. Joad, intellectual, broadcasting personality and fare dodger
- Admiral Sir Richard Keats, Governor of Newfoundland
- Geoffrey Lampe, theologian and winner of the Military Cross
- Dave Lewis, Gloucester Rugby scrum-half
- Jeremy Lloyds, Test Cricket Umpire
- Thomas Manton, Puritan clergyman
- Vic Marks, Somerset and England, cricketer
- Claire Marshall, Journalist
- Rt Hon Michael Mates, MP (constituency of East Hampshire)
- Hugh Morris, England Cricketer and current Managing Director of the England and Wales Cricket Board
- Sir Christopher Ondaatje, author and generous donor to the Labour Party
- Admiral Sir William Pillar, Fourth Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Supplies
- Ben Rice, novelist
- Jack Russell, Victorian Hunting Parson, Dog Breeder
- Richard Sharp, England Rugby Captain
- Sir John Squire, poet, writer, historian, and influential literary editor
- Lord Stokes, industrialist and life peer
- Jon Swain, Award winning writer whose memoirs were portrayed in the Film "The Killing Fields"
- Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury
- Clem Thomas, Welsh Rugby Captain
- Henry Hawkins Tremayne, creator of the Lost Gardens of Heligan
- Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan, English civil servant, governor of Madras
- General Sir Walter Walker, controversial soldier and writer
- Arthur Graeme West, War poet
- General Sir John Whiteley, Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff l949-53
- Cyril Wilkinson, Great Britain Hockey Player and Olympic Gold Medallist
- Geoffrey Willans, humorist and co author of Nigel Molesworth series
- John Wyndham, author whose work included The Day of the Triffids
Southern Railway Schools Class
The School lent its name to the thirty third steam locomotive (
Notable former masters
Former masters of Blundell’s have included:
- Manning Clark, historian
- Eric Gill, typeface designer
- Neville Gorton, Bishop of Coventry
- Malcolm Moss, politician
- Cyril Parkinson, naval historian and author of the bestselling book Parkinson's Law
- Gilbert Phelps, writer and broadcaster
- Lawrence Sail, poet
- Willi Soukop, sculptor
- Sir Stephen Spender, poet and essayist
- Samuel Wesley (the Younger), poet and churchman
References
- ^ http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/Tiverton/Tiverton1850.html
- ^ http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/romance/LornaDooneaRomanceofExmoor/chap2.html
- ^ http://archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk/History/blundells.asp
- ^ http://www.blundells.org/archive/_pdfs/quatercentenary_history.pdf
- ^ http://www.blundfoundation.org.uk/foundation/projects.htm
- ^ http://www.eteach.com/JobSeekers/RecruiterProfile.aspx?EmpNo=17679
- ^ http://www.blundells.org/admin/school_hms.htm
- ^ http://www.obclub.co.uk/obclub/sport_the-russell.htm
- ^ http://www.hornby.com/locomotives-89/r2744x/product.html
External links
- Blundell's School website
- 2001 UK:Independent Schools Inspectorate Report
- Current Information from UK:Independent Schools Council
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