| Catalogue Reference | SCH3 |
| Title | Records of Reading School |
| Description | Summary
GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION: trustees’ minutes, 1867-1909; governors’ minutes, 1916-1949; Building Committee minutes, 1874; Finance and House Committee minutes, 1916-1949; Reading School Working Party copy minutes, 1981-1985; minutes of committee for appointing headmaster, 1871; inspection reports, 1903-1907, 1929; subscription lists, 1869-1870; accounts, 1908-1939; statements of accounts, 1873-1899; fees lists, 1916-1940, 1984-1988; trustees’ letter books, 1878-1910; Kendrick Boys’ School governors’ letter book, 1909-1911; correspondence, 1868-1916, 1942-1945; sale particulars of site, 1867; deeds of site, 1868-1882; plans, 1868-1869, 1892-1919, 1942-1973; specification and contract for building the school, 1870; other property papers, 1868-1912, 1949-1986; prospectuses, 1871-n.d. [c.1914-1916], 1960-[c.1970s-80s].
SCHOOL MANAGEMENT: West House log books, 1942-1957; County House log books, 1947-1953; Senior Common Room minutes and accounts, 1899-1939; examiners’ reports, 1872-1909; school examination papers, 1880-1884, 1937-1938; entrance examination papers, 1936; staff reports, 1894.
PUPIL RECORDS: admission registers, 1882-1956; Kendrick Boys’ School admission registers, 1876-1915; index to admission registers, c. 1910-1986; papers relating to Sir Thomas White’s scholarships to St John’s College, 1853-1906; papers relating to scholarships at Reading School, 1842-1909; papers relating to scholarships to Reading University, 1912-1913; Travelling Scholarship winner’s report on trip to Yugoslavia, 1953; West House honours records, 1912-1943.
MISCELLANEOUS: school lists, 1871-1995/6; school magazines, 1880-1996; photographs of the school premises, n.d. [20C]; photographs of pupils, n.d. [c.1930s-1950s]; papers relating to the laying of the foundation stone, 1870; Speech Day programmes, 1786-1790, 1898-1968; handbills for school plays and Speech Days, 1789-1806, 1897; programmes for plays, 1928-1939, and concerts, 1938, 1984-1988; papers relating to 400th anniversary, 1885; orders of service, 1991-1993; Sports Day programmes, 1907-1940; cricket fixture lists, 1923-1939; sports tour programmes, 1984-1987; school dance programmes, 1960, 2000; fete programme, 1970; Old Boys’ dinner programmes and menus, 1929-1931; school calendars, 1934-1937, 1958-1997; prints, 1829, 20C; histories of school, n.d. [c.1890s]-1974; historical notes, n.d. [c.1930s-1970s]; Reading School Act, 1867; Schemes and related papers, 1904-1927; County House Committee minutes, 1935-1960; West House Committee minutes, 1936-1951; The Seekers minutes, 1921-1963; papers read at meetings of The Seekers, 1925-1956; papers relating to Cadet Corps, 1900-1901; papers relating to Officers’ Training Corps, 1933-1945; Boys Scouts: patrol log book, 1969-1975; texts of plays, 1746; scrapbook relating to Old Boy William Henry Berkeley, 1894; papers of Old Boy Herman Lindars, n.d. [c.1903]-1980; video of visit by Queen Elizabeth II; quincentenary appeal brochure, 1987; miscellaneous papers, 1876-2001. |
| Date | 1746-2001 |
| Repository | Berkshire Record Office (code: GB 005) |
| Level | Fonds |
| Extent | 97 vols, 267 bdls, 2 files, 6 boxes, 7 rolls, 125 docs, 1 item |
| Admin History | The origins of Reading School are said to be in a school run by the monks at Reading Abbey from 1125. It is first mentioned in a diocesan charter of the Bishop of Salisbury, undated, but no later than 1139, which confirmed it as the only school permitted in the town. It was certainly in existence in 1486, when it was reconsitituted as a Free Grammar School in a building formerly used as an almshouse and guest quarters for the abbey, on the site of the present Town Hall, next to St Laurence’s Church, which was on the boundary of the abbey site. The history of the school before the Reformation remains obscure, but it is clear that it was only for boys. Some may have paid fees, while others were educated free of charge.
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the school fell into the hands of the Crown. In 1541 the king confirmed the schoolmaster in his post, and endowed him with an annuity of £10 charged on the fee farm rents of former abbey land at Cholsey. In 1560, Elizabeth I granted the school, and the right to appoint the master, to the Corporation of Reading, and made the latter responsible for paying the master’s salary of £10 p.a.. In 1578, the school’s premises were divided, part becoming the Town Hall. In 1672 a new storey was inserted, leaving the ground-floor schoolroom just eight feet high.
The masters were always clergymen, and sometimes held the role in combination with the vicarage of either Reading St Laurence or Reading St Giles. Andrew Bird, master from 1606 to 1636, combined his scholmaster’s role with that of a physician. Julius Palmer, master in 1555, was martyred for his protestant views.
Famous and generous Old Boys included Sir Thomas White , who founded St John’s College, Oxford, in the 1550s, and created two scholarships for boys from Reading School to study at St John’s; William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1573-1645); and Reading clothier and philanthropist John Kendrick (1573-1624). In 1640, as part of his extensive charitable gift to his home town (for which see also D/QR22), Laud augmented the schoolmaster’s salary with an additional £20 p.a., thus trebling the latter’s income. He also ensured oversight of the school’s management by setting up a triennial Visitation of the school by the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, the President of St John’s College, and the Warden of All Souls’ College.
The character of the school began to change in the 18th century. Haviland John Hiley (1688-1753), master 1716-1750, decided to accept a number of fee-paying boarders, and in 1731 built himself a new house close to the school premises, with accommodation for 20 boys. He employed a number of junior masters (known as ushers), and subjects taught included French (taught by a genuine Frenchman) and dancing. Recreation took place on the Forbury. The small school premises were extended to provide a library in 1727.
Richard Valpy, D.D. (1754-1836) was appointed master in 1781, and remained until 1830. He was a charismatic figure and influential teacher who enlarged the school considerably. He was the first schoolmaster in England to teach Latin in English, and one of his pupils, John Lempriere, went on to write an acclaimed Classical Dictionary. In 1786 the Town Hall was rebuilt, reducing the facilities of the area used by the school still further. The borough had purchased the master’s house (hitherto rented from the late Mr Hiley’s son in law) in the 1780s, and in 1790 Valpy built a new large schoolroom nearby, on the site of Reading Museum. These premises were held on leasehold. Some of the boarders slept in dormitories in part of the surviving abbey buildings, while others lived with the junior masters. Swimming was a compulsory part of the curriculum.
Relatively high fees were now charged for the majority of boys, although a few free places were still available for Reading boys. Valpy rejected the offer of the mastership at Rugby, partly on the grounds that the fees there were too low. However, it was increasingly clear that the school under his leadership contravened the terms of its foundation, and also Reading parents were starting to demand a more modern education. Numbers fell during the reign of Valpy’s successors. In 1837, there were just 20 boarders, eight fee-paying day boys, and nine who attended free. By 1866 there were just two days boys, and one boarder, and the lease on the premises was about to expire, and the master resigned.
The Corporation had been aware that the school was in desperate straits for some years, and trustees were appointed by the Charity Commission in 1862 to put the charity back on a sustainable footing. In 1867 they obtained a Charity Commission Scheme to make use of John Kendrick’s Charity to revive the school. This was confirmed by the Reading School Act 1867, which set out in detail proposals for the acquisition of a new site and the running of the school. The new school was effectively a new foundation, with a completely new body of trustees, although it built on the legacy of the ancient school. Records prior to this date will be found in the Reading Borough archives, mainly in R/ES19 and R/Z9, apart from a few items which were held at the school.
In 1868-1869 the newly-appointed trustees purchased a large site in Erleigh Road, Reading, and engaged the architect Alfred Waterhouse. The foundation stone was laid by HRH the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) in July 1870. Dr Thomas Stokoe was appointed the first headmaster of the new school in 1871, and the school opened that September. It accepted both day boys and boarders. A new Master’s House, with room for 60 boarders, gymnasium and chapel were added in 1873-1874. A swimming pool was installed in 1879. The Palmer family donated a science laboratory in 1885, although the school’s focus remained the classics (Latin and Greek). Boys were accepted from the age of 7. From c. 1902 those under 14 were accommodated in a separate Junior School building, but still remaining administratively part of the main school.
However, the new premises were not supported by funds for the running of the school, and the fees were not sufficient. In 1908 the school premises and full financial control of the school were formally transferred from the trustees to Reading Borough Council.
The school was divided into Houses, initially based on accommodation. In c. 1906 the ‘Small Houses’ were dissolved, and the boys were arranged in three Houses: School House (for boarders), the East and West Wings (also for boarders), and the Town House (for day boys). As the number of day boys had increased, in 1912 the Town House was divided into three: County House, East House, and West House, while for games purposes all the boarders were combined into one house (School House). The divisions were reorganised in 1919, 1934 and 1942.
In 1916, the school merged with Kendrick Boys’ School, which had been set up with part of the Kendrick Charity funds, and it began to flourish. A house in Craven Road was purchased to act as the Headmaster’s residence in 1919. A new gymnasium and swimming pool were opened in 1935. During the Second World War, numbers were augmented by boys evacuated from Archbishop Temison’s School in London. By the 1940s, approximately half the boys paid fees, and half were free.
The 1944 Education Act led in 1947 to the closure of the Junior School which formed part of Reading School up to that date. It also meant that admission to the school was now dictated by success in the Eleven Plus Examination administered by the local education authority. Fees were abolished. The introduction of comprehensive education nationally in the 1960s threatened the school’s independence, but Reading and Kendrick Girls’ School survived as grammar schools. A proposal in 1973 to merge with Cintra Secondary Modern School was rejected following a petition signed by 30,000 people. In 1974, Reading ceased to be a Local Education Authority when the borough lost county borough status, and the school fell under the control of Berkshire County Council. It returned to Reading Borough Council in 1998 following further local government reorganisation.
By the first decade of the 21st century the school was widely acknowledged as one of the best state schools in the country. In 2011 it became an Academy, regaining its independence from local authority control.
For a history of the school, see Michael Naxton, The History Of Reading School (privately published, 1986). |
| Acquisition | Deposited in August 1989 (acc. 4447 part); August 2005 (acc. 2005/SCH/3); October 2005 (acc. 2005/SCH/5); February 2006 (acc. 7770); transferred in June 2016 (acc. 9885)
Schedule of accessions
Acc. 6304 (part): 4/3
Acc. 2005/SCH/3: 4/4, 7-8, 16-17, 19-20, 22-23, 37; 11/1, 3-20; 14/6/2; 14/9-60; 16/31-35; 18/66
Acc. 2005/SCH/5: 1/14; 4/39; 5/51; 6/57-58, 62, 67; 7/8, 11-19; 8/1-7; 9/1; 10/6-7, 11-12; 11/21; 13/30-31, 33-39, 41; 15/1-5; 16/3, 5-18, 22-24, 26-29, 54-59; 16/36/1, 3-8; 16/37-40, 42-43, 45-51; 18/1-4; 18/5/2; 18/6, 8-9, 12-15, 38-47, 49-53, 55-63, 67-69; 18/102/4; 18/103-104
Acc. 7770: 6/17-18, 21-27; 11/22-27; 18/75-99
Acc. 9885: 1/1-13, 15; 2/1-3; 3/1-2; 4/1-2, 9-15, 24-36, 38; 5/1-50; 6/1-16, 19-20, 28-56, 59-61, 63-66, 68; 7/1-7, 9-10, 20-21; 10/1-5, 8-10; 11/2; 13/1-29, 32, 40; 14/1-5; 14/6/1; 14/7-8; 16/1-2, 4, 19-21, 25, 30; 16/36/2; 16/41, 44, 52-53; 18/5/1; 18/7, 10-11, 16-37, 64-65, 70-74, 100-101; 18/102/1-3 |
| Related Material | Reading School:
SCH3; R/Z9: Pre-1867 records
R/FE3/4-6: Accounts, 1872-1908
D/EX1485/17/55: Annual reports, 1941/2 and 1945/6
D/EX651/1/1: Photograph: pupils of Junior Department, 1938
D/EX2670/4/34: Parents Association yearbook, 1946-1947
D/EX1841/1/1-5: Miscellaneous, 1916-1928
Kendrick Boys’ School:
R/ES13/1-4: Governors’ minutes, 1875-1911
R/ES13/10-14: Governors’ letter books, 1892-1894, 1897-1909
R/FE3/7-11: Accounts, 1876-1910 |