Allhallows College
Encyclopedia
- This article is about Allhallows College in Devon, England, formerly called Allhallows School. For All Hallows College in Dublin, Ireland, see All Hallows CollegeAll Hallows CollegeAll Hallows College is a Roman Catholic college located in Drumcondra, Dublin, Ireland. All Hallows is one of six linked colleges of Dublin City University, meaning that the college's degrees are validated and accredited by the university.-History:...
. For All Hallows' School in Brisbane, Australia, see All Hallows' SchoolAll Hallows' SchoolAll Hallows' School is a Catholic day school for girls, located close to the central business district of Brisbane, Queensland.Founded in 1861, the school follows in the tradition of the Irish Sisters of Mercy, and caters for over 1,300 girls from years five to 12...
.
Allhallows College, previously known as Allhallows School, was an independent boys 'public school
Independent school (UK)
An independent school is a school that is not financed through the taxation system by local or national government and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so is not subject to the conditions imposed by...
' in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, predominantly boarding.
History
The school was founded circa 1515 in HonitonHoniton
Honiton is a town and civil parish in East Devon, situated close to the River Otter, north east of Exeter in the county of Devon. The town's name is pronounced in two ways, and , each pronunciation having its adherents...
, most probably as a chantry school where priests taught boys to read Latin so they could sing in the choir. Later still it became a grammar school for the sons of the local gentry. Its origins in Honiton are the reason former pupils are still known as Old Honitonians, or OHs. The school was named for its neighbour All Hallows, a roadside chapel for travellers built sometime before 1327 and now the oldest existing secular building in Honiton.
By the 1930s with the increase in traffic through Honiton on the main route to the west this was becoming a serous hazard with school premises on both sides of the main road. The headmaster, George Shallow, found a large empty Victorian mansion with over 350 acres of private estate on the coast at Rousdon
Rousdon
Rousdon is a village in East Devon off the A3052 road between Colyford and Lyme Regis in Dorset.The small village developed around the Mansion of the Peek family in the early 19th century...
a few miles to the West of Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis is a coastal town in West Dorset, England, situated 25 miles west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. The town lies in Lyme Bay, on the English Channel coast at the Dorset-Devon border...
on top of magnificent cliffs on what is now knows as the Jurassic Coast, which has recently been declared a World Heritage Site. Lyme is in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
but the school was well over the county boundary in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
. However the postal address
Address (geography)
An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used for describing the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along with other identifiers such as house or...
was Nr. Lyme Regis, Dorset, which has led to confusion.
The mansion had been built for Sir Henry Peek, Bt in the 1870s by the famous architect Sir Ernest George, who built Southwark Bridge in London. (Among Sir Ernest's pupils was the even more famous architect Sir Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
). In 1870 Sir Henry purchased the village of Rousdon, rebuilt the church and built the village school. He then commissioned Ernest George to design a mansion to take advantage of the superb position 152.4m/500 feet above the sea. Being a distance from the nearest town, the house had to be self-sufficient with laundry, coach houses, harness rooms, wine cellars, bowling alley, rifle range, china stores, bake houses, larders, museum, observatory, walled garden, tennis courts, farm buildings and numerous cottages to house the Estate population, which at the end of the 19th Century extended to about 600.
As well as being MP for Wimbledon, Sir Henry was a governor of Holloway prison and many of the floors were inlaid with mosaics created by the inmates. Sir Henry's famous collection of stuffed birds reputedly had an example of every bird to have landed on the British Isles. The building was a few hundred yards from the cliff-edge overlooking the massive landslip from 1839 and had extensive grounds, even if the location was remote. Inevitably not all the necessary facilities were there and though improvement work started this was brought to a halt by World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The school was not to acquire a proper gymnasium, swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
or cricket pavilion
Cricket pavilion
A cricket pavilion is a pavilion at a cricket ground. It is the main building within which the players usually change in dressing rooms and which is the main location for watching the cricket match for members and others...
until some years after the war.
In the two decades after the war the school acquired a national reputation in shooting, attending Bisley
Bisley
-Places:* Two villages in the United Kingdom:**Bisley, Surrey**Bisley, Gloucestershire*Bisley Ranges is near the Surrey village and is the headquarters of the National Rifle Association, UK -Others:...
on a regular basis and winning the inter-schools Asburton trophy several times. This was thanks to the work of James Turner
James Turner
James Turner was the 12th Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1802 to 1805. He later served as a U.S. senator between 1805 and 1816....
who had been a pupil at the school and then after university joined the staff as chemistry master. During the war he had worked on ballistics
Ballistics
Ballistics is the science of mechanics that deals with the flight, behavior, and effects of projectiles, especially bullets, gravity bombs, rockets, or the like; the science or art of designing and accelerating projectiles so as to achieve a desired performance.A ballistic body is a body which is...
and he used this knowledge to train a series of first-class shots. He stayed with the school all his life, ending up with a short spell in the headmaster's chair, and then in retirement raising funds. He was one of several masters who devoted their lives to the school including G.S Napier ('Nap') who spent over a hundred terms there after World War I.
Around 1970 the school became one of the first public schools to admit girls and it prospered into the 80s. However in the 90s it went into decline and the number of pupils decreased significantly from almost 300 to less than half that. A reason may have been the remote location at a time when parents expected to see a lot more of their children than had been traditional in the old public school era.
Closure
The school ran into financial difficulty in 1994. A group of Old Honitonians put together a plan and secured some financial backing to attempt a rescue. A new entity, Allhallows College was established as a company limited by guarantee and registered as a charity. The recession of the early 1990s proved severe and several West Country schools were closed; the same fate befell Allhallows College despite efforts of staff and board of directors. The college was closed in 1998. There is continuing controversy among Old Honitonians as to whether the closure was the best decision for the school or necessary. The argument has been bitter on both sides and is unlikely to be resolved at this distance.Notable former pupils
- Guy AclandGuy AclandLieutenant-Colonel Sir Christopher Guy Dyke Acland, 6th Baronet, LVO, DL was a British Army officer and member of the British Royal Household. Acland was educated at Allhallows School, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst...
, Army officer - Battiscombe GunnBattiscombe GunnBattiscombe "Jack" George Gunn was an English Egyptologist and philologist. He published his first translation from Egyptian in 1906. He translated inscriptions for many important excavations and sites, including Fayum, Saqqara, Amarna, Giza and Luxor...
, Egyptologist - Arthur Travers Harris, 'Bomber' Harris of World War II
- David HolmesDavid HolmesDavid Holmes is the name of:* David Holmes , stuntman and actor in the Harry Potter films* David Holmes , former Chairman of Rangers* David Holmes , former BBC Political Editor...
, BBC reporter - Nicholas PennellNicholas PennellNicholas Pennell was an English actor who appeared frequently on film and television in the 1960s and emigrated to Stratford, Ontario, Canada where he became a stalwart of the Stratford Festival.He was educated at Allhallows College, Lyme Regis and trained at RADA. He then appeared in repertory...
, actor - Ernest SmytheErnest SmytheErnest Meade Smythe was an English cricketer and Indian Army officer. His batting and bowling styles are unknown. He was born in Ealing, Middlesex and educated at Allhallows School in Somerset....
, cricketer and Indian Army officer - Sir Walter VenningWalter VenningGeneral Sir Walter King Venning GCB CMG CBE MC was Quartermaster-General to the Forces.-Military career:Educated at Allhallows College then in Honiton, Devon, Venning was commissioned into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in 1901...
, former Quartermaster-General to the ForcesQuartermaster-General to the ForcesIn the United Kingdom, the Quartermaster-General to the Forces is a senior general in the British Army.From 1904 the Quartermaster-General to the Forces was the Third Military Member of the Army Board.-Responsibilities:... - Richard van der Riet WoolleyRichard van der Riet WoolleyRichard van der Riet Woolley was an English astronomer who became Astronomer Royal. His mother's maiden name was Van der Riet....
, Astronomer RoyalAstronomer RoyalAstronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the second is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834....