| Marlborough College | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Location | |
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| ,, 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 Privateboarding |
| Motto | Latin:Deus Dat Incrementum (1 Corinthians 3:6: God gives the increase) |
| Religious affiliation | Church of England |
| Established | 1843; 182 years ago (1843) |
| Department for Education URN | 126516Tables |
| President | Stephen Lake |
| Chair of Council | Heidi Venamore |
| Master | Louise Moelwyn-Hughes |
| Visitor | Justin Welby |
| Gender | Co-educational |
| Age | 13 to 18 |
| Enrolment | 1,011 (in 2024) |
| Houses | 16 boarding houses |
| Colours | Navy & white |
| Publication |
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| Alumni | Old Marlburians |
| Website | www |
Marlborough College is apublic school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 inMarlborough, Wiltshire, England. It was founded asMarlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester,George Hull Bowers, for the education of the sons ofChurch of England clergy.[1] It 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 inThe 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]
Marlborough was, in 1968, the first major British independent boys' school to allow girls into thesixth form,[5] setting a trend that many other schools followed. The school became fully co-educational in 1989, and made a major contribution to theSchool 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 biographerBen Pimlott, wrote a book,Marlborough, an open examination written by the boys, describing life at the boarding institute. The writer and television criticT. C. Worsley wrote about predatory old masters at the school in his critically acclaimed autobiographyFlannelled 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 theOffice of Fair Trading to have run anillegal price-fixing cartel, exposed byThe 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 theIndependent 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 toJohn 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 theG20 Schools group.Marlborough College Malaysia, a sister school, opened inJohor in 2012.[10]
The college is built beside theMound, at the site of a former Normancastle. No remains of the castle can be seen today, though theradiocarbon 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 forSilbury 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 acoaching inn, which was bought as the first building for the school.[13] The main block of what now forms C House, it was built byCharles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset and is aGrade 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 aVictorian boarding house now converted to other purposes. The north west corner is dominated by its VictorianGothic style chapel by the architectsGeorge Frederick Bodley andThomas Garner, which has a collection ofpre-Raphaelite style paintings byJohn Roddam Spencer Stanhope and stained glass by Old MarlburianWilliam Morris.
The rest of the Court is surrounded by buildings in styles ranging from "Jacobethan" (a name coined by Old MarlburianSir John Betjeman) to classicalGeorgian and Victorian. The latter, B house (now called B1), was (along with the College Chapel) designed by the Victorian architectEdward Blore, whose other works included the facade of Buckingham Palace (since remodelled) and theVorontsovsky 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]
Pupils are assigned to one of the 16houses 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 analphanumeric title. Newer houses have been given names reflecting their location or commemorating a figure from the school's past.[17]
| 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]
In 1933, the school lent its name to one of the steam locomotives in theSouthern Railway'sSchools class, which were named after English public schools. The locomotive bearing the school's name (no. 922, later 30922) was withdrawn in 1961.[19]
Former pupils include the Nobel laureateSir Peter Medawar, Poet LaureateSir John Betjeman, wartime poetSiegfried Sassoon, art historian and Soviet spyAnthony Blunt, writerDick King-Smith, journalistsFrank Gardner,James Mates,Tom Newton Dunn andHugh Pym, businessmanSimon Woodroffe, comedianJack Whitehall, singersNick Drake andChris de Burgh, DJ and producer Frederick Gibson known asFred Again, physician and broadcasterPhil Hammond, fashion mogulsAmanda Harlech andStella Tennant, and convicted human traffickerGhislaine Maxwell.
Chancellor of the ExchequerRab Butler, Home SecretaryHenry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor, Archbishop of CanterburyGeoffrey Fisher,Olivia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster, and individuals from the British monarchy includingCatherine, Princess of Wales andPrincess Eugenie are also Old Marlburians.
SeeList of Old Marlburians for other notable former pupils. Societies for former pupils include the Marlburian Club.[22]
There are three academic terms in the year:
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The Memorial Hall was built to commemorate the 749 Old Marlburians who were killed inWorld 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 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 SirJohn Betjeman and there are twelve largePre-Raphaelite murals bySpencer 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 MarlburianWilliam Morris and designed byEdward Burne-Jones. Initially displayed in the original Chapel, the work was reinstated in the new Chapelc. 1885.[23] A sculpture of "The Virgin and Child" byEric Gill is near the west door.Sir Frank Brangwyn, who had been trained by Morris, produced murals for the school chapel ofChrist's Hospital (1912–1923) and visited Marlborough College, particularly its chapel, on several occasions to deliver lectures and practical workshops to members of the college community. Brangwyn andWalthamstow Borough Council signed a trust deed in 1935 to set up theWilliam 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]
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 houses a 10-inch-aperture (25-centimetre)Cookerefractor on a motorised equatorial mount. The telescope dates from 1860 and was used professionally at theRadcliffe Observatory atOxford University. When that facility was relocated to South Africa in the 1930s, SirBasil Blackett, a president of the Marlburian Club, raised the funds to purchase the telescope and have the observatory built on the college playing fields.[citation needed] It is used to teach astronomy and is also available to local astronomers.
A fully operational army-onlyCCF 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 tohockey matches being regularly played againstClifton College, with the sport consequently becoming popular with other public schools and sporting communities.[32]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)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.
...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...
Brangwyn had begun work on the panels in the chapel at Christ's Hospital School in 1912 though they were not completed until 1923
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.
... 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 ...
