DEEP DIVE IN THE ARCHIVE
Not only is St Albans School a beautiful site, it is a historic one, with its own archive and Museum. We spoke to our School Archivist Sue Gregory to find out more about the history of the School, from the mysterious underground pit beneath the West Gate Room to the Grade I listed mulberry tree behind the D&T and Physics classrooms.
Established in 1479 and run by John Haule, the Gateway was once home to England's second or third oldest printing press. The printing for St Albans School is still run by a John (John Kearley) and is on-site, making St Albans School the location of the longest-running printing press in the country!
St Albans School is the location of the longest-running printing press in the country.
Our in-house printer, John Kearley.
Much of the works printed in the Gateway are now in libraries across Cambridge and London. The central tower of books in the British Library for example consists largely of works from St Albans School printing press (about two-thirds).
The image shows a benefactor to the Abbey, produced by St Albans printing press sometime between 1380 to 1550.
Some publications remain however and are stored in the School’s Museum and Archive. Here, you can find a 10th century page of the Book of Ezekial and 17th – 19th century Latin and Greek Bibles, bound in vellum (fine parchment made from the skin of a calf). The collection also includes records of a High Court case from 1722, as a result of which, with the addition of compound interest, in which the St Albans City Council owes the School over £35 billion.
On display is a book recording schoolboy offences and punishments, and amongst them is an entry for Professor Stephen Hawking CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (OA 1959) who is reprimanded for throwing his cap in the Upper Yard! His punishment was to write an essay on ‘wit’.
The oldest part of the School however is not the Gateway, but is in fact the West Gate Room in which pupils are still taught. The room was once a prison, and adjacent rooms are still sectioned off by old jail doors of solid oak, with some dating back to the 12th century, with 18th century metal coverings. Nowadays, the oldest jail door marks the entrance to the RPE Department office. Beneath the West Gate Room and running under the Headmaster's garden is a massive underground pit. Its purpose was either a plague burial site, or a dungeon.
In what is now History 3, rebelling peasants were once strung up along the rafters, and in History 1 one can find a fireplace commemorating King Charles I’s visit in 1626.
Adjacent rooms are still sectioned off by old jail doors of solid oak.
On the other side of the Gateway there is a blocked window through which alms (money, food or other material goods) were once delivered to those in need.
The holes in the vaulted ceiling of the Gateway have often been attributed to providing gaps for missiles, or boiling oil, to be rained down on attackers. Our Archivist suggests that this is likely false, and rather enabled the hanging of lanterns and decorations for religious or national festivals.
A final fun fact about the history of the St Albans School site is that pupils and staff daily walk past a Grade 1 listed mulberry tree, existent since before the time of Queen Elizabeth I. The silk produced from the tree was used in the weaving of ecclesiastical garments for the Abbey, and now overlooks our Physics and D&T classrooms.
To find out more about the history of the School, please our website here.
The image above was painted in St Albans and shows Richard of Wallingford, a former monk who became abbot of St Albans Cathedral. He was also a keen scientist and designed an astronomical clock which was likely the most complex clock mechanism in existence in the British Isles at this time.
