7 June 2006
More than forty walkers took up the offer to go In Search of the History of Abingdon School, part of the School’s 750th anniversary celebrations. In Nigel Hammond they had the perfect guide since he is a former pupil at the School, and a former member of staff, Honorary Archivist of Christ’s Hospital and a historian of the town.
The tour took in St Nicolas’s Church, whose early rectors were headmasters of the School and where it is presumed lessons were once held. The walkers then progressed to the Roysse Room, between 1563 and 1870 the schoolroom of the old Grammar School. Following the dissolution of Abingdon Abbey in 1538, the School owed its continued existence to the generosity of John Roysse, in whose honour the room is named. Roysse’s tomb in St Helen’s Church was the next port of call and the tour culminated in a visit to Christ’s Hospital’s beautiful 14th-century Hall. The link between Christ’s Hospital and the School dates back to 1553 and many of the Hospital’s Governors have been Governors of the School and many an Old Abingdonian has been a Hospital Governor.
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