Page 14 - Abingdon News

News
14 September 2012
out of the past
Sixty-Three
Mile Walk
It seemed like a good idea at the time
– to mark the Quatercentenary of John
Roysse’s 1563 endowment of Abingdon
School with a 63 mile walk from Worcester
to Abingdon – and the thirteen prefects
who volunteered for the adventure set off
happily at 8.30 pm on Sunday 23 March
1963. It didn’t seem like such a good
idea to the eleven survivors of the wet and
stormy night as they toiled up Broadway
Hill, and two more boys were to fall by the
wayside before the first arrivals made it
back to school – to the accompaniment of
the school bell ringing 63 times – 20 hours
and 45 minutes after they had set out. n
The North Wind
As a result of the installation of new windows in the Chapel, the beautiful stained glass panel
made by the Arts and Crafts designer Louis Davis, OA 1876 – after whom the School’s art
exhibitions are named – has been moved into the Library where it fits exactly into one of the
central mullions of the oriel window overlooking Upper Field. Given to the School in 1952 by
Davis’s widow, the panel represents the North Wind and is a reproduction of just one of the
lights in the huge Choir windows in Dunblane Cathedral. Manufactured by the firm of James
Powell and Sons, the blue glass was specially commissioned by Davis whilst the touches of
red glass were created using gold oxide. The Library was the schoolroom in Davis’s day.
Good Night
The School archives have recently
acquired a copy of Good Night a
collection of children’s poems by Dollie
Radford illustrated by Davis, which was
published in 1895.
Who, Why, When?
A fine upstanding group of young men pose in front of the same oriel window that now
houses the North Wind – who are they, why are they here and when was the
photograph taken? n
The walkers