Abingdonian 2018

62 The Abingdonian First Year History Walk Towards the end of the Summer Term, the entire First Year were given the opportunity to explore the history of Abingdon and how the school has played a vital part in the town. A Lower School Assembly saw Mrs Wearne, the school archivist, show us a presentation and talk about the school’s history. A week later, we were able to learn more on a walk into Abingdon Town, where we split into tutor groups before visiting several areas of particular interest. The first was the county hall, built in the 17th century, which was designed by Christopher Wren, who also oversaw the training of the building of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. We went upstairs to the museum where we learned all about Abingdon through its history - from Roman pottery to the closure of the Morland’s Brewery and the MG Factory. After seeing the museum, we walked up the stairs to the top of the building where we had a great view of the old schoolroom, built in 1563. This, we discovered, had been paid for by John Roysse to provide previews for Abingdon School. The school stood on this site for 300 years. Unfortunately, we were not cleared to enter because of building work. We then went to St Nicolas’ Church, where one of the Churchwardens talked to us about the dissolution of the Abbey. We were intrigued to discover that some of the materials from the Abbey were used to construct other buildings in the town but the biggest pieces of stone were taken down the Thames to build Whitehall in London! We also saw the monument to John Blacknall and his family. We had learned the week before that he donated money to the school, and is commemorated today with the Blacknall scholarships. We were also able to visit the former site of the Abbey, having learnt how the Abbey had made the town important but subsequently been demolished. We had a chance to appreciate the huge extent of the Abbey, which was built in the shape of a cross, and walked around what is thought to be where the walls stood. Afterwards, we walked to St Helen’s Church, where we filled in a quiz and saw the grave of John Roysse. St Helen’s, we found out is wider than it is long, and parts of it date back to more than 1000 years ago! We finished the walk with a look at Christ’s Hospital, where we learnt that historically ‘hospitals’ were not only centres of treatment for the sick, but also places of ‘hospitality’. Christ’s Hospital gave the land for the current school site to be built in the 19th century and today the school still has links with the charity. Leland Ebner and Philip Kimber, 1MWL