Charterhouse School
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| Charterhouse School |
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| Motto: Deo Dante Dedi (Because God has Given, I Give) |
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| Established | 1611 |
| Type | Independent school |
| Headmaster | John Witheridge |
| Students | 800 (approx.) |
| Location | Godalming, Surrey, United Kingdom |
| Website | charterhouse.org.uk |
Charterhouse School is a boys' independent school, located in Godalming in the county of Surrey. It was founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian Monastery in Charterhouse Square, Smithfield (see Charterhouse), and is thus not as old as the Royal Grammar School, Guildford. It is one of the original nine English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868. Today, pupils are still referred to as Carthusians, and ex-pupils as Old Carthusians or OCs. As of 2006, Charterhouse is Britain's most expensive school with boarding and tutorial fees of £25,000+ per annum.
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[edit] History
The school was moved to its present site in 1872 by the then headmaster, the Revd. Dr. Haig Brown - a decision influenced by the findings of the Public Schools Commission of 1864.
The school bought a 68 acre (270,000 m²) site on top of a hill just outside Godalming. In addition to the main school buildings (designed by architect Philip Charles Hardwick), they constructed three boarding houses, known as Saunderites (once the headmaster's house), Verites and Gownboys (for scholars, who were entitled to wear gowns).
As pupil numbers grew, other houses were built alongside the approach road, now known as Charterhouse Hill. Each was titled with an adaptation of the name of their first housemaster, such as Weekites, Daviesites and Girdlestoneites. The last of these is still referred to as Duckites, reflecting the unusual gait of its original housemaster, even though he retired well over 100 years ago. There are now the original four 'old' houses plus seven 'new' houses, making eleven boarding houses in total. The eleven Houses have preserved a unique identity (each with its own tie and colours) and pupils compete against each other in both sports and the arts.
The school continued to expand over the 20th century. Further land was bought to the north and west, increasing the grounds to over 200 acres (809,000 m²), and a new school chapel was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (perhaps best known for designing the red telephone box) and consecrated in 1927 to commemorate almost 700 pupils who died in the First World War, making it the largest war memorial in England. Around 350 names have been subsequently added to commemorate those who died in the Second World War and other conflicts of the twentieth century. Pupils still attend a short chapel service there five times a week.
Charterhouse was all male until the 1970s when girls were first admitted in the sixth form (the final two years), and this continues to be the case today. Of over 300 sixth formers today, almost a third are girls.
The most significant addition to the campus was seven new Houses, built in the 1970s, replacing late Victorian boarding houses which were demolished in 1977. Other newer buildings include the Art Studio, the John Derry Technology Centre, the Ben Travers Theatre, the Ralph Vaughan Williams Music Centre, the Halford Hewitt Golf Course, the Queen’s Sports Centre, the Sir Greville Spratt athletics track and Chetwynd, a hall of residence for girls. In 2003, the School renovated its onsite Library and its contents and facilities could easily rival many University libraries.
[edit] Modern day
Today, pupils can take part in a wide range of sporting activities, including football, hockey, cricket, cross-country, tennis, fives, fencing, racquets, swimming, squash, water polo, horse riding, sub-aqua, climbing, basketball, shooting, badminton, rugby, and climbing. The 2005 first XI football team also performed extremely well, having an unbeaten season, barring a solitary defeat in the ISFA Cup. Cricket also continues to flourish and Charterhouse is famed for having one of the best batting tracks in the South of England. The school produced one of England's finest batsmen and captains in history, Peter May.
Charterhouse is one of the elite public schools in Britain. It has good examination results and was ranked 19th in the 2004 Times school league table of A level results.
Martin Bicknell, the former Surrey and England seam bowler joined the school as head of cricket following his retirement from the sport in 2006.
[edit] Charterhouse and the origins of football
Charterhouse has an historic joint claim to having founded Association Football, which remains the main Winter sport at the school. During the 1840s at both Charterhouse and Westminster School pupils' surroundings meant they were confined to playing their football in the cloisters, making the rough and tumble of the handling game that was developing at other schools such as Rugby impossible, and necessitating a new code of rules. During the formulation of the rules of the Association Football in the 1860s representatives of Charterhouse and Westminster School pushed for a passing game, in particular rules that allowed forward passing ("passing on"). Other schools (in particular Eton College and Harrow) favoured a dribbling game with a tight off-side rule. By 1867 the Football Association had chosen in favour of the Charterhouse and Westminster game and adopted an off-side rule that permitted forward passing [Marples, Morris. A History of Football, Secker and Warburg, London 1954, page 150]. The modern forward-passing game was a direct consequence of Charterhouse and Westminster Football. As such Charterhouse and Westminster School can be considered to have put the "beautiful" into the beautiful game.
In the early years of the FA Cup, teams formed of ex-pupils from these schools dominated the competition. The Old Carthusians F.C. (the name for the team comprised of Charterhouse alumni) won the cup in the 1880/81 season, beating the Old Etonians in the final, and were semi-finalists in the two years that followed. The public school system also provided many of the first England internationals. Rory Fleming also played in the Irish disabled team. They included Charles Wreford-Brown, who is often credited for inventing the word ‘soccer’. He was a pupil at Charterhouse in the early 1880s, and played football for the Old Carthusians and for the national side in the 1890s, including several appearances as captain.
[edit] The Houses at Charterhouse
The are four old houses and seven new houses.
The four old houses are Saunderites, Verites, Gownboys and Girdlestonites. Girdlestonites is often referred to as Duckites to help confusion with Gownboys (also beginning with the letter 'G'). This name is reputed to derive from a nickname for Mr Girdlestone, the first housemaster of Girdlestonites, who was said to walk like a duck. Saunderites adopts an orange and black diagonally striped tie, Verites a Silver, Blue and Black tie, Gownboys a dark red and black tie and Girdlestonites a silver and black tie.
The seven new houses are Daviesites, Pageites, Robinites, Bodites, Hogdsonites, Weekites and Lockites. And in that order the ties are thus - green, light purple, purple, yellow, blue, light red and light green.
(All of the houses are short-handed to their first letter for the inter-house postal system, but Gownboys uses a capital 'G' and Girdlestonites a 'g,' but on the school's computer system it is referenced as a 'X.')
The four old houses have been around since the original founding of the school. Saunderites is named after its first Housemaster Mr. Saunders and it was the Headmaster's house, in that the headmaster would not only run the school but one of the houses. Unfortunately to the dramatic increase in the size of the school, and the increasing difficulties in running such a school has meant that the Headmaster can no longer do this. Gownboys was originally named not after a Mr. Gown but after the fact that Gownboys was the scholars house, and that scholars were allowed to wear gowns and also treated as superiors to other boys. That tradition is no longer so, and currently Gownboys has no specific tag. Verites was founded by an Oliver and Girdlestonites by a Mr. Girdlestone.
[edit] Notable Old Carthusians
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Charterhouse School website
- Independent schools council information on Charterhouse School
- Lastest (2001) inspection report by the ISC
- Website in memory of the school's architect, P.C.Hardwick
Categories: Articles lacking sources from November 2006 | All articles lacking sources | 1611 establishments | 1872 architecture | Boarding schools in the United Kingdom | Educational institutions established in the 1610s | Members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference | Old Carthusians | Public schools in Surrey | Racquets venues | Schools in Surrey | Schools with Combined Cadet Forces
