The inventors

It is relatively easy to track Radley’s artists and writers through our records. Most work alone and often use these terms to describe themselves, their careers or their hobbies. The inventors and experimenters are harder to spot.  <<<<read on>>>>

Late in 2020, the team working on the extension to Radley College Chapel came to a milestone moment. The east end of the building was being extended to form a much larger sanctuary. The existing east window was to remain, but the wall below it had to be demolished in its entirety. Set into that wall was the dedication stone which had been consecrated and placed there in November 1893. The builders treated the stone with respect so that it could be replaced in the new wall. As they removed the brickwork around it, the top was revealed. There was a hollow carved into the stone: it contained a sealed glass flask like those used to store preserved specimens in school science departments of the 1890s. <<<<read on >>>>

There is a bench at Radley, comfortably sited overlooking the lake, which bears the plaque ‘Mile, our gardener’. It is just one of the many ways that those who have lived and worked at the school have been commemorated by their friends and families. Sometimes there is a plaque, sometimes just a bunch of flowers regularly laid at the foot of a tree without any ceremony or fanfare, just a quiet, private moment of remembrance and respect. There are trees, clocks, lighting circuits, engraved stones. Not all are memorials about the past: some are a statement of being present in this place, at this time – being a part of it. In 2016, the archivist conducted a survey around the site to record all those which still bore some identification, but after 175 years there are many more which have long since lost that notice and survive only in a brief note in the school records. Here is the story of how we have remembered our friends and families in this place >>>read on>>>

In the first year of the new millennium a group met for one final dinner. It marked the end of an association which had actually existed for 120 years. In that time, society had changed out of all recognition, and with it approaches to philanthropy and charity. This is the story of that connection, how it changed over time as society changed, and some of the individuals who contributed to those changes. This is the story of Radley College and St Peter’s, London Docks >>>read on >>>>

Social Fours League Table 1880

For every boy who comes to Radley College, the identity of his boarding house must seem the most permanent thing in the school.  Timetables change, curriculum changes, staff change, even sports change their rules; but the boarding house has surely been there forever.  Not so.  The ‘Socials’ are one of the most fluid aspects of the school and one of the most peculiar institutions of Radley College.  From All to 6 to 8 to Orchard to 10 to 11, to the mysterious ‘I Social’, to in-College or out-College, from letters to Tutors’ names, this weird institution is more than a place to sleep or ‘board’.  It is, in fact, the boys – ‘my socials’.  Fetch a wet towel to wrap around your head – this is not straightforward!  Read on >>>>>

The history of Radley sport in wallpaper (detail)

Organised sport has been central to the life of Radley from the foundation of the school in 1847 when the earliest Fellows included two (Howard and Savory) chosen specifically because they could participate in cricket and boating with the boys. 2016 saw a new development in Radley sport with the appointment of James Gaunt as Director of Sport and the subsequent creation of a Sports Office located on one of the main thoroughfares of the school between Shop and Clocktower.  The new office is shared by the Director of Sport and some of the specialist sports coaches, who include Old Radleian, Nick Wood, formerly of Gloucester Rugby, Olympic rower, Sam Townsend, Hockey Professional Peter Bennett and Cricketer Andy Wagner. But sport already had a long and distinguished career at Radley College and, being keen to uphold and honour that tradition, a decision was taken to decorate the office. Masterminded by James Rock, the Rackets coach, the sports coaches delved through the Archives to identify key moments in Radley sporting history.  They created a timeline which wraps around the room, against a backdrop of world events, and, in the Director of Sport’s office, a wallpaper which is a montage of the many ordinary moments in a school’s sporting life. From sinking boats to early PT, from world champions to the Bash Street Kids – through the magic of digitisation, all sporting life is here…

>>>read on >>>timeline

>>> read on >>>montage