Wrekin College

Wrekin College
Motto Aut vincere aut mori
(Either to conquer or to die)
Established 1880
Type Public School
Independent day and boarding school
Religion Church of England
Headmaster Tim Firth
Chaplain Revd. Michael Horton MA (Cantab)
Founder Sir John Bayley
Location Sutherland Road
Wellington
Shropshire
TF1 3BH
England
Students c. 450
Gender Co-educational
Ages 11–18
Houses      Bayley,      Clarkson,
     Lancaster,      Roslyn,
     Tudor,      York.
Former houses:
     Hanover,      Norman,
     Eastfield,      Saxon. Windsor,     
Colours          
Alumni Old Wrekinians
Website wrekincollege.com

Wrekin College is an independent co-educational boarding and day school located in Wellington, Shropshire, England. It was founded by Sir John Bayley in 1880 and is known as ‘The School in the Garden’ owing to its extensive grounds and playing fields. Part of the Allied Schools, it is also a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.

History

The school was founded in 1880 as Wellington College by Sir John Bayley. In 1915 less than 100 acres (0.40 km2) of the Lilleshall Hall estate were purchased from the Duke of Sutherland, who retained the Hall and 50 acres (200,000 m2). In 1920, it was sold to the Revd Percy Warrington, a Church of England clergyman and renamed Wrekin College. The influential Anglican Clergyman E. J. H. Nash was chaplain from 1929–1932.[1] The Rev. Canon Guy Pentreath was a notable headmaster from 1943 to 1952. Girls were introduced to the sixth form by headmaster Geoffrey Hadden in 1975. It became fully co-educational in 1983. There are currently 420 pupils of which 10% are boarders and 50% are girls. The school now admits pupils from the age of eleven.

In 2006, the trust was merged with that of the Old Hall Preparatory School (founded 1845), which moved from its original site in the Old Hall on Limekiln Lane to the site of Wrekin College.

During the First World War the college refused to give up the rugby posts, to be scrapped as raw materials for the war effort however they did donate the railings on the walls down Sutherland Road.

In 1907, The Old Wrekinian Association, (OWA), was created by just a small group of 14 past pupils and has today almost 4000 members who have subscribed to the mailing list. The sole purpose of the OWA is to help past students keep in touch with not only one another but also the school. The OWA Record magazine is published twice a year and it contains news of the OWA members and the school. There are eight officials of the OWA, and they are as follows:

President: Barrie Roberts (N.51-55) Chairman: Andrew Huxley (W.81-86) Vice-Chairman: Chris Jones (W.82-87) Treasurer: David Ellison (T.54–58) Auditor: David Stevens (N.58–62) Secretary: Mervyn Joyner (Staff 62–94) Social Secretary: Serena Kyle (C.75–77) Secretary 200 Club: Mervyn Joyner (Staff 62-94) Ex 1st 15 Rugby Captain: Thomas Saunders (2010-2011)

They meet at least twice a year along with the current Wrekin College headmaster, OW School Governors and OW Branch representatives.

The OWA website can be accessed here: http://www.wrekincollege.com/old-wrekinians/2303.html

Old Wrekinians

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Manwaring, Randle (2002). From Controversy to Co-Existence: Evangelicals in the Church of England 1914–1980. Cambridge: CUP. p. 57.
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