Blundell's School

Blundell's School is an independent co-educational boarding and day school in the English public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon. It was founded in 1604 under the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the time, and moved to its present site on the outskirts of the town in 1882.

Blundell's School
Address
Blundells Road

Tiverton
,
Devon
,
EX16 4DN

England
Coordinates50.906499°N 3.466174°W / 50.906499; -3.466174
Information
TypePublic school
Private day and boarding school
MottoPro Patria Populoque
(For the country and the people)
Established1604 (1604)
FounderPeter Blundell
Department for Education URN113575 Tables
Chairman of the GovernorsNigel Hall
HeadBart Wielenga
Staff360
GenderCo-educational
Age3 to 18
Enrolmentc. 615 in senior school
c. 251 in preparatory school
HousesFrancis House (Boys)

Gorton House (Girls)
North Close (Girls)
Old House (Boys)
Petergate (Boys)
School House (Years 7 and 8)

Westlake (Sixth Form)
Colour(s)Red & White    
Former pupilsOld Blundellians
Websitehttp://www.blundells.org

While the full boarding fees are £38,985 per year, the school offers several scholarships and bursaries, and provides flexi-boarding. The school has 360 boys and 225 girls, including 117 boys and 85 girls in the Sixth Form, and is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.

History
Old Blundell's

Peter Blundell, one of the wealthiest merchants of Elizabethan England, died in 1601, having made his fortune principally in the cloth industry. His will set aside considerable money and land to establish a school in his home town "to maintain sound learning and true religion". Blundell asked his friend John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England, to carry out his wishes, and appointed a number of local merchants and gentry as his first trustees (known as feoffees). The position of feoffee is no longer hereditary, but a number of notable local families have held the position for a considerable period: the first ancestor of the current chairman of the governors to hold that position was elected more than 250 years ago, and the Heathcoat-Amory family have a long tradition of service on the Governing Body, since Sir John Heathcoat-Amory was appointed in 1865.

The Old Blundell's School was built to be much larger and grander than any other in the West Country, with room for 150 scholars and accommodation for a master and an usher.[1] The Grade 1 listed building is now in the care of the National Trust and the forecourt is usually open to visitors. One ex-Blundell's boy was the writer R. D. Blackmore, who in the novel Lorna Doone set the stage for a fight between John Ridd and Robin Snell on the Blundell's triangular lawn.[2]

Peter Blundell's executors established links with Balliol College, Oxford, and with Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and large sums were settled to provide for scholarships for pupils of the school to attend those colleges.[3]

The prep school St Aubyn's was moved to the Blundell's campus in 2000,[4] taking over the day-boy house Milestones and the Sanatorium, and was renamed Blundell's Prep School. It has about 250 pupils aged from three years to eleven. The headmaster is Andy Southgate.

On 9 June 2023, weapons were found by police following an assault at the school on which left two students in hospital.[5]

Sport
1740 ticket for Blundell's School Feast by William Hogarth

Rugby

Rugby is the main sport played at Blundell's in the Autumn and Spring terms. The earliest mention of "football" in the Blundellian was in 1861 and the first recorded "rugger" match played by boys at Blundell's was in 1868 against Tiverton Rugby Club, making the school one of the oldest anywhere formally to play the game. The Blundell's crest still hangs in the main room at Twickenham in recognition of this.[6]

OBs Dave Lewis Gloucester Rugby, Matt Kvesic and Will Carrick-Smith Exeter Chiefs all currently play in the Aviva Premiership.[7]

Sam Maunder, brother of Jack Maunder, plays for England U18 squad.[8]

The Russell

One annual tradition is the school's cross-country run known as the Russell, named after Old Boy Jack Russell, a vicar and dog-breeder. It was first run in 1887,[9] and 2009 saw the 129th run.[10]

Southern Railway Schools Class
932 Blundell's Schools Class 4-4-0 at Eastleigh in 1948.

The School lent its name to the thirty-third steam locomotive (Engine 932) in the Southern Railway's Class V of which there were 40. This class was also known as the Schools Class because all 40 of the class were named after prominent English public schools. Blundell's, as it was called, was built in 1934. The locomotive bearing the school's name was withdrawn from service in January 1961. In 2009 Hornby produced a model of this particular Schools class locomotive. As the product photograph shows, while the name of this locomotive has been variously quoted as Blundells or Blundell's, the apostrophe does actually appear on the nameplate.[11]

Old Blundellians

The first known society of former pupils, known as Old Blundellians (OBs), was established as early as 1725.[12]

William Hogarth engraved the letterhead for the invitation to a dinner for former pupils of the School in 1725 and the Ticket for Tiverton School Feast in 1740, (image of print courtesy of Antiqueprints.com).[13]

Notable former pupils include:

A–D

E–K

L–R

S–Z

Headteachers
  • 2018-present: Bart Wielenga
  • 2013–2018: Nicola Huggett
  • 2012–2013: Randall Thane
  • 2004–2012: Ian Davenport
  • 1992–2004: Jonathan Leigh
  • 1980–1992: A.J.D. Rees
  • 1971–1980: A. Clive S. Gimson
  • 1959–1971: J.M. Stanton
  • 1947–1959: J.S. Carter
  • 1943–1947: R.L. Roberts
  • 1934–1942: Neville Gorton
  • 1930–1933: Alexander Wallace
  • 1917–1930: Arthur Edwin Wynne
  • 1874–1917: A.L. Francis
  • 1847–1874: John Hughes
  • 1834–1847: Henry Sanders
  • 1823–1834: Alldersey Dicken
  • 1797–1823: William Richards
  • 1775–1797: Richard Keats, rector of Bideford and King's Nympton, father of Richard Goodwin Keats (1757–1834),[15] Martha Keats (1753–1833) and of Lewis William Buck (1784–1858), MP.[16]
  • 1757–1775: Philip Atherton
  • 1740–1757: William Daddo
  • 1734–1740: Samuel Wesley
  • 1733–1734: John Jones
  • 1730–1733: Samual Smith
  • 1698–1730: William Rayner
  • 1684–1698: John Sanders
  • 1669–1684: George Hume
  • 1651–1669: Henry Batten
  • 1648–1651: Henry Osborne
  • 1604–1647: Samuel Butler

Notable former masters

Former masters of Blundell's have included:

References
  1. GENUKI/Devon: Tiverton 1850
  2. Lorna Doone, A Romance of Exmoor – CHAPTER II
  3. Balliol Archives – Blundell's School
  4. "Eteach – Education Recruitment Vacancies, Supply Teaching Jobs". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  5. "Blundell's School students seriously injured in assault". BBC News. 9 June 2023. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
  6. www.blundells.org - Rugby
  7. "OB Club - Sport". Blundells.org. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  8. "RFU".
  9. www.blundells.org - Headmasters
  10. OB Club - Sport Archived 25 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  11. Archived 19 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  12. Report & Transactions, Volume 23, Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1891
  13. "Search object details". British Museum. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  14. Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography, vol. 4 (Netherton and Worth, 1906), p. 2,007
  15. Gentleman's Magazine, 1834, p.653, obituary of Admiral Keats
  16. Vivian, J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, Stucley & Buck pedigree, pp.723

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