Marlborough College
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Marlborough College is a British boarding school in the county of Wiltshire, founded in 1843 for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy, although it now accepts both boys and girls of all beliefs. There are now just over 800 pupils, approximately one third of whom are girls (Marlborough was, in 1968, the first major English public school to allow girls into the sixth form, setting a trend that many other schools would follow). New pupils are admitted at the ages of 13+ ("Shell entry") and 16 (Lower Sixth).
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School Buildings
The college is built beside the Mound. This was used as the motte of a castle. No remains of the castle can be seen today. There are speculations that the Mound is actually of much more ancient construction and possibly a similar feature to Silbury Hill. Legend has it that the Mound is the burial site of Merlin and that the name of the town, Marlborough comes from Merlin's Barrow.
The main focus of the college is the Court. This is surrounded by buildings in a number of different styles. At the south end is the back of an early 18th century mansion, later converted to a coaching inn which was bought as the first building for the school. Next to it are the old stables, now converted into boarding houses. The west side consists of the 1960s red brick dining hall, which boasts the largest unsupported roof in the country, and a Victorian boarding house now converted to other purposes. The north west corner is dominated by its Victorian Gothic style chapel which has an interesting collection of pre-Raphaelite style paintings by J R Spencer Stanhope and stained glass by William Morris. The rest of the Court is surrounded by Victorian buildings in styles ranging from mock Tudor to Victorian prison.
On the other side of the Mound is the Science laboratory, built in 1933 and designed to look like an ocean liner. It is an early example of shuttered concrete construction and was listed as a building of architectural significance in 1970.
Houses
Pupils are assigned to various Houses on entering the school. These are where they live and make their home while at school. The Houses compete against one another in sports, but they are not exclusive and most people have friends from other Houses.
The Houses are divided into In-College Houses which are mostly gathered around the central Court and Out-College Houses which are located around the western side of the town. Unusually, the older In-College Houses were not historically given names but referred to by an alphanumeric title. A reorganisation a few years ago combined some houses and eliminated some of the older numbered Houses. More recently created Houses have been given names reflecting either their location or to commemorate a figure from the school's past.
Names of the Houses
| Boys In-College | Girls In-College | Mixed Out-College |
| B1 | Elmhurst | Turner (In-College) |
| C1 | Mill Mead | Cotton |
| C2 | Morris | Littlefield |
| C3 | New Court | Preshute |
| Barton Hill | - | Summerfield |
Past pupils
- Robert Addie, actor
- John Betjeman, poet
- Anthony Blunt, art historian and traitor
- Chris de Burgh, musician
- Rab Butler, politician
- Henry Brooke, politician
- Francis Chichester, round the world yachtsman
- Sir Charles Galton Darwin, British physicist
- Nick Drake, British folk musician
- J. Meade Falkner, author of Moonfleet
- Otis Ferry, hunt supporter and political activist, son of rock star Bryan
- Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury
- Nigel Gresley, steam locomotive designer
- Anthony Hope, writer
- John Hunt, leader of the first successful ascent of Mount Everest
- Alan Lascelles, courtier
- Louis MacNeice, poet
- Ian McDonald-Smith, Olympic yachtsman
- Norris and Ross McWhirter journalists, authors, and political activists
- Mark Malloch Brown, United Nations administrator
- James Mason, actor
- Ian and Kevin Maxwell, bankrupts
- Sir Peter Medawar, Nobel prize-winning biologist
- Kate Middleton, girlfriend of Prince William
- William Morris, artist and writer
- John Beverley Nichols, writer
- Michael Pennington, actor and director
- Mark Phillips, Olympic horseman and former husband of Anne, Princess Royal
- Ben Pimlott, biographer
- Siegfried Sassoon, poet
- Charles Saumarez Smith, Director of the National Gallery
- Charles Sorley, poet
- Hallam Tennyson, Lord Tennyson, British statesman
- Henry Maitland (Jumbo) Wilson, Field Marshal
- Evelyn Wood, Field Marshal
- Simon Woodroffe, founder of the Yo Sushi chain of restaurants
External links
- Marlborough College website (http://www.marlboroughcollege.org/)sv:Marlborough College