Winchester College

From Free net encyclopedia

Winchester College is a public school in the city of Winchester in Hampshire, in the south of England. It is the 'original' public school and the model for later schools like Eton and Harrow. Officially known as Collegium Santae Mariae prope Wintoniensem, or St Mary's College near Winchester, the college is commonly referred to as "Win: Coll:" or just "Winchester". Winchester has existed for over six hundred years - the longest unbroken history of any school in England.

Contents

[edit]

History

Winchester College was founded in 1382 by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor to Richard II, and the first seventy poor scholars entered the school in 1394. Historically, the school also took a few paying students, known as "Commoners". Originally there were only about 10, rising steadily until the early 19th century, when their numbers were approximately equal to those of the Scholars. In the late 1850s and throughout the 1860s, the numbers expanded dramatically as nine new boarding houses were built. One more boarding house was acquired in 1905, bringing the total to the current 11 (including College, which continues to occupy the original 14th century buildings), and the total number of pupils to almost 700. Plans for a twelfth boarding house were recently scrapped.

The headmaster is currently Dr Ralph Townsend, formerly of Sydney Grammar School and Oundle School, who took over from T.R. Cookson in September 2005.

[edit]

Winchester notions

A notion is a manner or tradition peculiar to Winchester College. The word notion is also used to refer to unique and peculiar words used (with diminishing frequency) in the school. Examples such as "bogle", meaning bicycle, or "foricas" (more commonly "fo:"), meaning toilet. The Notions Test (also frequently referred to as "Notions") was until recently an important tradition in most houses. Although now banned under various pretexts including the European human rights conventions, the test was usually administered to new boys after their first term at the school by more senior boys, and aimed to test and demonstrate their familiarity with the vocabulary, history and traditions of the school. College was the last house to continue the ceremony (until 1999), though in the latter days of this event, the focus was more on asking the junior boys unanswerable questions so that they could be pelted with food. See Notion (slang).

[edit]

Winchester College Football

Winchester College has its own game, Winchester College Football (also known as 'Winkies'), played only at Winchester. It could be considered a cross between football and rugby, but neither of these comparisons is helpful to the spectator or the tactician. Winchester Football is above all else a court game in its rules and tactics: volleyball with the feet and especially tennis are the most helpful analogies. The game can be played by teams of 6, 9, 10, 15 or 22 men.

[edit]

Former pupils

Famous former pupils (Old Wykehamists) include:

[edit]

Boarding houses

Every pupil at Winchester lives in a boarding house, chosen when applying to Winchester. It is here that he eats and sleeps. Houses compete in school competitions, and in particular in sporting competitions. Each house has an official name, used mainly as a postal address, and an informal name, usually based on the familiar name of the original housemaster. Each house also has a letter assigned to it, in the order of their founding, to act as an abbreviation.

Houses
Official Name Informal Name House Letter
Chernocke House Furley's A
Moberly's Toye's B
Du Boulay's Cook's C
Fearon's Kenny's or Kennaez D
Morshead's Freddie's E
Hawkins' Chawker's F
Sergeant's Phil's G
Bramston's Trant's H
Turner's Hopper's I
Kingsgate House Beloe's K

There is also a scholars' house called College. The 'housemaster' in College is currently W M A Land - the terms 'housemaster of College' and 'College house' are not generally used in Winchester College, with 'Master in College' to refer to the housemaster of College and simply 'College' to refer to the house. College does not have an informal name, although the abbreviation Coll: is sometimes used, especially on written work. It also has a letter assigned to it, X, but it is considered bad form to use this other than as a laundry mark.

[edit]

Winchester quotations

Manners makyth man
- William of Wykeham Motto of Winchester College and New College, Oxford

Broad of Church and broad of mind, broad before and broad behind,
A keen ecclesiologist, a rather dirty Wykehamist.
- John Betjeman "The Wykehamist"

Leader in London's preservation lists
And least Wykehamical of Wykehamists{:}
Clan chief of Paddington's distinguished set,
Pray go on living to a hundred yet!
- Patrick Balfour 3rd Baron, Kinross "For Patrick"

You can always tell a Wykehamist, because you can't tell him anything
- Anon.

[edit]

External links

zh:温切斯特公学

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Winchester_College"