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oda-historical-information-blog · 4 years ago

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William Keith Roberts (Centi)

I read Gwyn Rees Jones' short obituary on Centi with interest. I had no idea that he had suffered a severe accident on Tryfan resulting in him having a stiff leg although I seem to recall that he was lame. Gwyn omitted to mention that Centi played in goal for the School First XI for at least one season as I played in that same team at left back. That season must have been one of the most successful in the history of the school as I believe that it went through the season unbeaten. The captain was the exceptional Eifion Williams, better known by the inspired name, Eifion Aunty Madge, who I seem to remember was a Welsh Secondary Schools international. Another excellent player was the centre half, Gwyn Buckland. Other names which come to mind are Neville Thomas and Emrys Parry, both forwards like Eifion, and the right half, Eddie Longbottom (later Longdon). Somewhere in the house I have the team sheet for one game which I took down from the notice board near the School entrance. W K Roberts is listed there as the goalkeeper.

David George (1951-1955)

(NB: Above post received by Peter Roberts [ODA Editor] and submitted for archiving January 2021)

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oda-historical-information-blog · 10 years ago

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SOUTHWARK AND FRIARS SCHOOL

Here is a précis of the interesting work that is ongoing by David Elis-Williams, a recent ODA joinee. We look forward to seeing the completed work.

MESSAGE FROM: David Elis-Williams [October 2014]

I have been researching the history of the land in Southwark once owned by Friars School - where was it, who lived and worked there, etc.. There is quite a story to tell, stretching over 350 years, although it is likely to be of more interest as a local history of that part of London, rather than as a contribution to the school’s story. Nevertheless, it may be of interest to some members of your association. I have not yet completed the research, but I am coming to the point where I may be able to share some of the findings. If this is of interest, perhaps you could get back to me, to see what could be arranged.

SOUTHWARK AND FRIARS SCHOOL

The various histories of Friars School refer to the land in Southwark left by Geoffrey Glyn, and whose rents supported the school up the end of the nineteenth century. But where was it? Who lived or worked there? Was it a good investment? I am currently researching the story of this land. Some of it is to be found in the school archives at Caernarfon, but it needs to be supplemented from London sources.

The land purchased by Glyn, left to the school in 1557, was once owned by the Fraternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St George the Martyr, and may have been the site of their guild hall. It can be identified with a plot in Martha Carlin’s work on Medieval Southwark. It was just over half an acre, a little to the west of the Church of St George the Martyr, and close to the prison which became the notorious Marshalsea, featured for example in Dickens’ Little Dorritt. In what can be seen today, it formed part of what is now St George’s Churchyard Gardens, the buildings between the gardens and Long Lane, and (the road having been much narrower in the past) a bit of Long Lane itself. A very faint ridge in the gardens marks the line of a wall built in 1817 when the churchyard was extended up to the boundary of the school land, but otherwise there is nothing left to see today.

The school leased the area to a succession of people, each managing, developing and subletting to varying degrees. Across three and a half centuries, a lot happened. An early eighteenth century dispute in Chancery over ownership of the lease involved a shady banker, who had financed privateers and briefly became the local MP, and the case set a precedent which enters subsequent legal texts. There were fires, and enforced demolitions – in the latter case involving a leaseholder who ended up in the debtors’ prison. Not all was bad: another leaseholder was commended by public health authorities for her progressive (at the time) attitude to sanitation – she laid on a tap!

In the early days, the land included an open garden for growing food, but it became more intensively used. There were stables, then a brewery, and part was later absorbed into a tinplate works. The greater use in later years was residential, mostly for the working classes, with over four hundred people living there at peak. Most were transient, but a few lived here for most of their lives. Residents included a man acquitted of murdering his wife, and a young man transported to Australia for poisoning. There is one case of a marriage between a boy and girl who had both grown up within the school land.

After the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889, the school became government-funded, and the endowments transferred to the County Governing Body for Caernarfonshire, the predecessor to the county Education Committee. The land ultimately was sold when London County Council needed it for road building and widening – largely creating the present-day street layout.

Geoffrey Glyn had bought land on what was then the fringe of the built-up area around London, but at a key site where the former Roman roads of Watling Street and Stane Street met before crossing the Thames into the City: still today the corner where the A2 and A3 join. This was an astute investment because as London developed, so the value of the land grew. As well as the land, he had left £400 in cash to be invested at fixed interest, and this yielded £26-13s-4d for the school. In comparison, the first leaseholder at Southwark paid the school £13-6s-8d. By the end of the nineteenth century, the fixed interest was unchanged, but the Southwark rents had risen to £589 – considerably more than inflation over the period.

I’m still working on this, but when all is done, I hope there will be more to read which may be of interest to Old Dominicans.

David Elis-Williams

(ODA Member No: 59)

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