History of College: Life in Chambers

Life in Chambers is one of the oldest features of the College. The original dispensation of living quarters is set out in the Statutes, Rubric 34 (see original image in the gallery and translation below).

The adults, mainly Priest Fellows, were to have the upper chambers, with three to a room; the scholars lived and slept on the ground floor. The Founder stipulated that in each of the scholars’ chambers there should be three older boys to supervise the work and conduct of the younger ones. Thus a kind of prefectorial system was born, more than four centuries before Thomas Arnold (another Wykehamist) made so much of its introduction at Rugby; and the chambers have retained a vertical slice across the age range of scholars to this day.

The Warden was to have the chambers over Middle Gate, the upper room being his bedroom, together with the adjoining one to the east (now 10th). The chamber on the other, western side (now the study of the Master in College) was traditionally allocated to the Warden of New College when he visited. The Chaplains were to be in what is now the Master in College’s drawing room (or at least part of it; the panelling shows that two smaller rooms have been joined together at some stage). The Headmaster and Usher (i.e. Second Master) were to be in the northwest corner, that is, the present dining room, together with one of the Fellows if need be.

The final paragraph of the Rubric, almost certainly a later addition in the light of unfortunate experience, forbids those living upstairs to cause any spillage of water, beer or wine or ‘other liquid of any kind’ which might cause trouble or offence to the boys underneath.

The largest chamber, underneath Hall – occupying the three window bays that now constitute VIIth Chamber and VIIth Chamber Passage – was designated as the schoolroom. A chamber in the north west corner, later to become Thule, was used for the Quiristers. The chamber above this, now the College Tutor’s sitting room, seems to have been taken over at some stage for the use of the Commoners who were not lodging elsewhere in College, or in the town. The other ground floor rooms were where the boys slept, lived and worked when they were not otherwise committed. Boys under 14 were, according to the Statutes, allowed to share a bed; everyone else had his own. These beds were replaced in 1540 with somewhat more elaborate creations through the generosity of Dean Fleshmonger. Even so, some boys, for reasons of space, had to make do with truckle beds, which in the daytime were rolled away under the other bedsteads. The Fleshmonger beds lasted until the 19th century. Some were then burnt in the fire of 1815, others simply decayed. One has survived to the present, albeit in a very worm-eaten state; it used to be kept in VIth chamber, and is now in the Eccles Room. There is no mention of other chamber furniture in the annual accounts. Much of it, such as the toys, which combined a reading desk and chest of drawers, was doubtless the property of the individual. The College finally bought the ‘toys and chests in the chambers’ in 1818-19.

The 16th century Reformation allowed Wardens to take a wife and have a family; accordingly they rapidly outgrew the provision of monastic quarters above Middle Gate, and started to extend their domain over more and more of the eastern end of Outer Court. The housing allocated to the two Masters became inadequate for the same reasons, and one or other of them, in the 17th and early 18th century, was often to be found lodged in the old Sisters Hospital which occupied what is now the northern block (D and E staircases) of Flint Court divrooms. Apart from that, the allocation of chambers remained largely in accordance with the Statutes until the building of School in 1687 left the old schoolroom (VIIth) available for scholars’ accommodation.  New iron beds were provided, described by the 18th century scholar RB Mansfield thus: ‘The Beds in Seventh were different from the beds described in Fourth, being made of iron, without any canopy, with deal boards at the side to keep the mattresses in their places.’  The old schoolroom in VIIth must have been inordinately cramped and inconvenient, especially when the total numbers in the school came close to 150 in the 1680s. 

John Burton (Headmaster 1724-66) finally made the break. Having caused some distress to his Second Master by usurping more chambers in College than he was entitled to, he decided to build new quarters for Commoners where the buildings of the Sisters Hospital then stood, and at the same time constructed a proper Headmaster’s House on the College Street frontage. Not until 1784, however, was an incoming Second Master – William Stanley Goddard – specifically told that he had to reside in College and look after the scholars. That has been the prime duty of the Second Master / Master in College ever since.

Profound change was ushered in by the Clarendon Commission and the first of the Public Schools Acts that followed it in1868. This required the Warden and Fellows to reconstitute themselves as a non-executive, non-resident, non-stipendiary Governing Body. The changes took time to have full effect: one of the old Fellows, the Rev. G.W. Heathcote lived on with his former privileges until 1893; and the Warden G.B. Lee survived ten years beyond that. Nevertheless, over that 35-year period, life in College was transformed for the boys, as they were able to take over the upstairs chambers for their own dormitories, and have a measure of privacy downstairs, with the construction of ‘horse-box’ type toys instead of open-plan living.

Through the twentieth century the chambers were gradually improved in terms of comfort, although the principal source of heating continued to be an open fire, and the only lighting in the upstairs chambers until 1934 was provided by candles. A nightlight, called a functure or funkey burned in a sconce over the middle of the fireplace. By the 1950s fires in the upstairs chambers were only lit on special occasions like the annual Notions Exam, and on cold nights the only warm place was in the bidet rooms with their hot pipes. So that was where late-night work was done. Central heating was not extended to the rest of the upstairs chambers until a particularly chilly start to Common Time 1987 made the authorities relent. Term began early in January, in the middle of a very cold spell. When parents returned and found that their children were supposed to be sleeping in New (reserved for younger boys) in sub-zero temperatures, they queued up to complain to the Second Master Dr. S.C. Winkley. He made alternative arrangements.  Then it snowed.  Collegemen, with a characteristic sense of humour, collected enough to make a snowman in the middle of the floor of New. It remained unmelted for three days and nights.

The downstairs chambers had by then already benefited from an extensive programme of modernisation which provided bigger toys, better lighting, new furniture and carpeted floors. Because this meant putting fewer boys in a chamber, IVth was brought back into commission to accommodate the overflow. It had for years before then been a changing room (and not a very nice one), used as much for miscellaneous purposes like cleaning CCF uniform, and having your hair cut by the College barber (he visited regularly until c.1960).

Life in College has for centuries revolved round the chambers. Because of the way they are constituted, with each of the six downstairs chambers containing about a dozen boys of different ages, they have a familial structure which is intimate and yet also contributes in a significant way to the scholars’ education. Chambers also provide a focus for a variety of activity, both sporting and social (Chamber VIs – six-a-side Winchester Football - , Chamber teas etc.). 

With prefects in charge of so small a group, there was a long-running tradition among the scholars that they really didn’t need any adults looking after them. In fact Second Masters before R.M. Wright (1924-62) didn’t often go into the chambers, and even when they did, they were expected to knock.  With College being so much larger than the Commoner Houses (at least until the 1990s), there was, however, a recognised need to have a second adult to assist in running it. The first College Tutor was H.J. Hardy from 1884 to 1900. He had lodgings of a sort provided in Election Chamber from 1889, though there was only an open fire and a gas ring, and a cold tap in the bedroom by way of creature comfort. Then in 1908 the books of the Fellows Library, which had been in the rooms above Thule since 1875, were moved to the gallery of the Warden’s Lodgings.  The College Tutor has had those rooms ever since.

The Master in College’s house is a wonderful accretion of rooms at different levels from different centuries. At its heart on the piano nobile is the magnificent suite of medieval chambers where the Chaplains, Masters and some of the Fellows used to live. The present dining room is further distinguished by the series of early 18th century portraits of some of Dr. Burton’s ‘Gentlemen Commoners’.

Rubric 34 Translation

Concerning the allocation of chambers.

Next we enact, ordain and wish that each and every chamber of our said College and the places of study in these chambers be allocated by the Warden and Vice-Warden aforesaid according to their ordinance and disposal, while preserving our own ordinance and regulation as here set out, vis: in the upper chambers of the court of the said College three priest fellows at least are to be placed together in each, so far as the number of priest-fellows of the said College suffices and extends; in the lower chambers of the said College the scholars are to be placed; anyone of all the scholars of our said College who has reached his fourteenth birthday is to have his own separate bed, and to sleep entirely on his own without a companion; any below that age we permit to sleep two together at a time, so long as they do not exceed the number of two in one bed; and that in each of the aforesaid lower chambers there are to be at least two scholars of good behaviour, more advanced than the other scholars in maturity, sense and knowledge, who are to superintend the studies of their other chamber-companions, and supervise them diligently, and when required, bring true report and information about their behaviour and conduct and the progress of the studies to the Warden, Vice-Warden and Master from time to time, as often as there shall be occasion or need, under obligation of the oath taken to the College as aforesaid, in order that such scholars, if at fault or negligent in their behaviour, or lazy in their studies, may receive due and proper chastisement, correction and punishment according to their faults.

The chambers above the inner northern gate of the said College, together with one upper chamber contiguous to the same chambers on the eastern side and all the easements in the same, we wish to be occupied separately by whoever is Warden of the College at the time in perpetuity: also we wish the hired priests to occupy for their habitation the chamber facing west with the fire-place, adjacent to the kitchen.

In the upper chamber in the north west corner of the said College we wish the Master and the Usher to be placed, together with one other priest of the said College if need be. Wishing furthermore that in the large room under the Hall of our said College there shall be the school for the aforesaid scholars and it shall always be held in the same. Forbidding furthermore, strictly and expressly, anyone in the aforesaid upper chambers, by urinating or washing his head, hands or feet or anything else, or otherwise to cause in any way whatever any spillage of water, wine or beer or other liquid of any kind, by which the scholars in the lower chambers might be given trouble or offence in their persons, goods or property or any other way.

A short selection of dates concerning the use of chambers:

1387-94

Built on the ground and first floors of the east and north sides of Chamber Court as part of the original range for accommodation.   A seventh chamber, west of VIth, was the Quirister School. 

1551

Room built over Quiristers’ chamber (i.e. present Thule). See 1796.

1641

Expansion of upstairs chambers into the roof space, to make suites of rooms for the Fellows.

1687

VIIth Chamber vacated as a schoolroom and subsequently (1701) converted into a sleeping chamber.

1796

Creation of Fellows Common Room, with panelling, on the first floor in the north-west corner; subsequently the College Tutor’s rooms.

1815

Outbreak of fire in the rooms above Ist and IInd Chambers.  Many of the 1540 bedsteads were destroyed and had to be replaced with iron ones.

1836

Stone basins installed in the window bays of fourteen chambers.

1840

Washing room built for the scholars.

1892

Election Chamber converted into room for College Tutor.

1887

Middle Gate chambers adapted to house College Tutor.

1898

Electric light installed in downstairs chambers; candles still in use upstairs.

1900

Bathrooms (bidet rooms) installed

1903

The chamber above IIIrd taken from the Warden’s Lodgings and made into a scholars’ dormitory, called Ken.  IVth converted into a changing room.

1906

Thule chamber created in the north-west corner of Chamber Court.

1909

Rooms above Thule adapted for College Tutor.

1911

Second Master’s House remodelled for new occupant.

1916

‘New’ upstairs Chamber created from Warden’s Lodgings.

1987

Central heating installed in upstairs chambers.