Oldest Haileyburian?

The Dumb-bell Oak stands at the bottom of Terrace. It is an ancient boundary oak, pollarded in its youth to thicken the trunk and prolong its life. Molly Matthews notes in Haileybury Since Roman Times that it is by an ancient right of way - a Portway - a Saxon name for the road to the market, and on what was the boundary of land owned by Hertford Priory before the Reformation. It may be seven or eight hundred years old.

Quitchells Ditch

Haileybury is increasingly full of cars these days and the increased traffic has led to the appearance of speed bumps and a rule that those walking along College Road behind the kitchens to and from Highfield should cross one of the bridges and walk along the path near the eves of the wood. The bridges cross the Quitchells Ditch, which runs down from Highfield all the way along the edge of the XX Acre. It is a boundary marker and is about 360 years old. 

Molly Matthews in Haileybury Since Roman Times says the ditch was dug by Colonel Lawrence, nephew of Oliver Cromwell, who was Lord of the Manor of Goldington. Lawrence was a friend of Milton's, and the latter came out to see him in his country estate and wrote a sonnet about it. Matthews suggests the scene of Milton and Lawrence walking along the side of what is now Twenty Acre. Anyway, Lawrence had the ditch dug along the boundary, already ancient between the Manor of Goldington and Hailey Bushes, the part of the Manor of Hailey on which the College now stands. 


The boundary was also marked by a line of pollarded oaks of which, according to Matthews the Quitchell's Oak on the corner by the sports centre car park is the last remaining, though the fine tree next to it is also great and possibly ancient. Pollarding, cutting back the branches of the young tree, made the trunk grow thicker to prolong the life of the tree. The Quitchells Oak was probably planted in the 13th Century, not so long after the time of Robin Hood. 


The Ditch is now a bit up in the air as when the cricket pitches were leveled it was left rather high and dry. 


Today, both manors are owned by the College and Matthews says 'The Bursar presiding in his office over problems concerned with the Heath is the lineal descendent of Ralph de Limesi and Geoffrey de Bec, or to go one step further back, of the unnamed Bailiff who managed Great Amwell for Earl Harold and Ulwin, the Thane of Hailey.'

Haileyburia

It is ten years since full co-education, and the first girls arrived as pupils in 1973. Women had a significant influence on Haileybury even when, as far as pupils were concerned, it was an all male institution. I shall try and post form time to time about some of these women. In my generation the history of the place and much of its ethos was caught by reading Molly Matthews' Haileybury Since Roman Times. Her daughter Imogen, also an historian of the school and a Housemaster's wife has kindly written what follows. 

Molly Matthews, who died two years ago, just one week short of her hundredth birthday, was an old style Housemaster's wife, who devoted her working life to Haileybury and made a considerable contribution to the school.  Edgar was already Housemaster of Batten when they married in 1932 and held that position until 1953.  Molly visited boys in the san (a frequent activity before the days of antibiotics and when epidemics often swept the school), watched them play games and entertained them to tea and supper. She had trained at R.A.D.A. and in those days, before girls had arrived at Haileybury, she played the female lead in a continual stream of school plays.  She also did the make-up for most school productions and created the Haileybury theatrical wardrobe, designing and making the historically correct period costumes, many of which still survive.  When Edgar retired he was asked to stay on for one year to run the fundraising for the Centenary Appeal.  Her contribution to this was to research and write 'Haileybury Since Roman Times', all the proceeds of which she gave to the Appeal.  She had taken her degree in History and English, specialising in Anglo-Saxon and her research for the Haileybury book led to her writing a series of learned books on surnames, place-names and the origins of our language, published in England, America and Japan. She loved Haileybury and Haileybury should be proud of her.

Wistaria

The Modern Foreign Languages Centre has such huge windows that one might almost say it has glass walls. I hope that in the sunny weather it has not been too hot. From the West side one can see into the Hailey garden, a hidden corner of the grounds now made much more visible.

In Haileybury Since Roman Times Molly Matthews says that the first Wistaria to grow in England was brought in the days of the East India College and grew against Hailey House. She says that at the time of writing it had 'recently' been rooted up. This print may show the Wistaria, growing against the south wall of the House.

But there is a bit of a mystery here since Wistaria (or Wisteria - both spellings are licit) is native to the United States, Korea, Japan and China - ie not India - and  Wikipedia at least suggests that it was brought to England by American traders who seem to have had no link with Haileybury. The Fuller's Brewery in Chiswick claims the oldest Wistaria in the UK today. Was Hailey's older, or is this a Haileybury Legend?

Here is a picture of the Chiswick plant, but it does not have any bloom so for the sake of a bit of colour on this post here is a picture of a Wistaria growing along the wall of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge.