The King's School, Rochester, founded 604 AD

Headmaster D. R. Vicary explores the long history of The King’s School, Rochester. Extract from The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 1972.

The title King's School dates from the Reformation when in 1542 King Henry VIII reconstituted the Cathedral foundation after the dissolution of the onastery, but there was a School on the Cathedral Foundation before that time. From the evidence of the Bede's History of the English Church and People there is little doubt that the Cathedral had some sort of school from its beginning in A.D. 604.

Three things have to be borne in mind when we consider this early period. (a) There was not a School in the sense in which we understand a school today. It began as the educational function of a missionary outpost, probably for the purpose of training future Priests. The fact that within fifty years of the arrival in Kent of St. Augustine and St. Justus, no less than five Englishmen were consecrated as Bishops, is evidence of local educational activity. Rochester appears to be as much involved as Canterbury, for we are told by Bede that when, in 631 Sigbert became King in East Anglia and wanted to found a School, "he was helped by Felix whom he received from Kent and who gave them teachers and masters after the manner of the Kentish Folk". The Historian of King's School, Canterbury assumes that Felix had been Bishop of Rochester. (b)

There is the undoubted fact of several discontinuities during this early period. The little community was subjected to attack and in the course of the next 400 years there were Danish invasions which disrupted the life of the Cathedral and Christian Mission in West Kent. (c) In this period also and up to the Reformation there is no clear distinction between ordinary education and musical education. From the earliest times Rochester appeared to have fame in the training of singers. Bishop Putta, Bede tells us, was skilled in the Roman Chant, and in Archbishop Theodore's time "knowledge of Sacred Music, hitherto limited to Kent, now began to spread".

The next stage in the development of the School is the Monastic period. Under Siward (1038-75) the establishment at Rochester sank to its lowest ebbs Gundulph was sent in 1077 to establish a new Church and Monastery at Rochester. Gundulph had great vision and his gifts as Architect and Engineer were used to the full in the building of the Norman Nave of Rochester, the Abbey at West Malling and the White Tower of the Tower of London. He also founded the Leper hospital of St. Bartholomew's in Rochester, He established a Priory with twenty Monks of the Benedictine Order in 1082 and the number is reported to have risen to about sixty at the time of his death. 'The School of the Priory would, in common with Benedictine practice, be held in the Cloisters. In the main there were two kinds of teaching: one for novices who were recruits for the Benedictine Order, and one for Choristers. In the course of the next three hundred years we encounter the names of some who were educated at Rochester: Bishop de Bradfield in the thirteenth century, and one Oxford historian believes that Bishop John Fisher was educated here at the beginning of his career.

The School emerged as a distinct entity when Henry VIII dissolved the Monastry. In 1542 he reconstituted the Cathedral foundation with a Dean and Chapter, a full choral establishment and "twenty Scholars to be taught Grammar", a Headmaster and Undermaster of the Cathedral Grammar School. Provision was made also for University Scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge, in the nature of leaving Scholarships. The buildings used by the school at this time were the Prior's Gate and a building which was situated between the Prior's Gate and the present site of Prior's Gate House. The Headmaster at this time lived in Deanery Gate and later moved to a house in Minor Canon Row. The Cathedral records show that Headmasters for the next three hundred years often held other appointments, such as Fellowships in Oxford and Cambridge Colleges and Incumbencies of nearby parishes.

The turning point in the nineteenth century came with the appointment in 1842 of Rev. Robert Whiston as Headmaster. At the beginning of his term of office a new school room was built which still survives as part of Main School. A copy of his prospectus for 1843 survives, and his great reputation as a teacher ensured an increase in numbers. He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and he acquired the house which is now Bishopscourt as a boarding house. He was a man of strong convictions and his campaign for the rights of King's Scholars led him into conflict with the Dean and Chapter of his day. The whole story is told brilliantly in Ralph Arnold's book The Whiston Matter. Although the Dean and Chapter of the day were worsted by him their successors have generously allowed him to be commemorated by a plaque in the Cathedral which states "He . .. materially improved the position of the King's School and of all other Cathedral Schools of the same foundation."

He is still commemorated in the School with a Day Boy house named after him and an endowment for prizes. At the end of his time School House was built.

A scheme for the administration of the School was made and sealed at the Court of Windsor, in 1877, and this, with its amendments, forms the instrument of Government of the School. Thus the School took its place in the setting of nineteenth-century Public Schools.

In 1873 the Rev. R. W. Whiston attended the Headmasters' Conference and the School has been regularly represented since 1910. In 1909 the first of the School laboratories was opened as a memorial to Archdeacon Cheetham.

After the first World War the Junior School was developed from St. Margaret's House and this, together with the area of the Paddock, caused the present shape of the School campus to emerge during the Headmastership of Canon Parker (1913-37). With the appointment of Mr. (Later the Rev.) E. W. Davies (1935-57) the school was set for a new phase in development. There was the addition of Mackean House and the premises formerly occupied by the Choir School. Plans were afoot for new building in the region of Main School, but these were interrupted by the second World War. The enormous work involved in two evacuations, first to Lamberhurst and later to Taunton was a considerable achievement. While the main body of the School was away, a growing Day Boy side developed at Rochester towards the end of the war, and on the return from evacuation the numbers were built up rapidly. After a period of settling down, the next developments were the acquisition of the site of St. Nicholas and St. Ronans and the building of a new laboratory in the Precinct. Satis House was taken over from the Diocese in 1950 and the Old Roffensian Society completed the work for the Alps Playing Field which was to be the War Memorial for those who had given their lives in the second World War.

The evidence of the solid development with its promise for the future led the Governors in 1955 to consider a Development Plan which was initiated by Archdeacon Harland and Mr. H. O. H. Coulson. It has been one of the main tasks of the present Headmaster, Canon D. R. Vicary, since his appointment in 1957, to further this Plan, which involved a reappraisal of the School's facilities and phasing of new developments as soon as money and land were made available. The first stage was building a new classroom block for the Junior School which was dedicated by Dean Crick in September 1958. This released buildings which became the basis of a new Boarding House, St. Nicholas.

The impetus provided by the Industrial Fund for the Advancement of Scientific Education in Schools enabled the Governors to make a further extensive addition to the School's laboratory facilities. A new laboratory wing, containing three more laboratories, workshop, library and preparation room, was built. A temporary Pavilion was provided on the Alps from a small appeal to which parents contributed, and modernization and re-equipment was undertaken in the boarding houses and on the teaching side, including the equipment of a Biology Laboratory and Geography Room.

An appeal was launched in 1961, under a strong Campaign Committee with Dean Stannard as Presi-dent. 'The target was £50,000 and the first object was the building Old "Rofensembly Haul rile ones, parents and other friends of the School enabled the Governors to achieve their target, and, after many difficult negotiations with planning authorities and other interested parties, the decision was taken to combine a Hall and new Music School on part of the Mackean House site. This building was begun in 1965 and completed in March 1967, and dedicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury in October of that year.

The most recent developments in the School have included the opening of a Sixth Form Centre in part of the buildings formerly occupied by Rochester Theological College. Many Friends of Rochester Cathedral will remember this building as the Old Deanery. Thus King's School combined its roots in the long tradition of the Cathedral foundation with modern developments. With the development of a modern Sixth Form curriculum and the increasing emphasis on adventure training, the School continues to fulfil its task in handing on its view of education based on Christian foundations and character.

D. R. Vicary

Headmaster, King's School

Extract from The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 1972