A Town left “Out in the Cold”; the Railways, Marlborough College, and the Road to War

The Railway

Swindon was made great by the Great Western Railway, which based its workshops there. But for an accident of history, Marlborough could have been like Swindon. Its position on the road from London to Bath and Bristol should have guaranteed its incorporation into the Great Western’s line, completed by1841. However, the Ailesbury family objected to the line following the Bath Road which was the original proposed route. The 1835 Railway Act fixed the route through Swindon instead. Brunel in fact preferred the more northerly route as it avoided the Downs. The decision to avoid Marlborough by 12 miles effectively began a process of isolation. It is unsurprising that the initials GWR meant to Marlborough people the “Great Way Round”.

A ray of hope emerged with a proposed Manchester to Southampton railway planned to pass through Marlborough. The borough corporation petitioned for it but it was rejected by the House of Lords in 1846.

By 1862 the Berks and Hants Extension Railway had been built from the Great Western line at Hungerford through Great Bedwyn and Pewsey to Devizes. Marlborough had again been by-passed. The Ailesburys, realising their earlier mistake in objecting to Brunel’s main line going through the town, had dropped their opposition. The Mayor and Lord Ernest Bruce, who was one of the town’s two MPs, succeeded in obtaining an agreement by the GWR that a station would be built north of Burbage. Savernake Station, five miles from Marlborough, was at least nearer than Swindon. The push for a branch line began in earnest as many had hoped the much awaited extension would go through the town. J S Thomas, the bursar of Marlborough College, and the Corporation encouraged the setting up of a Marlborough Railway Company to build and run the proposed line. An Act of Parliament was passed in July 1861 authorising the construction. The cost was kept to a minimum by building the line in a sweeping curve to the west of Savernake Forest thus avoiding any tunnels. The only bridges required were at Hat Gate over the road to Wootton Rivers, and at Leigh Hill over the Burbage road. Construction began in 1863 and the five and a half mile line opened in April 1864. The first train on it, an old machine nick-named “The Marlborough Donkey” was achieved with difficulty because it had a steep gradient on the last stretch into Marlborough. The Marlborough Railway was absorbed by the GWR in July 1896.

There is no doubt that the people of Marlborough realised the implications of the railway for in 1873 an Act of Parliament was passed allowing for the first time the construction of a through line through Marlborough. On July 31st 1875 the ceremony of cutting the first sod for the construction of the Swindon Marlborough Andover line, in Coldharbour Meadow, on the eastern fringes of the town, was reported in the “Marlborough Times”.

Emphatically a great day in the annals of Marlborough was Wednesday last, when the construction of the Swindon Marlborough Andover Railway was formally commenced. . . we rejoiced . . . because that missing link in north and south communication would be supplied by placing Swindon, Marlborough and Andover in close juxtaposition, and we hoped in close union. Especially did the inhabitants of Marlborough rejoice in the “good time coming” when they should be no longer left “out in the cold”, and for this reason, as well as its being the centre of the proposed railway, was Marlborough selected as the site of the ceremony . . . before noon the streets were enlivened with visitors, who came in every description of vehicle from waggons laden with country folk to the landau of the squire . . . the High Street was gay with bunting particularly in the neighbourhood of the Town Hall, from either side of which flags spanned the street . . . St. Martins made the greatest efforts: the inhabitants evidently looking forward to increased importance as they are situate in the road to the new station. . . The “Queen’s Head” was never so gay . . . by dint of flags and greenery . . . The “Duke of York” . . . followed the example of the “Queen” and the “White Hart” was similarly emblazoned.

LORD ERNEST BRUCE commenced the proceedings by saying,

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we meet here for a great and important national occasion. . . the object of the Swindon Marlborough Andover Railway is to connect the north and north west of Great Britain with the southern parts of this great nation . . . as regards Marlborough I cannot conceal from myself that it will be of the greatest possible advantage to my respected constituents, those men who have returned me to Parliament now for a period of forty three years . . . with regard to Marlborough it will be an immense advantage. Look at the great collegiate establishment (Marlborough College – my brackets) of more use to the world at large than it is now

. . . Marlborough will one of these days be one of the largest towns in the South of England (cheers) . . .”

Marlborough did not become, “one of the largest towns in the south of England”. Its railway, when the SMAR (Swindon Marlborough Andover Railway) was finally opened in 1881 failed to take the town out of its backwater, even after a line was later built north of Swindon to connect with Cheltenham in 1891. The SMAR joined with the Cheltenham Extension Railway to form the Midland South-Western Junction Railway in 1884. The MSWJR and its antecedent the SMAR purchased running rights over the Great Western owned branch line from Marlborough to Savernake. Difficulties this caused resulted in the construction of a parallel line in 1898 involving a large tunnel. A new “High Level” station was built at Savernake. The MSWJR was heavily used during the First World War as access to Salisbury Plain which had by then become the British Army’s main training ground. Until 1921, when it was taken over by the GWR, the MSWJR created an independent north-south route through the middle of GWR territory.

Marlborough College: 1843 – 1914

Bruce’s mention of Marlborough College (“the great collegiate establishment”) was entirely relevant since it was founded in the wake of the opening of the GWR London to Bristol line. On August 23rd 1843, 203 boys between the ages of 8 and 16 poured into the premises of the old Castle Inn, hastily converted into a boarding school for the sons of clergymen. The GWR had killed off the coaching trade so land was very cheap. In 1843 there were very few “public” schools in the country and there was a rising demand amongst the middle classes for affordable education. Grammar Schools abounded but they were restricted to the sons of local people. Marlborough Grammar School, for example, had been in existence since 1550. Schools that took outsiders (“public” in this sense) were very few. “College” implied that its students lived, on site, as part of the institution. The early years of Marlborough College were fraught with problems through inadequate funding and badly designed and over-crowded buildings. Within five years the numbers of pupils had swelled to 500. In November1851 they rebelled by letting off fireworks, smashing windows, damaging furniture and setting fire to contents of desks. The Master, Matthew Wilkinson, resigned the following year. He was replaced by Dr. Cotton, a disciple of Thomas Arnold of Rugby, who advertised for new staff desirous to participate in a progressive educational experiment!

George Edward Lynch Cotton was an accomplished educator and churchman. He had fifteen years teaching experience at Rugby School where he had been strongly influenced by the ideas of Thomas Arnold. Cotton was the model for the “young master” featured so favourably in Thomas Hughes “Tom Brown’s Schooldays”. He believed that the way to run a school was by sharing authority with the sixth form. Prefects could do much of the work of guiding young minds and controlling youth once they were given the responsibility and authority to do so. This sharing of power was the route to success. He gave his prefects free rein and complete trust. He made his views very clear,

The prefects are and shall be, so long as I am head, the governors. As soon as I see this impracticable I will resign.

Fagging was embraced by Cotton not just as a way in which junior boys could perform menial tasks for their senior school mates but, more importantly, to enable the younger boys to have someone to go to for help and guidance without taking up the time of school staff. Fagging was a way in which the Christian, corporate ideals of the school could cascade down through the prefects. It survived well into the twentieth century before new theories of child development made the practice inappropriate.

As a former housemaster at Rugby School, Dr. Cotton had imported rugby to Marlborough where it was first played on the Common and continues to be played to this day. Marlborough Common was, as far as can be proved, the second place in the world where Rugby Football was played.

Cotton reinforced his ideas through the implementation of the house system. By being members of a house boys would learn to be part of a smaller community where they would gain the social skills of living together under the enlightened guidance of a housemaster. Cotton introduced organised games as part of his belief that maintaining a healthy body was not just a good idea but a Christian duty. It encouraged teamwork and developed the sense of “fair play”. A properly run house system lent itself to sport as games could be played between the houses and therefore internalised: a practical consideration in developing healthy competition and loyalty through one’s house. All of this was underpinned by the prominence given to chapel. The life of the school was centred on chapel and Cotton’s sermons. Through them he was able to exert a powerful influence on the hearts and minds of his students. Cotton was a practical man as well as a religious zealot. He had a necessary gift for administration through which he saved the College from bankruptcy. He raised the fees and increased the numbers of boys from lay families, who paid more, from a third to a half.

Despite Cotton’s skills the College was in trouble throughout his master-ship. The depth to which the college’s reputation had plummeted can be seen by the strength of opposition by the town to a plan by Lord Bruce in 1853 to amalgamate the grammar school with the college referred to then as “the bankrupt institution in the Bath Road.”

In 1857 the British Empire received a tremendous shock when the Indian Mutiny broke out. It was suppressed only after a prolonged military campaign and unprecedented violence. The new India that emerged after the mutiny needed skilled and enlightened leaders. The Crown had taken over the government of India from the East India Company. Men of education were needed. Cotton was offered the vacant post of Bishop of Calcutta. He could not resist the challenge and accepted the job leaving Marlborough for India in 1858. Sadly Cotton drowned in October 1866 after consecrating a cemetery at Kushtea. He fell from a plank whilst boarding a steamer on the River Ganges and was carried away by the current.

His legacy lives on today. One of the schools he founded in India became the Bishop Cotton School. Located in Simla, the old imperial summer capital, it continues to thrive today as a public school based on what he had built in Marlborough.

Before leaving Marlborough, Cotton had ensured that George Bradley, a fellow Rugby schoolmaster became the next master. Bradley stayed for twelve years continuing Cotton’s work and overseeing further building such as Barton Hill and Elmhurst and beginning the construction of Cotton House and Littlefield with the then revolutionary use of concrete as a cheap building material. Alfred Lord Tennyson sent his son Hallam to Marlborough College famously saying he sent him “not to Marlborough but to Bradley”. In 1871 Frederick William Farrar became master. Farrar had been a master at Harrow discontinuing the Rugby tradition. He was a noted theological writer producing a popular “Life of Christ”: he later became Archdeacon of Westminster and Dean of Canterbury. He is also known for his school stories, the most well known being “Eric, or Little by Little” based on his experiences as a public schoolboy on the Isle of Man. After Farrar, Canon Bell gave 27 years of continuity as master taking the College into the 20th century. In 1903 Frank Fletcher, later knighted for services to education, became the first layman to be Master. He had been a master at Rugby for nine years and resurrected the connection with that school. The Reverend St John Basil Wynne-Wilson took over in 1911.

Wynne-Willson did much to revitalise the role of the prefect. His justification for it was very different to that espoused by Dr Cotton as he saw it as instrumental in enabling a stronger Empire,

But for our public schools you would never get the successful administration of Empire which England produces in such numbers. The elder boys in our public schools, having to exercise a certain rule over their juniors, gain an experience which is distinctly good for them.

The Volunteer movement evolved from the earlier militia. Fear of war with France with possible French invasion led to the town supporting and giving money to a local Rifle Volunteer Corps in May 1860. It was at this time that Lord Palmerston built a number of fortifications around the coast such as Fort Nelson near Portsmouth. In August 1860 the Marlborough College Rifle Volunteer Corps was founded: a firing range for its practices was later established on the downs north of the Common. By the time of Wynne-Willson’s master-ship The MCRVC had become the Officer’s Training Corps. By 1913 the majority of College boys were members. The OTC was only a little different, according to Wynne-Willson, to organised sport,

. . I refer to what does not quite come under the head of games, but forms a very important part of school life – the Officer’s Training Corps, which now number 570, and I believe I am right in saying it is the biggest OTC in existence.

On Prize Day in June 1914 Wynne-Willson extolled the march of the OTC,

One of the most energetic parts of our school life is the OTC . . I never feel so proud of the school, I think, as when I see it going to a field-day, swinging by on its way down the High Street.

The First World War broke out a few weeks later.