The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-11-11
FOUR CENTURIES
OF NAME CARVINGS
Elton College Is Rich in It's
Many Antiquities and
Traditions
FROM the London Standard.

| From the London Standard.
Oak window shutters on which boys
have carved their nam $ for 400 years, are
among the most interesting things at
Elton college. For old Etonians a mass
of valuable information is contained in
the work on South Bucklnghamshire. the
issue of which by the Royal Commission
on Historical Monuments wac recorded
| in the Standard. AS both the church
and college of the Blessed Mary of Elton
were sufficiently completed during the
reign and under the direct superintendent
of the founder, King Henry vi, most of
the later work of builders has been in the
nature of minor alterations and embe1lish-
| ments, or external additions to the orig
| inal scheme 1t may almost be said that
/ the old buildings are still used for the
purpose for which they We're erected.
Their interest is yet further Increased by
the remarkable series of documents in
the college library and imminent room,
which record and illustrate the first plan,
the actual constructions the changes IN
design made during the progress of the
work and the later alterations and addi-
tons, Included among them are official
and contemporary statements of the
kings intentions and desires, estimates of
/ cost and vast number of contracts and
| building accounts, which, with but Few
| breaks, are cOhthiueu wv " 49, EA..e.'t
recent days.
Work was begun in 1441 bricks We're
first supplied in 1442, and in the same
year q contract was made with some
| ouarrymen of Kent for a supply of stone
frhe site of the college and its grounds
contained the old parish church, ana
while the mex church was being built II
was left standing, only being destroyed
shortly after 1475. In October, 144S, mass
was first celebrated at the high altar IN
| the new buildings though these were not
| at the time completed In the same year
/ a contract was made for the joinery OF 10
chambers, the hail. seven towers and the
/ cloisters in the Quadrant" which is men,
/ toned as then standing, and must nave
/ been a point of the present cloister build
| ings BY the spring of 144S preparations
| were made for completing the new quire
which was to be 1903 feet by 80 feet in size
| bat in January of the next year Roger
Keys, the clerk of the works visited the
| oathedrals of Salisbury and Winchester,
| and conceived a more ambitious design.
| Having measured the quires and naVes
| which he had seen elsewhere he spent
three weeks in London arranging for fur
Their supplies of material and submitting
to the kings proposals.
The result was a new design for quire
of $50 feet by 40 feet, with larger and more
numerous windows, and this corresponds
in all essential particulars with the pres
ent building, It is clear, therefore. that
this part of the work, though it had been
seven years in hand, was pulled down
and begun again on a larger plan about
1449
Under Edwar ~ Elton was deprived
of part of it's revenues. and never "a
gained them in full the originally intend
ed large nave and aisles being forever
abandoned. Important work was begun
again in the early 10th century Roger
Lupton being provost, and of more recent
additions the most important is Upper
School, r>built between 1859 and 1891, which
remains now almost in its original condi-
ton. The desks for the head master and
the three ushers are part of its first fur
niture, as are the small iron candlesticSa
fixed to them. OF considerably greater
age, however, are some OF the original
fittings of the Lower School, which Is
practically unaltered, though much de-
faced by deal partitions. Perhaps the
most interesting things it contains are
the oak shutters to the windows, on which
the names of the boys have been carved
for the last 400 years. Other remarkable
remnants of past age, noted by the conf
fnissioners, are the wooden bread bin and
buffers desk in the buttery, both of the
18th century. and the 18th century IRON
work of the gallery doors in the eloistef
buildings.