Eton, Lower Chapel 1895
Photo ref: 35343
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Photo ref: 35343
Photo of Eton, Lower Chapel 1895

More about this scene

As might be expected of the world's most famous English public school, Eton College chapels have a host of stories to tell about their early days. Lower Chapel, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, was built in 1889-92. Queen Victoria and her daughters, Empress Frederick and Princess Beatrice, visited the new chapel on March 19, 1891, when the Empress unveiled a statue of the Queen over the gateway into the Quadrangle. Built of Sutton and Weldon stone from designs by Sir Arthur Blomfield, it is similar in some ways to the College chapel: Perpendicular in style, divided by large buttresses but without aisles. Three additional bays at the west end designed by Charles Blomfield were completed in 1926 to give seating for more than 500 boys. The roof is chestnut wood, and on the shields between the ribs are carved emblems of the Passion. At the west end there are dedications to a Head Master, Lower Master and assistant master dated around 1889. Much of the furniture and fixtures in the chapel were donated by Old Etonians and others connected with the school - organ, lectern, reredos, silver cross and candlesticks on the altar, frontal and superfrontal and processional cross. Brother, sisters and friends of Tom Cottingham Edwards- Moss put four stained glass windows in the chapel in 1895 'to preserve the memory of an Etonian so deeply mourned'. He died at the age of 31 after becoming MP for Widnes. The windows in the nave are by Kempe, and each depicts a virtue: on each are saints or men whose lives were examples of virtue, with scenes from the lives of these men. The detail is well worth further investigation. The tracery of the ten windows is perpendicular. That of the Chancel windows is decorated, given in memory of Mr Edwards-Moss, two representing the Annunciation and the shepherds of Bethlehem, one of whom is playing bagpipes. The sheaf in the window is the badge of Kempe. The tapestries - part of a memorial to those killed in the First World War - were designed by Lady Chilston and woven at the Morris works at Merton Abbey. The 'Eton Guide' describes the tapestries as a remarkable combination of the styles of the mid 16th century Brussels looms with English romantic detail, and quite untouched by developments in contemporary art; they form one of the latest examples of the power of the chivalric image in the 19th century public schools, showing the life of St George as typifying fallen Etonians.

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A Selection of Memories from Eton

For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our website to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was, prompted by the photographs in our archive. Here are some from Eton

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Immediately on the right here was Eton College's Rectors House (?), mum's mum was cook, she was a WWI widow with 5 kids and walked daily from a railway slum in Stoke Gardens Slough. When mum left school in the 30's at 14 and was too young for work the rector's wife said to gran to bring the girls along (Nell, mums older sister), mum was "tweeny" (in-between stairs maid) and hated it. Rector took them all on a "holiday", ...see more
Dad always called this the burning bush, I assume it was the first public lighting they'd seen.
My Great-Great-Grandfather William John Herbert established the Herbert's Supply Stores seen to the right of this photograph. The stores were made of twenty four departments and held the Royal Warrant for Queen Victoria, the Empresses of Russia and Germany, and many minor royals from across Europe. Following a fire in 1896 the building was rebuilt as seen here. The business became Cullum's Garages during the mid 1920's.