Articles tHe GuarDian of tHe courtS: ceLeBratinG 150 yearS of tHe ScHooL cuStoS
Amongst the many innovations that Headmaster Hugo Harper introduced at Sherborne School, the role of School Custos is perhaps the one that 150 years later is still as vital to the running of the School as it was when it was first introduced in 1870. By 1870 Harper had been Headmaster at Sherborne for twenty years and the School was thriving. The School roll had risen dramatically from just 40 pupils in 1850 to 252 in 1870, and the size of the School site had grown considerably with the acquisition in 1851 of the former monastic buildings and the land to the north-west of the original schoolroom (now the OSR). Harper was keen to stake out the boundaries of the enlarged site and in 1853 a gateway and Lodge were built adjoining Abbey Road at the north entrance to the Courts. The evident need for someone to guard the gates of Harper’s growing empire was
Charles Scott, Custos 1870-1910
set out in a letter written in September 1869 by assistant master, Mungo Travers Park, in which he described the School’s relaxed attitude to security: ‘They have rather a good system here of having no bounds and no locking up. Any boy can go out wherever he likes and pretty nearly at all times.’ On 3 May 1870, Harper wrote to the School Governors proposing the appointment of Charles Scott as ‘School Porter’. He recommended that Scott should be paid a salary of £40 a year and live at the Lodge, which had recently been
Steve Read, a long serving member of our current Custos team
Sergeant Norton being introduced to George VI and Queen Elizabeth, 1 June 1950
vacated by the School gardener.
