N o .123
T he T rusty S ervant
educational reformer Benjamin
Jowett had become a tutor there
in 1842: this was the moderniser
who was going to turn the ancient
university upside down and
effectively impose a new liberal
disposition, and Ridding seems
to have caught something of that
spirit.
SF:
Ironically, Ridding was probably
appointed as a safe pair of
hands. But what he did, in
the wake of the Clarendon
Commission, was to use the
window of opportunity, before
the new Go Bo emerged, to make
changes without needing to ask
the weakened Warden and Fellows.
He didn’t even need to ask anyone
for money – he just got on and
did it with his own and that of his
wife – about £1.6 million in today’s
money.
TEG: So now we know where to look,
Headmaster, for funds for the new
sports complex!
TRH: Yes indeed – and I will mention it
to my wife on your behalf the very
next time I see her.
TEG: What about the curriculum?
SF:
He introduced the first proper
teaching of history, science and
modern languages. He introduced
drawing, music and carpentry.
He founded the Glee Club, the
Natural History Society and the
Shakespeare Reading Society…
TRH : …And
he certainly set rather
a new tone in Chapel. His
predecessor and father-in-law
had been of a conservative high-
church nature – one of John
Keble’s closest friends. Ridding
was a Jowett man, an Essays and
Reviews man, and even his prayers
show it. One of them starts off, ‘In
times of doubt and questionings,
when our belief is perplexed by
new learning, new teaching, new
of appeal to the Headmaster, but
he didn’t do it very quickly, and
then he didn’t do it in the right
way, so Ridding refused to grant it.
He saw the problem in procedural
rather than human terms, and he
then wrote a letter to The Times in
defence of his conduct. The Times
criticised him mercilessly, but
Ridding simply couldn’t see what
all the fuss was about.
thought: give us the faithfulness
of learners and the courage of
believers’. We ought also to talk
about Ridding’s wider involvement
in national education. No school
has produced more chairmen of
HMC than Winchester, and that
tradition starts with Ridding, who
was the first Chair of the HMC
committee.
SF:
We’ve got rather a good resource
in the archive in this regard. The
history of HMC is currently being
written, and it turns out that only
the College Archives has a set
of the early committee minutes,
which are annotated.
TRH: Perhaps the best way to understand
Ridding is via his buildings. He
spread the estate wide. Arguably,
he advanced the army beyond its
line of command and supply. To
some extent, when the School has
had problems, they have resulted
from this. But what Ridding did
was to create for the Victorians
their signature school – eat
your heart out Thomas Arnold
(OW status notwithstanding).
Winchester was by its buildings
and by its foundation the school
of the purest mediaeval Gothic.
Ridding was the quintessential
Victorian reformer, seeking to
marry the best of the past with the
best of the present. In educational
and architectural terms, he
created the Victorian Gothic
school, and he did it actu