The Abingdon Foundation, Park Road, Abingdon, Oxford OX14 1DE 01235 521563
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Edited by Jane Warne –
01235 849123
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Design –
James Dawkins and Robert Wood
discovering the Ruins of Palmyra.
(Dawkins is wearing the yellow boots.)
Gavin Hamilton 1758,
Scottish National Gallery
There has been much about Palmyra in the news recently but few people know of the
connection it has with Abingdon School. In May 1750, OA James Dawkins, with the
classical scholar Robert Wood and Giovanni Borra an architectural draughtsman, made
a serious journey of archaeological exploration to sites of classical antiquity in Asia Minor.
These included Palmyra. In 1753 Wood published
The Ruins of Palmyra
containing
numerous detailed and accurate drawings of the site. It is believed that Dawkins funded
both the expedition and the book and that the cost was somewhere in the region of
£50,000. Dawkins owed his wealth to the family’s sugar plantations in Jamaica.
Mystery Motto
To the right of Arthur Preston’s Blue
Plaque there is another plaque, which
people have tried in vain to decipher.
However, one of the guests at the
unveiling, Stephanie Jenkins, had
no problem reading it. Starting at
the bottom left: VIRTUTE (by virtue)
ACQUIRITUR (is acquired) HONOS
(honour) – honour is acquired by virtue.
It turns out that this is the Richardson
family motto and that Charles
Richardson, whose monogram can just
be made out, built Whitefield in 1871.
At a small ceremony on 12 June, Jackie Smith, Honorary Archivist of both the Borough and
Christ’s Hospital of Abingdon, unveiled a Blue Plaque on Whitefield, the School Medical
Centre. The plaque records the fact that Arthur Preston, 1852-1942, lived here from1896
until his death. Preston was a pupil at the School in the 1850s. He trained as a Chartered
Accountant and was a founder member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. After his
retirement in 1909 he gave his time to the town of Abingdon and to Abingdon School, serving
as Mayor, Master of Christ’s Hospital, Governor of Abingdon School and as historian of all
three. The School owes him a particular debt for the part he played in securing the Waste
Court estate in 1928.
Blue Plaque for
Arthur Preston OA
Cum Voco Venite
Having been silent for a few months
the school bell is now back in working
order. Cast by Mears and Stainbank
of Whitechapel in 1880, both bell and
mechanism were in need of attention.
White’s of Appleton carried out the
work, the same company that originally
installed it 135 years ago.
The bell is inscribed with the name of
the makers, of the Headmaster who
commissioned it, Edgar Summers, and
with the instruction: Cum voco venite –
Come when I call.
Palmyra
L to R : Cllr Paul Harrison
(Vice-Chair SODC)
, Jackie Smith,
Felicity Lusk, Cllr Helen Pighills
(Mayor of Abingdon),
Professor Robert Evans
(Chair Oxfordshire Blue Plaques)
Abingdon
Out of the Past
