Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Ashburnham
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1882-
History
Ashburnham was originally located in Ashburnham House. The building had housed the library of the antiquarian Sir Robert Cotton, containing some of the most important Old English manuscripts in existence, many of which were destroyed or damaged in the fire of 1731, including the manuscript of Beowulf. Those that survived formed the foundation collection of the British Library.
Originally owned by the Abbey, the Public Schools Act of 1868 recommended that the building be bought by the School on the death of the occupant, the sub-dean, much to the Abbey’s consternation. The Dean and Chapter used their control over the Governing Body to attempt to prevent the school from buying the building from the Abbey, but this manoeuvre was overturned by Parliament. The sub-dean living in the house survived until 1881.
The house was finally founded the year after the sub-dean died.
Places
Originally based in Ashburnham House, on the north side of Little Dean's Yard, Ashburnham moved to no. 6, Dean’s Yard in 1956.
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
GB 2014
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Final
Level of detail
Partial
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Entry created by Felicity Crowe, Archives and Records Management Assistant, February 2020.
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Westminster School Archives; Tanner, Lawrence, 'Westminster School: Its Buildings and Associations.'