King's College, Taunton

For other uses, see King's College (disambiguation).

King's College

Established	1880
Type	Independent school; Boarding School
Headmaster	Richard Biggs
Founder	Canon Nathaniel Woodard
Location	South Road Taunton Somerset TA1 3LA United Kingdom
Students	430
Ages	13–18
Publication	Aluredian
Former pupils	Old Aluredians
Affiliation	Woodard Corporation
Website	www.kings-taunton.co.uk

Coordinates: 51°00′40″N 3°05′46″W / 51.0110°N 3.0960°W / 51.0110; -3.0960

King's College is a coeducational, secondary boarding school in Taunton, Somerset, England. It is an independent school of 430 pupils aged 13 to 18, including about 300 boarders. The head of the school is currently Richard Biggs, who started his first academic year in the winter of 2007.

History

Kings College Taunton was founded in 1880. The building was designed by C.E. Giles and built between 1867 and 1869. A new chapel followed in 1903 designed by W. E. Tower. It has been designated as a Grade II listed building.^[1]

Benjamin Disraeli stood for MP in Taunton, and many of his early political appearances took place on what is currently the school's 1st XI cricket Pitch. After the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936, Emperor Haile Selassie I fled In exile to Bath. DuriNg his stay in thE UK many of his younger children went to Kings College, and the Emperor himself distributed the awards at the end of every Academic year.^[2] The school Purchased Pyrland Hall in the 1950s which now houses the King's Hall School co-educationaL prep school. Many of the boarding housEs still hold trophies related to now defunct activities on which is it inscribed that that particular prize was handed out by Haile Selassie. A portrait of the Emperor once hung in the main school building. Before the General Election in 1964, the Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, addressed a public meeting at the school.

The School became co-educational in the very early 1970s (in that it admitted females into the Sixth Form). It currently has seven boarding houses: Bishop Fox, King Alfred, Woodard (After Nathaniel Woodard) Tuckwell (after William Tuckwell^[3], Meynell, Taylor and Carpenter. All these houses, plus Neates, which no longer exists, were male boarding houses until the early 1990s, when Meynell converted to become the first all female boarding house. Taylor house was later founded as a female boarding house. Carpenter became a female boarding house in the mid 1990s. Until the conversion to full coeducational status, Sixth Form girls were assigned to one of the male boarding houses but lived in separate accommodation.

The transition to full coeducational status caused some controversy amongst the male students at the time, particularly amongst those in the boarding houses that were becoming female boarding houses. Students, who had developed a bond to their boarding houses over a number of years, were moved to other houses and many who went through the transition still consider their 'first' house to be their only house. In July 2006, two members of staff accompanied a small group of pupils who had recently left the school on a charity trip to India to construct a house for an Indian family.

In 2007, the school choir took part in a choral competition on the BBC programme Songs of Praise and came first, and in the same year the senior rugby team were victorious in the The National Schools 7's.

Notable students

See also: Category:People educated at King's College, Taunton

Former students of King's College, Taunton are referred to as 'Old Aluredians'.

• Arthur Bond - Artist
• Jos Buttler - Cricketer, Somerset County Cricket Club
• Charles Ching - Judge
• Geoffrey Cox QC - Conservative Member of Parliament
• John Keegan - Military Historian
• Henry Litton CBE - Judge
• Jonathan Meades - Author and Broadcaster
• Geoffrey Rippon, Baron Rippon of Hexham PC - Conservative Member of Parliament
• Juno Temple - Actress
• Roger Twose - Cricketer
• Sydney Curnow Vosper - Artist
• Tom Voyce - Rugby Player, Gloucester Rugby
• Tom Webley - Cricketer
• Dominic Wood - CBBC Presenter

References

1. ^ "King's College". Images of England. English Heritage. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=269883. Retrieved 2009-07-05. 
2. ^ "ETHIOPIA: Distressed Negus". Time. 1937-11-15. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758326,00.html. Retrieved 2009-07-05. 
3. ^ "school website: Tuckwell". http://www.kings-taunton.co.uk/tuckwell/. 

External links

• Official website
• Old Aluredian website