Blundell's School is an independent co-educational boarding and day school in the English public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon. It was founded in 1604 under the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the time, and moved to its present site on the outskirts of the town in 1882.
The full boarding fees are £45,750 per year. The school offers several scholarships and bursaries and provides flexi-boarding. The school has 360 boys and 225 girls, including 117 boys and 85 girls in the Sixth Form and is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
Contents
History
Peter Blundell, one of the wealthiest merchants of Elizabethan England, died in 1601, having made his fortune principally in the cloth industry. His will set aside considerable money and land to establish a school in his home town "to maintain sound learning and true religion". Blundell asked his friend John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England, to carry out his wishes, and appointed a number of local merchants and gentry as his first trustees (known as feoffees). The position of feoffee is no longer hereditary, but a number of notable local families have held the position for a considerable period: the first ancestor of the current chairman of the governors to hold that position was elected more than 250 years ago, and the Heathcoat-Amory family have a long tradition of service on the Governing Body, since Sir John Heathcoat-Amory was appointed in 1865.
The Old Blundell's School was built to be much larger and grander than any other in the West Country, with room for 150 scholars and accommodation for a master and an usher. The Grade I listed building is now in the care of the National Trust and the forecourt is usually open to visitors. One ex-Blundell's boy was the writer R. D. Blackmore, who in the novel Lorna Doone set the stage for a fight between John Ridd and Robin Snell on the Blundell's triangular lawn.
Peter Blundell's executors established links with Balliol College, Oxford, and with Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and large sums were settled to provide for scholarships for pupils of the school to attend those colleges.
The prep school St Aubyn's was moved to the Blundell's campus in 2000, taking over the day-boy house Milestones and the Sanatorium, and was renamed Blundell's Prep School. It has about 250 pupils aged from three years to eleven. The headmaster is Andy Southgate.
2024 attempted murder
In 2024, a pupil at the school was found guilty of attempted murder of two other students and one of the staff using a hammer; he had been 16 at the time of the assaults in 2023. The Guardian said that
"a troubling picture emerged of aspects of life at the 400-year-old school", with bullying, children having weapons and unrestricted access to their mobile telephones.
The boy was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 12 years. In November 2024, Mrs Justice Cutts lifted the anonymity orders and named him as Thomas Wei Huang from Malaysia.
Sport
Rugby
Rugby is the main sport played at Blundell's in the Autumn and Spring terms. The earliest mention of "football" in the Blundellian was in 1861 and the first recorded "rugger" match played by boys at Blundell's was in 1868 against Tiverton Rugby Club, making the school one of the oldest anywhere formally to play the game. The Blundell's crest still hangs in the main room at Twickenham in recognition of this.
OBs Dave Lewis Gloucester Rugby, Matt Kvesic and Will Carrick-Smith Exeter Chiefs all currently play in the Aviva Premiership.
Sam Maunder, brother of Jack Maunder, plays for England U18 squad.
The Russell
An annual tradition is a cross-country run known as the Russell, named after Old Boy Jack Russell, a vicar and dog-breeder. It was first run in 1887, and 2009 saw the 129th run.
Southern Railway Schools Class
The School lent its name to the thirty-third steam locomotive (Engine 932) in the Southern Railway's Class V of which there were 40. This class was also known as the Schools Class because all 40 of the class were named after prominent English public schools. Blundell's, as it was called, was built in 1934. The locomotive bearing the school's name was withdrawn from service in January 1961. In 2009 Hornby produced a model of this particular Schools class locomotive. As the product photograph shows, while the name of this locomotive has been variously quoted as Blundells or Blundell's, the apostrophe does actually appear on the nameplate.
Old Blundellians
The first known society of former pupils, known as Old Blundellians (OBs), was established as early as 1725.
William Hogarth engraved the letterhead for the invitation to a dinner for former pupils of the School in 1725 and the ticket for Tiverton School Feast in 1740.
Notable former pupils include:
Robert Arundell, Governor of the Windward Islands and Barbados
Vernon Bartlett, journalist and politician
Edward Bellew, drainage inspector and winner of the Victoria Cross
Dominic Bess, England cricketer
R. D. Blackmore, author of Lorna Doone
Richard Bowring, Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge
William Buckland, geologist
William Edward Buckley, professor of Anglo-Saxon
George Bull, theologian and bishop
Giles Bullard, High Commissioner to the West Indies
Charles Campion, food critic
Bampfylde Moore Carew, rogue and imposter
Aelred Carlyle, missionary and monk
Frederick William Cuming, 1900 Olympic gold medal winner as part of the UK cricket team
Notable former masters
Former masters of Blundell's have included:
Terry Barwell, cricketer
Manning Clark, historian
Neville Gorton, Bishop of Coventry
Malcolm Moss, politician
Grahame Parker, sportsman
C. Northcote Parkinson, naval historian and author of the bestselling book Parkinson's Law
Gilbert Phelps, writer and broadcaster
Lawrence Sail, poet
Willi Soukop, sculptor
Stephen Spender, poet and essayist
Mervyn Stockwood, missioner to the School and later Bishop of Southwark
Samuel Wesley (the Younger), poet and churchman