Allord School

Allord School Schola Dominostri
Location
Manstole , Enley Great Nortend
Information
Type	Common boarding school
Motto	Latin: Dominus glorificet (May the Lord be glorified)
Established	1405
Abbot	The Rt. Rev'd. Stephen Galbroom
Headmaster	The Rev'd. Dr. Alaric de Reed
Dean of School	The Rev'd. Dean Michael Rouder
Staff	ca. 80 masters
Gender	Boys
Age	10 to 19
Enrolment	ca. 700
Colour(s)	blue & white
Publication	Dominus Noster
Former pupils	Old Dominostrians
School Song	Carmen Dominostrense

Allord School is a college school for boys in Manstole, Enley, Great Nortend attached to Allord Abbey, a collegiate church on the River Hame. The School was founded in 1405 to educate poor scholars for a future career in the Church. It is fully boarding, with an enrolment of approximately 700 boys. In keeping with its history as a school founded for the poor, 70 pupils are drawn from the surrounding shire on academic scholarships. These commoners wear gowns and are known as gownmen. 14 additional gownmen attend on choral bursaries, singing in quire daily.

The rest of the pupils are known as freemen (likely a corruption of „feemen”), and are fee-paying pupils. Allord School charges up to £190 per annum, with three terms in a year. It is thus one of the most expensive schools in Great Nortend, and is a popular choice for the sons of royalty, peers and the gentry. Over half of the leaving Upper Sixth Formers in a given year matriculate at the University of Lendert where Allhallowhall reserves up to half of its places for the „Old Dominostrians” of the school.

History

Allord Abbey was founded as a Benedictine house in 1405 by the newly crowned Charles I as the „Abbey of our Lord in the Forest” („Abbatia Domini nostri in Foresta”). This forest is the former Stole Forest, remnants of which include the royal Manstolewood hunting forest and Stole Park in Lendert-with-Cadell. The portmanteaux „Allord” and „Dominoster” quickly became the curiously English and Latin names respectively of the abbey. The School was founded shortly after the Abbey and became known as „Allord School”, rendered in Latin as Schola Dominostri.

At the Reformation, the Abbey was secularised in 1583 by Alexander I, replacing the monkish community with a community of secular canons, although this did not significantly affect the School, as the former monks simply became the new canons. Most of the regent masters of the School are installed as canons of the Abbey.

Houses

There are nine boarding houses at Allord School, each with its own canon housemaster. Gownmen's is reserved for the commoners. Freemen's houses, of which there are eight, are usually referred to by their housemaster rather than by the actual building's name, excepting Outhouse. The freemen's houses are presently called Wickman's, Michaelson's, Estfield's, Joblac's, Rosham's, Anotton's, Secbury's and Outhouse.

Boys live in their house, under the supervision of a housemaster and a matron. From the sixth two House Prefects are appointed per house. The House Captain, in charge of school sports and games, is elected by the boys of each house. Houses compete against each other in sport and games, and have traditions and customs of their own. Cadet service, which is compulsory at Allord, is organised by house.

Sport

Allord plays Green game, a sport generally only played at Allord School and by Old Dominostrians. This is played in the relevantly named „Green Quarter”, the Allord name for the short autumn Michaelmas term, named possibly for the new „greenmen”, i. e. freshmen, entering the School at that time. It is also sometimes known as Allord game. Stinning is played in the winter „Great Quarter”, and cricket in „Summer Quarter”. Other sports are also played or undertaken, such as athletics, rowing, racquets, closters (Closter game), hockey and tennis (Court game).

Facilities

The interior of the school Swimming House.

The main buildings of Allord School are situated within the Abbey complex, extending out and along the High Street. Classrooms are scattered around buildings mainly dating from the 16th to 19th centuries. Daily chapel services of Mattins and Vespers are conducted in the school chapel dedicated and consecrated in 1643 after the canons complained of the pupils' behaviour in chapel, although Divine Service on Sundays and festivals is still conducted in the main Abbey Church with the whole collegiate community.

Allord School also has use of a number of ovals and fields for sports and games. There is a boathouse on the River Hame, from whence boys row down to the Manstolewoodmere, a distance of around six miles. The School has stables for horses, and facilities for keeping hounds for hunting purposes, as well as a swimming house built in 1933 fronting the High Street. The pool is 50 yards long and is used for competitive swimming, rather than recreational swimming or bathing.

Notable Dominostrians

• His Majesty Alexander II of Great Nortend
• His Royal Highness William, Prince of Rhise
• The Rt. Hon. William de Fitzgerald, 12th Margrave of Bine and former Lord High Treasurer
• The Rt. Rev'd. David de Coke, Lord Bishop of Lendert and Cadell
• His Excellency Sir Geoffrey de Stallingham, Ambassadour
• His Eminence Siyyid Hussain al-Hakim Billah, 33rd Auxiliary Imam of Esoteric Shi'ism

See also

• Education in Great Nortend