Allord College

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

Allord College is a common school for boys in Allord, Enley, Great Nortend. It is attached to Allord Abbey, a Benedictine monastery on the River Hame. The College 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 region on academic scholarships. They are known as commoners and wear gowns. 14 additional commoners attend on choral bursaries, singing in quire twice daily in the College chapel.

The rest of the pupils are known as freemen (likely a corruption of „feemen”), and are fee-paying pupils. Allord College 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 valedictorians in a given year matriculate at a university, almost all at the University of Aldesey where Cholstave College reserves half of its places for the „Old Dominostrians” of the school, and the rest for students from other Benedictine schools.

Name

Allord College was founded in 1405 by the newly crowned Charles I as the „Abbot and Commoners of the King's College at the Abbey of our Lord in the Forest” („Abbas et Plebeii Collegii Regis apud Abbatiam 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 aforementioned long name remains the formal name of the school; however, the shortened name „Allord College”, rendered in Latin as Collegium Dominostri, is more commonly used. The portmanteaux „Allord” and „Dominoster” are the English and Latin names respectively of the small village which has grown up around the school and abbey.

Sport

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

Houses

There are nine boarding houses at Allord College, each with its own housemaster. College House is reserved for the scholars and choristers. 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 houses are present called Wickman's, Michaelson's, Estfield's, Joblac's, Rosham's, Anotton's, Secbury's, Outhouse and College.

Boys live in their house, under the supervision of a housemaster and their housekeeper. 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.

Facilities

The interior of the college Swimming House.

The main buildings of Allord College 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 college chapel dedicated and consecrated in 1643 after the monks complained of the pupils' behaviour in chapel, although divine service on Sundays and feasts is still conducted in the main Abbey church with the whole monastic community.

Allord College 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 College 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. It is also open to the public when not in use by the College.

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