A Report from the Warden Charles Sinclair ( B , 1961-66 )
Our journey through the centuries at Win Coll is made up of many beginnings and endings interwoven to make us who we are today . There seems to have been an unusually large number of these over the last year or so . Last year ’ s Wykeham Journal celebrated Dr Ralph Townsend ’ s 11 years of strong leadership as Headmaster , 2005 to 2016 , to which Dr Tim Hands , starting in September , has added his own generous tributes . Tim in his turn has brought great energy and commitment to the headmastership , looking with sharp , fresh eyes at an institution imbued with history . It is for each Headmaster to find the right balance between change and conservation , supported and challenged by an engaged Governing Body . The Governing Body itself evolves . We lose Fellows we would rather not : Sir Andrew Longmore , a Lord Justice of Appeal , retired from the Governing Body in December , having brought his questioning eye to the unfamiliar territory of the Audit & Risk Committee , and his wisdom to the making of key decisions ; and Sir Curtis Price , Ex-Officio Fellow as Warden of New College , was a focused and independently minded Chairman of our Academic & Pastoral Committee . But we have quickly learnt to enjoy the contribution of new Fellows : Dr Will Poole , historian and bibliographer as New College ’ s nominee , and Miles Young , who succeeds Sir Curtis , after leading Ogilvy & Mather for many years . September saw Ralph Townsend opening “ Treasury ”, which takes over the building known as the Warden ’ s Stables since the 15th century . Win Coll has , through donations over many years , acquired a particularly fine collection of English medieval silver , Chinese and Greek ceramics and Roman bronze figures . These have in the past been quietly displayed for the benefit of scholars and pupils . Today , their magnificence is there for all to enjoy . Treasury is a triumph . It is a tribute to the early and patient commitment of donors : the names Du Boulay , Gough , Loveday and Nightingale amongst others come to mind , ensuring that the burden of funding and maintaining Treasury does not , and will not , fall on the College . It is also a tribute to those who conceived and implemented its design . I say no more : see for yourselves . It has already become an important part of a Wykehamist ’ s education . We could say something similar about our PE Centre on Kingsgate Park . It was built in the 1960s and is approaching the end of its life . The school is significantly bigger and now offers a far greater range of indoor sports and exercises to add to and enhance the excellence of those outdoors . Design work on a new Sports Centre is advanced and planning permission has been applied for . The school will have to dig deep into its resources to prime this project , but we will need generous and patient donors once again to enable us to proceed within our conservative approach to finance , and without compromising the school ’ s commitment to the continuing development of bursaries . Our ambition for our bursary programme is gradually becoming more secure , as we received in June the first proceeds from the development for housing at Barton Farm . The original farm acreage was given to Win Coll by William of Wykeham as
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