Master visits Magdalen College museum in Wainfleet

What better way to prepare for the new term and my seventh year in post than to visit the birthplace of our founder?

The town of Wainfleet in Lincolnshire is the home of the Magdalen College Museum.

In 1484, William Waynflete provided for a school to be built so that seven Lincolnshire boys would be prepared for Oxford. This is one of three Magdalen College School sites: there is, of course, our school, which moved across the bridge in the late nineteenth century having been in two different buildings in College; there is MCS Brackley, which opened to enable pupils to escape an Oxford plague in the sixteenth century and is now a much-expanded state school, and MCS Wainfleet, which ceased to operate as a school in the middle of the last century.

The Wainfleet site has certain architectural echoes of Waynflete’s work across the road in the shape of the windows and the vaulted roof, and a startling resemblance to the chapel at MCS Brackley.

Everywhere we looked, there were the hallmarks of the house style: the Sicut Lilium over the fireplace, the lilies in the stained glass (can you spot the flaw?) and the references to Mary Magdalen. Even being on the roof was reminiscent of climbing the College tower for May Morning.

Waynflete’s father, Richard Patten, is buried in nearby Wainfleet St Mary. Should you visit by train, I can only advise that you adopt the more modern spelling of Wainfleet or else you will simply confuse the National Rail app. This is a niche problem likely only to be shared by OWs.

It was a joy to commune with the guiding mind of our foundation on the eve of the beginning of the new school year.

Helen Pike, Master