No . 132
The Trusty Servant
New Field in North-East London
Oz Orman , a teacher at Thorpe Hall Primary , Walthamstow , and Tim Giddings , the Editor , explain a Wykehamical connection with Walthamstow :
In Walthamstow is a 33 acre site which contains nine adult football pitches , two junior pitches and a state-of-the-art 3G artificial pitch . It is the main base for the London FA ’ s coach-education programme and is home to two social-inclusion projects . A revamped sports centre was opened in 1989 by the Duke of Gloucester , with former Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson in attendance . And it is named after a 19 th -century Wykehamist , Douglas Eyre ( F , 1874- 79 ), who grew up in an Elizabeth mansion near Newbury .
Eyre was one of three Chawkerite brothers , whose sporting abilities were evident at school . A contemporary describes him as ‘ a “ blood ” of the first water .’ He captained the OTH VI , came 4 th in Sen Steeplechase , and regularly returned to play OW cricket and soccer . He read Law at Keble College , Oxford . In 1884 with some fellow High-Church graduates from Keble he founded Oxford House in Bethnal Green . It was one of the first ‘ settlement houses ’, where students and graduates from Oxford could live alongside the urban poor and tackle
Douglas Eyre
the challenges of poverty first-hand . In 1886 , he began to practise Law at Lincoln ’ s Inn , but carried on living at Oxford House . He was involved in the foundation of the Federation of Working Men ’ s Clubs , the Webbe Boys ’ Club , a mutual-loan society , a sick fund , a co-operative store and a homeless shelter . He was Vice Head from 1899 to 1908 , when he left . He returned in 1916 when the House was in an extremely precarious financial position and ran it almost single-handedly until 1919 . During the time he lost the use of one eye : he went to hospital one evening , had it removed , and returned to work the next morning ‘ as calm and serene as before .’ His obituary summed up his contribution : ‘ In the whole history of the House there is perhaps no one who sacrificed so much of his time ,
Oxford House Chapel
his energies and in the end also his health to the welfare of the House as did Douglas Eyre .’ In 1920 he finally left after 30 years of service , having lost the sight in his other eye , and died in 1925 .
The site in Walthamstow was secured by Oxford House in 1895 and purchased with funds raised in 1896-7 , including a sizeable donation from the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths . They purchased the land to safeguard playing fields under threat of development , so that the East End community could have a base to play sports . It passed to the London Playing Fields Foundation in 1909 and has been owned and managed by them ever since .
The Archivist , Suzanne Foster , explains the history of Win Coll ’ s mission work :
Win Coll has a long history of charitable work , perhaps now slightly forgotten . Our first steps were taken in the 1870s as part of the ‘ Home Mission ’ movement developed by schools and universities . In 1874 , Revd Robert Linklater visited and spoke about the spiritual and social problems in the East End of London . Uppingham was the first school to establish a formal Mission at North Woolwich in 1875 and Winchester followed soon after , settling on a district in Bromley-by-Bow , described as a densely populated ‘ chaos of streets and houses ’ in an area 1000 by 600 yards .
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