Dame Alice Owen's School - About Us

School History

400th Anniversary 1613- 2013
To launch our special year, a 10 metre historical exhibition with spot lights was unveiled on 22nd January, 2013, which you can view here as an electronic version. Staff from our Art Department created the display - Mr Petros Anastasi and Miss Lorna Veerayen, with help from Mr Richard Morley and Mrs Barbara Miller, as well as Old Owenian, Mr Ken Rowswell, who worked with the exhibition company and Old Owenian, Mr Derek Webb, who donated the funding required to produce the display. Further highlights from our history are given below.

"Dame Alice Owen's School - A History 1613-2013"
Also, as part of our 400th anniversary celebrations, a new historical publication (limited edition) was made available in November 2012, written by Gareth Randall, Assistant Head at Owen's until 2006, who then retired to become a priest in an Anglican Church in France. This beautiful hardback edition of 250 pages contains numerous wonderful illustrations from our 400 year-long history and profiles written about our famous alumni by parent, Rosie Millard, freelance journalist and former Arts correspondent for the BBC.

Order your copy via our website at Electronic Payments (WisePay), price £25 (size 22.5cm x 28.5cm).

Dame Alice Owen's Legacy

Dame Alice Owen's School has a long and distinguished history dating back to the foundation in 1613 and has maintained many unique traditions from that time, such as the giving of a small amount of 'beer money' to every pupil (see below) and the school's long standing close association with the brewing industry and the Worshipful Company of Brewers.

Few schools owe their origin to a cow, a village maiden and an archer's arrow. The cow was being milked in a field outside the village of Islington in the mid 16th century; the maid, Alice Wilkes - accompanied by a young servant - stopped to watch and try her hand in milking; the arrow from nearby butts, sailed across the field and pierced the crown of her hat, miraculously without injuring her. Much impressed by her providential escape, she vowed that when rich enough she would do something for posterity to mark her gratitude.

The Frampton statue of
Dame Alice Owen, 1897

Some 50 years later, Alice Wilkes, thrice widowed by a brewer, a mercer and latterly by Judge Thomas Owen, was a lady of considerable wealth. Reminded of her vow by the servant, she established a school for 30 boy scholars from Islington in 1613. Arrows feature prominently on the school's crest, which is in itself largely identical to the crest of the Worshipful Company of Brewers; other motifs include barrels and hops. She entrusted the administration of the school and its endowment to the Worshipful Company of Brewers which, for nearly four centuries as Trustees of the Dame Alice Owen Foundation, has supported and encouraged the school.

After the foundation of the boys' school, a girls' school was built over two and a half centuries later in 1886, which eventually merged with the boys' school in 1973 in Islington and was then run as a mixed school until July 1976 when the transfer of pupils to the new location in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire was completed. The new school in Potters Bar opened as a mixed comprehensive in September 1973. To this day, several roads on and around the site of the original school in Islington maintain names such as Owen Street, Owen's Row and Owen Court.

The school mottos:

Boys' School - "In God is All Our Trust" (as that of the Brewers' Company and retained as the school's motto today)

Girls' School - "Instead of being made - make yourself" (created in 1896 by Mr Herbert Spencer, famous philospher, as requested by the girls' school's first Headmistress, Miss Emily Armstrong)

Dame Alice Owen's Girls' School 1886-1960

Historic traditions

Memorial to Dame Alice Owen

Memorial to
Dame Alice Owen

Certain traditions and customs have been retained, the two most notable being -

Visitation

Dame Alice herself instructed the Governors to visit the school annually to inspect the scholars' progress. Today, this visit forms part of the school's Annual Open Day and prize giving ceremony. The original scholars collected flowers from the surrounding fields to make buttonholes for themselves and to decorate the school; the custom today is for white carnations to be worn by all pupils in Years 7 to 11, red carnations in the Sixth Form and to be presented to the Governors at Visitation.

The School Song (adapted from The Boys' School Football Song) is also sung as part of the ceremony. Words of both the original boys' and girls' school songs, as recorded in A History of Owen's School (1613-1976), R.A. Dare B.A., are shown below. When the school moved to Potters Bar in September 1973, Mr Bill Hamilton-Hinds, past pupil (1955-1963), maths master (from 1966) and now Administration Manager, changed three words of the old Boys Football based School Song to those highlighted in red below to reflect the unisex nature of the new school. The Girls' School Song is no longer used, however, the music still exists in the school archives. We also have a record of a second earlier Girls' School song, from a Visitation Programme dated 1936 (image shown below).

The Boys' School Song

(Words by G.J. Baldock, Music by Richard Triggs)

1. On many a well remembered field
Have Owen's fought and won!
At times we lose but never yield
Before the game is done.
And as the years roll on and on,
And players bid goodbye,
Their comrades still in spirit don
The mantles they've cast by.

Chorus - Then strive with a will, Owenians,
Success attend your play;
Never let your ardour cool
For the honour of the School,
On, Owen's - to the fray.

2. Though they are gone, their names live yet,
To stimulate our play;
Their memory doth strength beget,
And drives despair away.
With pride we look back on the days
When those old heroes fought -
How eager was our youthful gaze!
How much to us was taught.

Chorus - Then strive...

3. And now we fight ourselves for Fame,
On us the School relies
Her ancient glory to maintain -
An honour that we prize.
Right manfully (Replaced with "Wholeheartedly" - from 1973)
we play the game,
The whole team works as one;
To win the match is our sole aim,
All selfish play we shun.

Chorus - Then strive...

4. In future years we shall reflect
With pleasure on these games;
Then shall we feel the good effect
This grand old pastime claims.
'Tis thus we learn how to succeed
In life's far sterner strife;
'Tis thus we learn to live indeed
A manly (Replaced with "truly" - from 1973), useful life.

Chorus - Then strive...

The Girls' School Song

"Honour Dame Alice Owen"

(Words by Eleanor E.Willis, Music by K.W.Flemming-Williams)

1. Lift your hearts and lift your voices,
Sing Dame Alice Owen's praise,
In her name our School rejoices,
May her wisdom guide our ways.

Chorus - Our noble Foundress sowed the seed,
Bear fruit well: in thought and deed
Honour Dame Alice Owen.

2. Day by day we grow in stature,
Mind and body like a tree;
Every task we face with courage
Makes us strong, and straight, and free.

Chorus - Our noble Foundress...

3. Owen's girls, like pilgrims marching,
Tread where Owen's girls have trod,
Seeking truth in fuller service,
Putting all their trust in God.

Chorus - Our noble Foundress...

4. What the years may bring we know not,
Fame or Fortune, joy or pain;
Faithful to our School tradition,
We shall never strive in vain.

Chorus - Our noble Foundress...

5. Onward then, to new endeavour,
Strong in hope and free from fear,
One in loyalty and purpose,
One in will to preserve.

Honour our noble Foundress' name.
Bear the torch, keep bright the flame.
Honour Dame Alice Owen.

Girls' School Song 1936

Beer Money

It was long-established for the Governors to present the boy who welcomed them at Visitation with a small sum of money. From this probably derives the custom of presenting pupils with "beer money". Around 1881 the "money grant" was separated out from the Visitation ceremony and presented by the Clerk of Governors to pupils in the Entrance Hall the morning after, with Dame Alice, from her Frampton pedestal, gazing down at pupils, who received their "beer money" in complete silence.

Nowadays, during their first year at the school, all students attend a formal Beer Money ceremony at The Brewers Hall in London where they receive a £5 commemorative coin from The Master of the Worshipful Company of Brewers.

Students from Years 8-13 complete the ceremony at the school itself, but still receive the money from The Master. By tradition, the ceremony is held on the very last day of the Summer Term and although students are now allowed to acknowledge the gift, it is still mostly conducted in silence to emphasize the solemnity of the occasion.

The amount given depends on the students age:
Year 8 - £1
Year 9 - £2
Year 10 - £3
Year 11 - £4
Year 12 - £5
Year 13 - £6

The Head Boy and Head Girl receive £10 in recognition of their additional commitments beyond their own study.

Related websites

Please see below for links to websites of interest to those seeking more information about Dame Alice Owen, or the school.