History

Foundation

St Edmund’s College traces back to 1568, when Cardinal William Allen established a seminary in Douai, France—a refuge for training priests during an era when Catholic education faced bans in England. Over time, the college started taking lay students alongside seminarians, and many graduates risked their lives returning to England to practice their faith. Twenty of them were later canonized, with another 133 beatified, honoring those who defended their beliefs at high personal cost.

The Move to England

When the French Revolution seized the college’s property in 1793, its professors and students fled to England, where anti-Catholic laws had begun to ease. That November, Bishop John Douglas opened a new school at Old Hall Green, merging the fleeing group with students from a local school. Hampshire Catholic John Soane contributed ten thousand pounds for construction, allowing Douai’s traditions to take root on English soil. James Taylor, himself an alumnus of the old academy, designed the buildings that would shape this new chapter.

Development of St Edmund’s College

Bishop Thomas Griffiths commissioned A.W. Pugin to design a chapel in 1845, which was completed by 1853—though its tower and spire were never built. The house system of Challoner, Douglass, and Talbot emerged in 1922, along with the Galilee Chapel as a memorial. Girls from nearby Poles Convent began attending the Sixth Form in 1974, and by 1986 the school had fully welcomed both boys and girls. Allen Hall seminarians moved to Chelsea in 1975, completing the separation of functions.

Legacy

Dedicated to Saint Edmund of Canterbury, the school’s motto “Avita Pro Fide”—”For the Faith of Our Fathers”—echoes its mission since Douai. During a 1993 pilgrimage marking 200 years at Old Hall Green, Pope John Paul II encouraged the community to keep these traditions. The 450th birthday in 2018 brought Father Nicholas Schofield’s commemorative book, celebrating an unbroken lineage from the sixteenth century that continues shaping the school’s character today.