
Home Where Are They Now? School History Events Heroes All Contacts Links Old Alfredians Golfing Society AGM Minutes

Links

The current King Alfred's: a specialist sports college, still nurturing and turning out highly-talented individuals that are eminently qualified for membership of the Old Alfredians .....visit

Below are links to websites and documents that provide further information for keen Old Alfredianophiles:

Vale and Downland Museum: an 1850 article from the Illustrated London News on the founding of the school .....more

King Alfred: a very readable bio of one of our greatest monarchs .....visit

Asser, Bishop of Sherborne: a much less readable biography of Alfred, including his family tree, which starts, as for all English monarchs, with Adam .....visit

Lester Piggott: one of King Alfred's more famous Old Boys, nine times winner of the Epsom Derby .....more

Lost with HMS Hood in 1941: Aubrey Roy Passey; the 22 year old sick berth attendant was educated at KAGS.

HMS Hood at speed after her last re-fit.

Launched in 1918, Hood was the was the largest warship in the world and the pride of the Royal Navy. But she sank in three minutes with the loss of all but three of her 1,418 crew when struck by a shell from the Bismark in 1941; her wreck lies nearly three miles deep between Iceland and Greenland. .....more

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: a history of England, ordered to be compiled by King Alfred in 890; a massive document that started in the year 1 AD - up to the middle of the 12th century, it was subsequently added to by many scribes .....more

Another image from 1922 or earlier.

Wantage has bags of history, too!

During the Roman Occupation
Wantage was noted as a small settlement.

849
King Alfred the Great was born in the royal palace at Wantage.

1086
Wantage is listed in the Domesday Book as having a value of £61.

1190
Wantage was in the King's ownership until Richard 1 passed it to the Earl of Albermarle in 1190.

1216
Henry III granted Wantage the right to hold a weekly market.

18th Century
Became known as Black Wantage, owing to the large number of criminals and layabouts frequenting the town. Legend has it that anyone escaping the Bow Street Runners in London was afterwards sought - and often found - in Wantage.