the Woodlands in Bancroft. It was here that the new School opened on 1 May 1889, its first Headmaster Joseph Edward Little of Lincoln College, Oxford. Ironically, when the ownership of the land was examined it was found to have been John Mattock's previously. In the beginning the Girls' and Boys' School were both in the large Portmill Lane building, but within two years the new buildings for the Boys' School were ready, and Portmill was free for the Girls' School to do with as they pleased. Compulsory education was still young, and Hitchin was still a market town that saw manual work as a better alternative to written education. Parents removed students if discipline was implemented, set homework was not completed and attendance was poor. In 1897 Little left, dying in 1935. Jabez King Jabez King came to the Headmaster's job in January 1898 with just 24 pupils in the School and full permission to do whatever it would take to repair the situation. He was a former Oxford University student with an M.A. in Classics and English. A fearless climber, he placed the traditional chamber pot on one of the spires. He felt a change in discipline was needed so that beatings were rarer, but still occurred in matters such as bullying. Occasionally the Headmaster would make several students swap a lesson of Scripture for an hour of cleaning out the chicken coops and the cow sheds down by the entrance from Bancroft. The School groundsman and cow-herd were summoned with the use of King's megaphone from his Oxford years, and often he left the School on Tuesdays to take part in the local Farmers' Market. Often the running of the School was left to Second Master Freddie Jones. School funds had balanced out again by the end of the 19th century, and in 1908 the School was able to start the Junior Preparatory School for younger boys that would now go to primary and junior schools. A small interview was conducted and if King – the interrogator – liked the boy, he was admitted. The School tuck shop began in 1910, and the following year tar paving was laid in the School Quad to stop excessive amounts of mud getting into the School. The First World War began soon after, but School life remained about the same. While letters from Old Boys in the fight were placed