Uppingham School

Uppingham's annual commemoration of the School's removal to Borth was made special this year by the presence of both OUs and visitors from Borth at Sunday Chapel.

The Borth Service remembers Uppingham’s evacuation to North Wales in 1876 to escape bad drains and an outbreak of typhoid.

In Borth the School took over the disused Cambrian Hotel and a number of boarding houses, for a period of 14 months. The move was successful in saving the School from a serious epidemic.

The photo below shows members of Môr-Ladron y Borth (‘The Pirates of Borth’) and Borth and Ynyslas Golf Club along with OU golfers. (Club Captain, Charles Raw-Rees, read a lesson at the service).

The Môr-Ladron y Borth (‘The Pirates of Borth’) (present on the front row) are a group who live in the village and perform traditional sea-shanties, the working-songs of fishing communities like nineteenth-century Borth.

As well as singing in the Chapel, the "Pirates" also got the whole School singing along too. One of the main highlights of this year's service included the singing of the great Welsh hymn, Calon Lân; and the extraordinary sound of all Uppinghamians singing the last verse of Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer in Welsh!