Image

Old College

Many questions remain unanswered about the size, the exact position of the early College buildings and the extent of the land on which they stood. It is known that three separate establishments were used as the main school before 1829, the year the present College Main Building was completed. Old College, now the Ozanne Building, was built in 1760. It was the first purpose-built school on site and for nearly 70 years it provided classrooms and living accommodation for the Master and space for dormitories.

At the turn of the 20th century, at English public schools, significant developments were taking place in science teaching. The need for a new approach to science was made urgent when school inspectors threatened not to give the College the approval required by Government Departments and the Army in England. This would have been a disaster for the College most of whose senior boys were in the Army Class.  It led to the conversion of Old College into a fully-equipped laboratory, a project paid for by subscribers and named after Edward Charles Ozanne, (OE 1458), a distinguished Guernsey educationist and horticulturalist. The States also gave a grant on condition the laboratory was made available to other island schools.

Image

The establishment of the Ozanne Laboratory was part of a grand project to centralise scientific instruction for the whole island and especially for workers in such industries as farming and fruit growing: the soft fruit growing industry in the island, melons and tomatoes particularly, was then in its infancy.

Today, this historic building continues its proud tradition of education, now housing the Modern Foreign Languages Department alongside the Design Technology workshop, a wonderful blend of heritage and modern learning.

Elizabeth College School
Elizabeth College School
Elizabeth College School
Elizabeth College School
Elizabeth College School

FURTHER INFORMATION

The pictures on this page include:

  1. (Main image) Old College, now the Ozanne building, built in 1760. The artist is thought to be the wife of the Master standing on the College lawn in the painting.
  2. A laboratory in the Ozanne building from the 1920s.
  3. Plan drawn by John Wilson showing the boundaries of land assigned to the College since the Foundation and prior to the construction of the 1829 building.
  4. The only visible remains of the original friary buildings and the College gateway at the lower end of College Street. Other remnants were probably knocked down when St Julian's Avenue was created in the 1870s.
  5. Edward Charles Ozanne (OE 1458), the Old Elizabethan the Ozanne building is named after.
  6. An 1888 watercolour painting (artist unknown) of the Old College, now known as the Ozanne building.
  7. The Ozanne building is home to the Modern Foreign Languages Department and the Design and Technology workshop.

Edward Charles Ozanne (1850–1929), Jurat of the Royal Court (1897–1905)

The Elizabeth College Register, 1824-1873: With A Record Of Some Earlier Students (1898), compiled by Charles James Durand , Kentish Brock and  Edward Charles Ozanne, is a key historical publication detailing students and history of Elizabeth College in Guernsey. It lists pupils, often with biographical notes, serving as a primary resource for genealogists and historians of the school founded in 1563.

Below is the excerpt on Edward Charles Ozanne.

  1. Ozanne, Edward Charles—born at Louisville, Kentucky, April 3, 1850; son of the Rev. T. D. Ozanne (No. 253), and Emma Brook; vide 1496, 1497, 1558, 1586, 1779; left 1869.

Also at "Wren's" (see No. 946); Indian Civil Service (Bombay) 1870; Assistant Collector and Magistrate, 1873-81; special famine duty in Bengal, 1874 (as assistant to C. F. Magrath, No. 934); Bombay, 1876.7 (one year's service for pension); Mysore, 1877-8; and Kathiawar, 1879 (thanks of the Government of India in the various Famine Gazettes); on duty at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, 1881.3; scholarship and diploma (M.R.A.C.); also diploma and life membership of the Royal Agricultural Society; Director of Agriculture, Bombay, 1883-91; Survey' and Settlement Commissioner, 1891; Survey Commissioner and Director, Land Records and Agriculture, 1893; retired on pension to Guernsey, 1897; J.P., 1873; Fellow of the University of Bombay, 1884; compiler of the Bombay Statistical Atlas, 1886, (special thanks of the Government of India); and of the Short Chronicle of Elizabeth College, Guernsey, 1888; elected Jurat of the Royal Court, Guernsey, 1897; an Hon. Secretary, Old Elizabethan Association; and one of the compilers of this Register; residence, Petite Marche.