4,500-mile trip to honour school founder

Having thoroughly enjoyed writing and researching the book on The Lion Hotel in Shrewsbury the question is what to do next.

One story I would love to tell is that of a local hotel, The Crown in Stone, which has a fascinating history.

I thought I knew many of its tales but I stumbled across a fascinating fact when I met a group of Guyanese in town at the weekend.

Four former pupils of Queen’s College, Georgetown, had travelled more than 4,500 miles from their home in the Caribbean to Stone to honour the founder of their school, Bishop William Austin, who was born at The Crown on November 7, 1807.

William’s pregnant mother was taken ill when travelling by stagecoach in 1807 from Scotland to Bath, so his parents decided to stop over at what was then known as The Crown Inn.

They stayed there for a few days until they were well enough to continue their journey to Bath.

When William grew up he entered the priesthood eventually becoming the Bishop of the then British Guiana, where in 1844 he founded the all-boys Queen’s College and later the Bishop’s High School for Girls. In 1966 the British colony became Guyana after independence.

The school’s old boys association, the Alumni Association, has branches all over the world and arranges a reunion every two years. This year it was in London where 30 of them travelled to Kensington.

Four of them caught the train to Stone last Saturday to see the birthplace of their school founder. They had lunch at The Crown, met the Stone Town Mayor, Cllr June Price, in the council chamber and also visited St Michael and St Wulfad’s Church which included a trip up the tower.

Pictured below clockwise from front left at the lunch in The Crown are Terence Blackman; Dennis Abbott, Reader at St Michael and St Wulfad’s Church; Christopher Chunnilall; Roderick Westmaas; Neville Burke and Philip Leason, town councillor and chairman of Stone Historical and Civic Society.

“Queen’s College is the best school in the Caribbean,” said one of the visitors, Christopher Chunnilall, “and it was fascinating coming to Stone to see where our founder was born.”

The group were particularly interested in a picture hanging in The Crown of a stagecoach that brought William’s parents to Stone.

Records show that William visited The Crown again in 1831 to see where he was born on his way to his wedding to his cousin, Eliza Piercy Henderson.

Apparently the Bishop took great delight in telling everyone he was born in an inn – just like his Lord and master.