What is Montagu?

Montagu House is one of four houses in the Hinchingbrooke School along with Cromwell, Pepys and Vesey.  All of the Houses at Hinchingbrooke are based upon the extraordinary historical and cultural wealth that we have the privilege of sharing with ourselves and all users of our facilities.

Hinchingbrooke House is an historical site that houses our VIth Form, and was where the Montagu family lived until the school acquired it in the 20th Century.  The Montagu family are still in the area and, naturally, make up a great proportion of the history of our school and our country. 

An interesting fact about Hinchingbrooke House and the Montagu Family is that they funded part of Captain Cook's voyage to Australia - there is even substantial evidence that in 1771 Captain Scott Cook stayed at Hinchingbrooke House, and as a result of the funding that was given to Scott, he named an Island off the coast of Australia after the house!  The following quote also gives us an interesting peek into where the name of that lovely delicacy, the sandwich derived from:

" Although combinations of bread/pastry filled with meat or cheese and dressed with condiments have been enjoyed since ancient times, food historians generally attribute the creation of the sandwich, as we know it today, to John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. This Englishman was said to have been fond of gambling. As the story goes, in 1762, during a 24 hour gambling streak he instructed a cook to prepare his food in such a way that it would not interfere with his game. The cook presented him with sliced meat between two pieces of toast. Perfect! This meal required no utensils and could be eaten with one hand, leaving the other free to continue the game. Sadly, the name of real inventor of the sandwich (the cook) was not recorded for posterity."

(http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodsandwiches.html)

There is no need to put the history of the Montagu Family on this page as there are so many reliable pages on the web with it on, so please do take some time to followcheck out the following links.  Remember that you have a reason to be associated with Montagu, therefore it makes sense to know why you are. 

Montagu Websites:

http://www.hinchhouse.org.uk/edward/edward.html

http://www.hinchhouse.org.uk/tour/ws7.html

http://www.hinchhouse.org.uk/tour/house7.html (Virtual Tour)