SOME wheels turn very slowly.

The Chronicle previously reported on the decision of Winchester College to admit girls and the headmaster has told The Times it has been considered since the final years of the reign of Queen Victoria.

Tim Hands said the school had been discussing the issue for more than 100 years, since 1899.

He told the newspaper: “It took 122 years, notably speedy in our terms.

“I don’t mind what your background is, I want to know what you’ve done with your personality and your opportunities. The school has produced lots of leaders in the past. We are going to produce, we hope, leaders of the future and they will be both men and women."

The move was first discussed in 1899, and again in 1985 and 2005.

Mr Hands said there was no intention to change the “misunderstood” motto, Manners Makyth Man. He said: “It refers to ‘every person’ not ‘man’. It does not mean hold your knife and fork properly, it’s actually a proverb that existed for at least 100 years by Wykeham’s time — he’s not expressing himself in Latin or French, he’s deliberately saying ‘I’m an Englishman from an ordinary background’.”