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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP - it is St. Albans. No apostrophe. [/quote]

You are correct, but one has to wonder who made that grammatical error.  I mean, the saint's name was St. Alban.  From where does the "St. Albans" in "St. Albans School" come from if not intended to be possessive of St. Alban?

Note that the adjacent church is "St. Alban's Church."[/quote]
Yes, that’s always made me curious and kind of amused. As a grammar/word nerd I find it interesting to see which of the various saint/bishop-named schools use the possessive form and which don’t. Such as how we ended up with St Stephen’s and St Agnes School when the two schools—one possessive and one not—merged. But STA may be unique in using the S but not the apostrophe. [/quote]

If you were curious perhaps you should have explored a bit more. St. Albans draws its name from St. Albans Cathedral and the town named after St. Alban, founded some time in the late 8th century.

Apostrophes were not introduced into written English until the 16th century. The name of the cathedral and the town in England predates the apostrophe and to this day is “St. Albans Cathedral” and the town is “St. Albans.”

When St. Albans School was founded, it was named after the English cathedral. Hence, it is also spelled without the apostrophe.[/quote]

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