/ en /staircase-nowhere-and-its-greek-inscription The Staircase to Nowhere and its Greek Inscription Stephen Anderson Issue number (2024): 21 Notes category ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ history 21stC history Gradel Quadrangles Ancient Greek Riddles

Deep in the bowels of the new Gradel buildings is the so-called basement hub, a circular area from which doors, corridors and stairways go off in all directions to different parts of the development. One notable feature here, added more for the sake of symmetry of design than for any other reason, is the ‘Staircase to Nowhere’, a set of seven or so steps which do no more than go up to a small semi-circular area on which some natural light is shed from a window far above.

 

Staircase (top), Gradel Quadrangles, New College, Oxford

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford

21NCN10 (2024) Anderson on Greek Inscription.pdf605.36 KB ]]> Mon, 29 Jul 2024 20:37:47 +0000 Christopher 3154 at /new-college-examination-results-nineteenth-century-uninspiring-indolence-academic-preeminence ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Examination Results in the Nineteenth Century: From ‘Uninspiring Indolence’ to ‘Academic Preeminence’ Dennis A. Ahlburg Issue number (2024): 21 Notes category ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ history 19thC history 19C history Norrington Table

The fellows and students of ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford moved on from drinking, gaming, and brutish pleasures to academic success, or learned to balance them much better than in the early centuries of the college’s history.  The 19th century opened with the college’s being an academic irrelevancy and closed with its being an academic powerhouse which it is to this day.

 

Joseph Nash, New College Hall (1858), watercolour on paper

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford

21NCN5 (2024) Ahlburg on Examination Results.pdf173.44 KB ]]> Mon, 29 Jul 2024 18:15:52 +0000 Christopher 3149 at /amicabilis-concordia-1444-2024 Amicabilis Concordia 1444–2024 Michael Stansfield Issue number (2024): 21 Notes category Archives Amicabilis Concordia ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ history King's ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Cambridge Winchester ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Eton ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ

The Amicabilis Concordia, or friendship agreement, is a document renowned these days for the evensongs occasionally held in its name by four colleges dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary; that is ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford, King’s ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Cambridge, Eton ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, and Winchester ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ.  The Concordia was sealed on 1 July 1444 as a quadripartite indenture.

 

The signed and beribboned menu for dinner after the King’s ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ versus ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ football 1924 [detail]
²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Archives, Oxford, NCA JCR/R/Mallett/4b

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

21NCN1 (2024) Stansfield on Amicabilis Concordia.pdf659.63 KB ]]> Mon, 29 Jul 2024 16:48:12 +0000 Christopher 3145 at /new-college-mcr-60th-anniversary ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ MCR: The 60th Anniversary Michael Stansfield Issue number (2023): 20 Notes category Middle Common Room Archives Exhibitions 20thC history ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ history Sacher Building Harry Sacher Miriam Sacher

On Tuesday, 7 March 2023, New College’s Middle Common Room (MCR) celebrated the 60th anniversary of its establishment with an exhibition of significant items from the archives in the Conduit Room, a reception in the Founder’s Library, the distribution of appropriate stash (including some rather natty appropriately branded scarves), speeches from the Warden and the President Emily Jin, and dinner in Hall. The anniversary was worth celebrating because, as in so many areas, New College had rather led the way in recognising and providing for what is now a major and vital part of its community whose genesis is worth exploring.

 

Plan of the site between Longwall Street and the city wall that became the Sacher Building [detail]
²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Archives, Oxford, NCA BUR/BCF/205

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

20NCN9 (2023) Stansfield on MCR.pdf344.56 KB ]]> Fri, 29 Dec 2023 01:27:28 +0000 Christopher 2927 at /acquisition-alton-barnes-new-college-estate-1385 The Acquisition of Alton Barnes as a ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Estate in 1385 Michael Stansfield Issue number (2023): 20 Notes category Archives NCA 10039 Alton Barnes ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ history William of Wykeham

The manors of Alton Barnes with Shaw and Alton Priors, now the civil parish of Alton, are in the Vale of Pewsey on the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire. Alton Priors only came into ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ’s purview relatively recently, in 1912. Alton Barnes with Shaw, on the other hand, has had a much longer association with the college, being one of the first estates to be provided by the Founder for his new foundation in Oxford when it became part of the college’s endowment in 1385. As with many of the college’s estates, the ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ archive is rich with documents recording both the process of it becoming part of that endowment, and also something of the back story of its existence before then.

 

The earl of Salisbury’s counterseal, used by William Montagu (1328–1397), 2nd earl of Salisbury
²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Archives, Oxford, NCA 10039 [detail]

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

20NCN3 (2023) Stansfield on Alton Barnes.pdf405.67 KB ]]> Thu, 28 Dec 2023 19:52:41 +0000 Christopher 2921 at /ancient-virtue-and-manly-spirits-new-college-men-who-fell-second-boer-war ‘Ancient virtue and manly spirits’: The ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Men Who Fell in the Second Boer War Jason Morgan Issue number (2023): 19 Notes category Boer War Second Boer War ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ history William Brian Lancelot Alt Percy Frederick Brassey Douglas Hamilton McLean Douglas Marriott George Ralston Peddie Waddell George Edward Stevenson Salt Richard Bassett Wilson

Located on the south wall of the cloisters of ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford is a bronze commemorative plaque ‘sacred to the memory of seven former members of this house’. Who were these seven men, who fell during the fighting in the Second Boer War?

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Archives, Oxford, NCA JCR/Q1/1

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

19NCN8 (2023) Morgan on the Second Boer War.pdf1.36 MB ]]> Mon, 31 Jul 2023 14:36:46 +0000 Christopher 2768 at /some-benefactors-and-their-heraldry Some Benefactors and their Heraldry Patric Dickinson Issue number (2023): 19 Notes category Heraldry 19thC history 19C history ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ history Charles Parrott John Dell Joseph Shrimpton Vernon Watney John Fisher Eastwood Arthur Eastwood Hastings Rashdall Harry Sacher Archives

It is a commonplace that many of the coats of arms on display in Oxford colleges commemorate past benefactors. ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ is no exception, and in fact is particularly rich in heraldry that celebrates those who have contributed to its material wellbeing. This has been the case throughout its history, but the purpose of this Note is to take a look at some of the armorial additions that have been made to its fabric since the mid-19th century.

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Archives, Oxford, NCA 2429

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

19NCN7 (2023) Dickinson on Benefactors and Heraldry.pdf1.62 MB ]]> Mon, 31 Jul 2023 14:21:40 +0000 Christopher 2767 at /node/2604 A Library about ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ: Noteworthy Acquisitions in 2022 Christopher Skelton-Foord Issue number (2022): 18 Notes category Library Antiquarian Archives ²ÝÁñÊÓƵs of St Mary Winton Collection Winchester ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ history George Isaac Huntingford John Evelyn Barlas Evelyn Douglas John Galsworthy Shamus Frazer James Ian Arbuthnot Frazer Sir Jonathan Trelawny, third baronet Lord Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu, third Baron Montagu of Beaulieu Theodore Wratislaw Fernando Leal Audirac Alice Oswald

Ensuring through collection building that ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library is a library about as well as for college is one of the librarian’s many rewarding responsibilities. As we seek to enrich our collections and to preserve our institutional history, 2022 has seen important purchases and donations: of books written by alumni past, of items associated with our college and our partner Wykehamist foundation Winchester ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, as well as of books penned by celebrated fiction writers and poets of ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ presently writing.

 

Fernando Leal Audirac, The End of the Known World (Milan, 2022)
²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, NC/SKE Oversize

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

18NCN12 (2022) Skelton-Foord on Acquisitions in 2022.pdf962.7 KB ]]> Thu, 29 Dec 2022 23:59:07 +0000 Christopher 2604 at /node/2603 ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ School Archive Michael Stansfield Issue number (2022): 18 Notes category ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ School Archives ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ history

For much of the history of ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ School, dating back to the foundation of ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ itself in 1379, recourse has to be made to the main archive of ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ. What has now been taken into the ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Archive to join the rest of the college’s collection, as of October 2022, is material that largely reflects and recounts the development of the school in the last century or so of its existence.

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Archives, Oxford, NCA NCS/FB3/2

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

18NCN11 (2022) Stansfield on ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ School Archive.pdf616.97 KB ]]> Thu, 29 Dec 2022 23:41:13 +0000 Christopher 2603 at /node/2488 The German War Memorial in ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Chapel Elliot Jordan Issue number (2022): 17 Notes category First World War ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Chapel, Oxford ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ history Prince Wolrad-Friedrich zu Waldeck-Pyrmont Freiherr Wilhelm von Sell Erwin Beit von Speyer

Members of ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ will have seen and been struck by one of the smaller, but most arresting, fixtures in the chapel: the memorial to three German undergraduates who died in the First World War. Beyond the usual power of any war memorial, especially one so simply and beautifully designed, this tablet is especially evocative in its willingness to commemorate men on the opposite side of such an acrimonious pan-European conflict.

 

Monument to the ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ German War Dead, in the Ante-Chapel of ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford

17NCN8 (2022) Jordan on the German War Memorial.pdf898.85 KB ]]> Thu, 28 Jul 2022 20:31:10 +0000 Christopher 2488 at