Brasenose College, Oxford
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| Brasenose College, Oxford | ||||||||||||
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| College name | The King's Hall and College of Brasenose | |||||||||||
| aula regia et collegium aenei nasi | ||||||||||||
| Named after | Bronze door knocker | |||||||||||
| Established | 1509 | |||||||||||
| Sister College | Gonville and Caius College | |||||||||||
| Principal | Prof. Roger Cashmore | |||||||||||
| JCR President | Victoria Hutton | |||||||||||
| Undergraduates | 360 | |||||||||||
| MCR President | Chenoa Marquis | |||||||||||
| Graduates | 150 | |||||||||||
| Homepage | ||||||||||||
| Boatclub | ||||||||||||
Brasenose College, originally Brazen Nose College (in full: The King's Hall and College of Brasenose), is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Although not wealthy by comparison to other Oxbridge Colleges, it has an estimated financial endowment of £72m (2003). Often referred to by the abbreviation, "BNC", Brasenose faces the west side of Radcliffe Square opposite the Radcliffe Camera in the centre of Oxford.
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[edit] History
The College was founded in 1509 by a lawyer, Sir Richard Sutton, and the Bishop of Lincoln, William Smyth. Smyth provided the money for the college's foundation, and Sutton acquired the property. It was built on the site of Brasenose Hall — one of the medieval Oxford institutions which originally existed just as a lodging house, but which had grown to become a seat of learning. The college still maintains traditional ties to its official Visitor, the Bishop of Lincoln.
The name "Brasenose" is thought to originate from a brazen (bronze) door knocker in the shape of a nose; the nose-shaped door knocker which hangs above the high table of the main hall of Brasenose College is thought to be the original door knocker belonging to Brasenose Hall. In the 1330s, a group of students left Oxford for Stamford in Lincolnshire led by a student from Brasenose Hall, and are thought to have taken the door knocker with them. In 1890, a house in Stamford named "Brazenose" bearing a 12th-century door knocker in the shape of a nose was put on sale. The house was purchased by the college for the sake of the door knocker, which was removed and placed in the hall, believed to have been returned to its rightful home. The house, and remains of the Hall, are now part of the estate of Stamford School. Interest in the college's history by its members is still strong, and in 2006, Brasenose students made a pilgrimage to Lincoln and Stamford.
Brasenose College Boat Club (BNCBC) is popularly held to be the oldest boat club in the world; this is impossible to verify but BNCBC is certainly the oldest collegiate boat club and took part in the first ever head race, beating Jesus College Boat Club on that occasion.
The college also prides itself on its annual summer arts festival, involving various plays, pantos, comedy evenings and musical performances.
[edit] Notable former students
See also Former students of Brasenose College, Oxford.
- Henry Addington
- Elias Ashmole
- Frank Aydelotte
- Richard Barham
- Richard Barnes (bishop)
- Wilton Barnhardt
- John Brademas
- John Buchan
- Robert Burton
- David Cameron
- Colin Clark
- Colin Cowdrey
- Pete Dawkins
- Helen DeWitt
- Stephen Dorrell
- Thomas Egerton, 1st Baron Ellesmere
- William Webb Ellis
- Arthur Evans
- J. G. Farrell
- Denys Finch Hatton
- John Foxe
- Paul Frampton
- William Golding
- John Gorton
- William Robert Grove
- Douglas Haig
- Mark Harper
- Robin Janvrin
- Peter J. King
- Charles Herbert Little
- Mylo
- John Marston
- Philip Moore
- Sir John Mortimer
- Rajeev F. Nayarr
- Alexander Nowell
- Cuthbert Ottaway
- Michael Palin
- Walter Pater
- John Profumo
- Robert Runcie
- Leslie Scarman, Baron Scarman
- Rolfe Arnold Scott-James, Literary Critic
- Arnold Strode-Jackson
- Thomas Traherne
- Roy Vickers
- Lawrence Washington
- William Whittingham
- Mark Williams (actor)
- Francis Willis
- Philip Yea
- Toby Young
[edit] See also
[edit] Fictional Brasenose
- Brasenose College is featured as Lonsdale College in the Inspector Morse novels and television adaptations. It appears both as Brazenface College and under its own name in Cuthbert Bede's 19th-century comic novel Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman.
- In The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch by Terry Pratchett a reference is made to "those bastards over at Braseneck College", probably a parody of Brasenose.
- Thomas Love Peacock in his novel 'Crotchet Castle' (1831) has one of his characters say: 'the Friar is gone, and his learning with him. Nothing of him is left but the immortal nose, which, when his brazen head had tumbled to pieces, crying "Time's Past," was the only palpable fragment among its minutely pulverised atoms, and which is still resplendent over the portals of its cognominal college. That nose, sir, is the only thing to which I shall take off my hat, in all this Babylon of buried literature.'
[edit] External links
- HCR website
- JCR website
- Virtual tour of Brasenose College
- Prints of Brasenose College
- Brasenose Arts Festival website
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