Worcester College, Oxford

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Worcester College, Oxford

College name

Worcester College

Collegium Vigorniense

Named after

Sir Thomas Cookes,
Worcestershire

Established

1714

Sister College

St Catharine's College

Provost

Richard Smethurst

JCR President

Minesh Tanna

Undergraduates

408

MCR President

Jonathan Webb

Graduates

167

Homepage

Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its predecessor was an institution of learning since the late thirteenth century, even though the current college was founded only in the eighteenth century.

1 History
2 The College grace
3 Notable former students
4 External links

[edit] History

The buildings are diverse – especially in the main quad, to the right an imposing eighteenth century building in the neo-classical style; and to the left a row of mediæval cottages which are among the oldest residential buildings in Oxford. These cottages are the most substantial surviving part of Gloucester College, Worcester's predecessor on the same site: this was a college for Benedictine monks, founded in 1283 and dissolved with the Dissolution of the Monasteries in about 1539.

Backs of the mediæval cottages

After a lapse of twenty years, the buildings of the old Gloucester College were used in the foundation of Gloucester Hall, in around 1560. In 1714, thanks to a fortunate benefaction from a Worcestershire baronet, Sir Thomas Cookes, Gloucester Hall was transformed into Worcester College. Even then, there were only sufficient funds to rebuild the Chapel, Hall and Library and the north side of the Front Quad, known as the Terrace.

In 1736, Sir George Clarke generously left to the College his great collection of books and manuscripts. These include the papers of his father William Clarke (which are of crucial importance for the history of England during the period of the Commonwealth and Protectorate) and a large proportion of the surviving drawings of Inigo Jones.

Owing to lack of funds, Worcester's eighteenth century building programme proceeded by fits and starts. The mediæval cottages were to have been replaced by a further classical range, but survived because money for this purpose was never available; the Hall and Chapel, by James Wyatt, were not completed until the 1770s. The Chapel was extensively redecorated and refurbished by William Burges in 1864.

On the South side of the Quad, the mediæval cottages remain from the period, as does the Pump Quad, leaving a charming mixture of architecture. The gardens are the most extensive and among the most beautiful of any Oxford college, and contain not only the college's playing fields, making it the only college to have them on site, but also a lake. The Chapel, redesigned in the Victorian period by William Burges, is highly unusual and decorative; being predominantly pink (the College colours are pink and black), the pews are decorated with carved animals, including kangaroos and whales, and the walls are riotously colourful, and include frescoes of dodos and peacocks.

One of Worcester's distinctions is that it brings together on a single site the work of three major architects: Hawksmoor's in the Library, Wyatt's in the Hall, and Burges's in the Chapel. In more recent years several new residential blocks for undergraduates and graduates have been added, thanks in part to a series of generous benefactions. The latest of these include the Sainsbury Building, Linbury Building and Canal Building (for undergraduates), and the Franks Building (for graduates).

Worcester College in the early 19th century.

A modern addition to Worcester College, the Canal Building sits next to the north entrance to the college and, as the name suggests, besides the Oxford Canal. It houses fifty students in large en-suite single rooms. The accommodation is usually reserved for second and sometimes third year undergraduates.

Although Worcester is near the centre of Oxford today, it was on the edge of the city in the eighteenth century. This has been an asset in the long run, since it has allowed the College to retain very extensive gardens (26 acres). One important advantage of these gardens is that Worcester, unlike any other college, can provide playing fields for all the usual games within its own grounds.

In the mid-1960s, Post-Graduate philosopher Daniel C. Dennett threw what he claims to have been the U.K.'s first frisbee, in the College's grounds. [1] Frisbee games are now explicity banned in the College gardens.

Oxford students know Worcester best for its Ball. Every three years a thousand ball-goers enjoy the Worcester College Commemoration Ball in Worcester's fairytale grounds. Held in June, it lasts from 6pm until 6 am and the dress code is white tie. Recent Worcester Balls have made sizeable donations to local charities.

Fictional alumni of the college include Nick Guest from The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst.

[edit] The College grace

Worcester College crest

The College grace, recited by a scholar of the College before Formal Hall every night (except Saturdays, when there is no Formal Hall) is the same as the Christ Church grace, but always given in the long form:

"Nōs miserī hominēs et egēnī, prō cibīs quōs nōbis ad corporis subsidium benignē es largītus, tibi, Deus omnipotēns, Pater cælestis, grātiās reverenter agimus; simul obsecrantēs, ut iīs sobriē, modestē atque grātē ūtāmur. Īnsuper petimus, ut cibum angelōrum, vērum panem cælestem, verbum Deī æternem, Dominum nostrum Iēsum Christum, nōbis impertiāris; utque illō mēns nostra pascātur et per carnem et sanguinem eius fovēāmur, alāmur, et corrōborēmur. Amen."