On 3rd April 2023, Alastair Lack spoke about The History of Oxford University.
Alastair’s talk outlined the history of the University, starting from the 900s when students are first recorded to have been in Oxford, through to its development into the modern University with 39 Colleges and 24,000 students, drawn from over 160 countries. Before the founding of the first colleges, students lived in halls throughout the city and little importance was attached to learning. The collegiate system began with the founding of University College in 1249 with the goal of providing an education to its students who, initially, numbered only four. Balliol followed in 1263 and, in the ensuing centuries, monarchs and churchmen founded more colleges. These included, New College, established by William of Wykeham in 1379 exclusively for students from Winchester College, which he had also founded, and Lincoln College, founded by the Bishop of Lincoln in 1427 as a bulwark against the Lollards and other unorthodox religious movements for which Oxford has always been noted. Two notable 15th century colleges are All Souls, which has no students, and Magdalen. Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville, both founded in the 1870s, were the first colleges to admit women.
Oxford has many important libraries, built on the original donation, by Duke Humphry, of 200 books, and developed by Sir Thomas Bodley who established the Bodleian as a legal deposit library, entitled to a copy of every book published in the country. The Radcliffe Camera was England’s first science library.
Oxford’s colleges, museums, libraries and churches are the work of many of the greatest architects of every century, including Wren and Hawksmoor in the 17th and George Gilbert Scott in the 19th.
On 8 May 2023, Josie Midwinter will give a talk on Growing up in a Corner Shop. This will be followed by refreshments to mark the coronation of King Charles III.