Brasenose College, Oxford
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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 stands near the Radcliffe Camera in the centre of Oxford.
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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.
Image:Stamford Brazenose Knocker2.jpg 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. 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.
Notable former students
See also Former students of Brasenose College, Oxford.
- Henry Addington
- Elias Ashmole
- Frank Aydelotte
- Richard Barham
- 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
- John Foxe
- William Golding
- John Gorton
- Douglas Haig
- Mark Harper
- Peter J. King
- Professor David S. Levene
- Charles Herbert Little
- Myles "Mylo" MacInnes
- John Marston
- Alexander Nowell
- Michael Palin
- Walter Pater
- John Profumo
- Robert Runcie
- Arnold Strode-Jackson
- Thomas Traherne
- William Whittingham
- Mark Williams (actor)
- Francis Willis
- Toby Young
See also
Fictional Brasenose
Brasenose College is featured as Lonsdale College in the Inspector Morse novels and TV 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 (online text).
External links
- College website
- HCR website
- JCR website
- Brasenose student server
- Brasenose college biennial Ball
- Virtual tour of Brasenose College
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