Clare College, Cambridge
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Template:Oxbridge College Infobox Clare College is a college of the University of Cambridge, the second oldest surviving college after Peterhouse.
Clare is famous for its chapel choir and also for its gardens, which form part of what is known as the Backs (essentially the rear part of colleges which are next to the River Cam). The current Master is Anthony (Tony) J Badger, Paul Mellon Professor of American History.
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History
The college was founded in 1326 by the university's Chancellor, Richard de Badew, and named University Hall. Providing maintenance for only two fellows, however, it soon hit financial hardship. In 1338 the college was refounded as Clare Hall by an endowment from Elizabeth de Clare, a granddaughter of Edward I, that provided for twenty fellows and ten students.
The college was known as Clare Hall up until 1856, when it changed its name to Clare College. (A new Clare Hall was founded by Clare as a postgraduate institution in 1966). Image:Welcome to Clare.jpg Clare's 'Old Court', which frames King's College Chapel as the left border of one of the most celebrated architectural vistas in England, was built between 1638 and 1715, with a long interruption for the English Civil War. The period spans the arrival of true classicism into the mainstream of British architecture. Its progress can be traced in the marked differences between the oldest wing (the north), which still has vaulting and other features in the unbroken tradition of English Gothic, and the final southern block, which shows a fully articulated classic style.
The college's chapel was built in 1763 and designed by James Burrough. Its altarpiece is Annunciation by Cipriani.
Clare has a much-photographed bridge over the river which has fourteen stone balls decorating it. In actual fact, one of the balls has a missing section. A number of apocryphal stories circulate concerning this - the one most commonly cited by members of college is that the original builder of the bridge was not paid the full amount for his work and so removed the segment to balance the difference in payment. A more likely explanation is that a wedge of stone cemented into the ball as part of a repair job became loose and fell out, presumably still lying on the river bed. The repair work is necessary when a stone ball becomes worn around the metal rod on which it is secured to the bridge; a wedge of stone is removed from the base of the ball (around the rod) in order to free it, it is then turned sideways, a hole is drilled at the new base to receive the rod, and the wedge-shaped gap is filled with a new piece of stone. This can be observed on other balls on the same bridge, where the seam between the main ball and the replacement wedge is visible and tangible, though difficult to spot as a repaired ball is always aligned to have the new wedge facing outwards. Image:Clare Bridge 2003.jpg The bridge is the oldest of Cambridge's current bridges.
College life
Clare is known as a liberal and progressive college. In 1972 it became one of the three Cambridge colleges that led the way in admitting female undergraduates. Clare continues in this tradition and has won much praise for the transparency of its admissions process.[1]
Clare is known as one of the most musical colleges in Cambridge. Its choir is internationally recognised and has performed all over the world. Many Clare students play instruments, and the college orchestra attracts some of the best young musicians in the country. Clare holds popular jazz and drum'n'bass nights in its cellars. The Scratch Perverts used to DJ regularly.
Clare's student paper, Clareification, published by the Union of Clare Students recently won "Best University College Paper" in "The Cambridge Student" and is filled with satirical articles mocking Cambridge traditions, reports on silly student antics, and college gossip in the infamous "Clareifornication" column. It is often the subject of criticism by the staff for risqué and tasteless content. It was recently described by the Master, Professor Badger, as "an unholy cross between the Sun and Private Eye".
Image:Clare Bridge, May Ball 2005.jpg
Famous alumni
- Peter Ackroyd, author
- Anthony Appiah, philosopher
- Sir Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby of Brandon, botanist and natural scientist, Master of the College 1959-1967, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1967-1969, founded Clare Hall, Cambridge
- Peter Asprey, choral director, founded Ensemble Illuminati and Stile Antico
- Edward Atkinson, Master of the College 1856-1915, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1862-1863
- Sir David Attenborough, naturalist
- John Fleetwood Baker, Baron Baker of Windrush, scientist and engineer, Professor of Mechanical Sciences (latterly renamed Professor of Engineering) at the University of Cambridge, 1943-1970
- Sabine Baring-Gould, Victorian novelist
- John Berryman, American poet
- Samuel Blythe, Master of the College 1678-1713, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1684-1685, benefactor
- Ivor Bolton, conductor and musical director, founded St James's Baroque Players
- Sir John Boyd, now Master of Churchill College
- Harvey Brough, musician and composer, founded Harvey and the Wallbangers
- Hector Munro Chadwick, philologist and historian, Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Cambridge 1912-1941
- Charles, Lord Cornwallis, British general in the American Revolutionary War
- Christian Coulson, actor
- Richard Egarr, harpsichordist, fortepianist and musical director
- Sir Geoffrey Rudolph Elton, historian of the Tudor period, Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge 1983-1988
- Nicholas Ferrar, religious leader
- Mansfield Duvall Forbes, historian, archivist and benefactor
- Trent Ford, American actor and model
- Henry Louis Gates, African-American academic
- Sir Harry Godwin FRS, botanist and ecologist, Professor, founded the Godwin Institute for Quaternary Research in the University of Cambridge
- John Guy, leading Tudor historian and Fellow of the College
- Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, classicist, historian and archaeologist
- David Howarth, Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge and Fellow of the College
- James Rendel Harris, biblical scholar, theologian, palaeographer and mathematician
- Kit Hesketh-Harvey, comic performer and scriptwriter
- Thomas McKenny Hughes, Woodwardian Professor of Geology at the University of Cambridge 1873-1917
- Tim Hunt, biochemist
- Robert Key, Conservative MP
- Tess Knighton, hispanist, musicologist, editor of Early Music and Fellow of the College
- Hugh Latimer, Chaplain to Henry VIII, Bishop of Worcester and martyr
- Peter Lilley, Conservative MP
- Tim Loughton, Conservative MP
- Andrew Manze, baroque violinist and broadcaster, musical director of The English Concert
- Paul Mellon, benefactor
- John Moore, Bishop of Ely 1707-1714
- Arthur Darby Nock, classicist and historian of religion
- Sir Roger Norrington, conductor, founded the London Classical Players
- Matthew Parris, Broadcaster, political analyst and former Conservative MP
- Sir Brian Pippard, first President of Clare Hall, Cambridge, Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge 1971-1984
- William Brian Reddaway, economist, Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge 1969-1980
- Geoffrey Robinson, Labour MP
- George Ruggle, early seventeenth-century scholar, philologist and playwright
- John Rutter, composer, conductor, editor, arranger and record producer
- Cecil Sharp, folklorist and ethnographer
- Siegfried Sassoon, war poet
- Sir Nicholas John Shackleton FRS, geologist, Professor at the Godwin Institute for Quaternary Research and the Department of Earth Sciences in the University of Cambridge
- Rupert Sheldrake, paranormal researcher
- Richard Stilgoe, songwriter, lyricist and musician
- Harold McCarter Taylor, architectural historian
- Dr Richard Taylor, Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern MP
- Sir Henry Thirkill, physicist, Master of the College 1939-1958, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1945-1947
- Robin Ticciati, conductor, pianist, percussionist and violinist, co-founded Aurora Orchestra
- John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury 1691-1694
- Christopher Wandesford, Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1640
- James D. Watson, double helix discoverer and human genome advocate
- Richard Wainwright, Liberal MP
- Clive Wearing, musician, musicologist, broadcaster and amnesiac
- Abraham Whelock, seventeenth-century scholar, philologist and Arabist
- William Whiston, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge 1702-1711, theologian
- William Whitehead, Poet Laureate 1757-1785
- Andrew Wiles, mathematician who proved Fermat's last theorem
- Most Revd and Rt Hon Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury 2003-present
- Michael Wills, Labour MP
External links
- Clare College, Cambridge official website
- CLAREification website- the weekly satirical magazine of Clare students
- Union of Clare Students website
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