New College, Oxford
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Template:Oxford College Infobox </div> Image:NewCollegeOxford20040124CopyrightKaihsuTai.jpg Image:Newcollege old quad oxondude.jpg Image:Newcollege gate to gardens oxondude.jpg Image:Newcollege chapel oxondude.jpg Image:New-college-chapel.jpg Image:BridgeOfSighsOxford20040124CopyrightKaihsuTai .jpg Image:Newcollege oldwall oxondude.jpg New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Its official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary," or simply "New College." One of the most famous of the Oxford colleges, it stands along Holywell Street and New College Lane (known for Oxford's Bridge of Sighs), next to All Souls College and The Queen's College. It is one of the wealthier colleges, with an estimated financial endowment of £71m (2003, although due to a recent land sale, this figure will rise to £125m in 2007).
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History
Despite its name, New College is one of the oldest of the Oxford colleges, having originally been founded in 1379. The second college in Oxford to be dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, it was founded by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester. It was founded in conjunction with the famous Winchester College, which was envisaged as a feeder to the Oxford college, and the two institutions have striking architectural similarities. Both Winchester College and New College were originally established for the education of priests, there being a shortage of properly educated clergy after the Black Death.
As well as being the first Oxford college for undergraduates and the first to have Senior members of the college give tutorials, New College was the first college in Oxford to centre on a main quadrangle, with student rooms, a dining hall, a library, and study rooms within the square ring of buildings and gates. The quadrangle design inspired many of the later colleges, perhaps most strangely St Catherine's College, Oxford because Arne Jacobsen was an ardent admirer of "the Oval", or oval-shaped lawn in the old quad. (New College's quadrangle is not the first in Oxford, however, merely the first to contain all of the above elements; the first quadrangle was Merton's Mob Quad. Merton's dining hall, though, is in a connecting building outside the quad, as is its chapel.) At the time of its founding, New College had the grandest collection of buildings for a college in Oxford, a testament to Wykeham's experience in administering both ecclesiastical and civil institutions as the Bishop of Winchester and High Chancellor of England.
The New College grounds are among the largest and most beautiful in Oxford. The Cloisters and the Chapel are of particular note, as is the old City Wall (around which the College is built); much of the mediæval stained glass in the antechapel has recently been restored. The gardens are equally impressive and include the decorative Mound (which originally had steps, but is now smooth with one set of stairs). The Mound is also known as the Squeaking Mound — if one stands at the bottom of the steps and claps, a squeaking sound can be heard. The bell tower contains one of the oldest rings of ten bells, which is rung by the Oxford Society of Change Ringers and the Oxford University Society of Change Ringers. The college is also in possession of a respectable collection of silver (including the mediæval silver gilt Founder's Crozier, housed in a display case in the chapel), and a notable "unicorn horn" (in fact a narwhal tusk).
In addition to its academic reputation and its impressive set of buildings, New College is internationally renowned for its chapel choir. As part of the original College statutes, William of Wykeham provided for a choral foundation of lay and academical clerks, with boy choristers to sing mass and the daily offices. It is a tradition that continues today with the choral services of evensong and eucharist during term. In addition to its choral duties in the chapel, the choir has established a reputation as one of the finest Anglican choirs in the world through its many recordings and concert tours. The chapel organ was built by the firm of Grant, Degens, and Bradbeer in 1969, in a case designed by George Pace; somewhat revolutionary at the time, the instrument remains no less remarkable and idiosyncratic today.
Motto
The College's motto, created by William of Wykeham, is 'Manners Makyth Man'. The motto was in many respects fairly revolutionary. Firstly, it was written in English, rather than Latin, which makes it very unusual in Oxford, and is especially revolutionary considering the College's age; even St Catherine's College, founded in 1965, has a Latin motto ("Nova et Vetera": "the new and the old").
Secondly, the motto makes a social statement. While it might initially seem to be suggesting that it is beneficial to have good manners, this does not really capture its full scope. What it really means is that it is not by birth, money, or property that an individual is defined, but in how he (or she) behaves towards other people.
Notable former students
- John Astor
- Waldorf Astor
- Edward Emerson Forbes
- Kate Beckinsale (although she left to pursue her film career before graduation)
- Tony Benn
- Gyles Brandreth
- Peter Robert Lamont Brown
- Henry Chichele
- G.A. Cohen
- Angus Deayton
- John Farthing
- Hugh Gaitskell
- Patrick Gale
- Robert P. George
- Victor Gollancz
- Hugh Grant
- H. L. A. Hart
- Peter Hobbs
- Dennis Potter
- Neil Rudenstine
- Tim Sebastian
- Rick Stein
- Adam Thirlwell
- William Warham
- William Waynflete
- See also Former students of New College
Academics/teachers
- Isaiah Berlin
- David Cecil
- Richard Crossman
- Craig Raine
- William Archibald Spooner
- Richard Dawkins
- Hermione Lee
- Robin Lane Fox
- See also Fellows of New College.
Trivia
- Amongst the many art treasures at New College are El Greco's painting of St James and Jacob Epstein's statue of "Lazarus Rising from the Dead".
- During the summer of 2004, it was used as one of the main locations for the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
- Was used in the film Tomorrow Never Dies, when James Bond is at Oxford studying languages. Also, what in the film is called the Swedish Embassy is in reality one of the Holywell Buildings of New College.
External links
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