Oxford Trip Report

On Wednesday 6^th September, a select band of members set off for Oxford. We all went by car, using the Park & Ride at Thornhill.

We all arrived at Jesus College about 10am and were met by Simon Smith, the Conference and Events Manager.

Simon explained that Jesus is one of 38 colleges in Oxford and that there are very strict rules about what can be done with the building, particularly the exteriors.

The college dates back to 1571, during the reign of Elizabeth I, and her picture hangs in 2 places in the college. Hugh Price, lawyer, cleric and founder of the college, petitioned Elizabeth to ‘establish a college for the spread and maintenance of the Christian church in its sincerest form’

Going through from Turl street through the porter’s lodge we entered the Front Quadrangle, the oldest parts of the college are here and date back to the 16^th century.

The chapel was added in 1619 and now serves as an location for meetings and events as well as being the chapel for the college.

The Hall was built about 1618, and features the first portrait of Elizabeth I. Looking round the walls there were many other portraits of famous students, staff and benefactors, including, founder Hugh Price, Harold Wilson, King Charles II and Lawrence of Arabia.

We then climbed the stairs to the Fellows Library, built in 1620 and rebuilt in 1679. The books used to be chained and are now slowly being digitised so that they can be consulted online.

The library has many early books in Welsh, including Bishop Morgan’s translation of the bible into Welsh (around 1588). The oldest book dates from 1467, a version of De vita Christiana by Saint Augustine, but many of the oldest books are now held in the Bodleian Library. The library contains benches at which the books can be read – they are called ’15 minute’ benches as the design has intentionally made them so uncomfortable that scholars could only bear them for 15 minutes at a time.

We then walked through the Third Quadrangle and over to the most recent addition to the college – the Cheng Yu-tung building, which is very modern and contains modern teaching rooms, student accommodation and a ‘digital hub’. The view from the top of the building is wonderful, and we stopped for a group picture.

It was then time for lunch, so we made our way back to the Hall, where a table had been reserved for us. The food was surprisingly good, but the benches were somewhat unforgiving!

After lunch we had a couple of hours to ourselves and some spent the time shopping, some doing more sightseeing and others stayed in the shadows to avoid the heat of the midday sun.

We all met up at Christ Church Cathedral for 3pm, where we were met by our guides Anne and Steve Handsley. Christ Church is unique in that it is the college chapel and also the cathedral for the city of Oxford, and as such one of the smallest cathedrals in England. This means that the Dean of the church is also the head of the college.

Before the college was built, it was the site of the church of St Frideswide’s Priory. In 1532, Cardinal Wolsey chose the church for his proposed new college – Cardinal College, but Wolsey soon fell out of favour with the king, Henry VIII for failing to secure him a divorce, and eventually the project was taken over by Henry in1532, renaming it Christ Church (Ecclesia Christi Cathedralis Oxoniensis).

More recent claims to fame include the use of parts of the building in the Harry Potter films.

There have been a good many alterations to the building over the years, but much of the building dates back to late Norman times.

Christ Church is famous for its stained glass windows, including the Becket Window from the 14^th century, the Jonah Window by Abraham Van Linge in the 17^th Century, the St Michael Window by Clayton and Bell in the 19^th century, and the famous pre-Raphaelite Frideswide Window by Edward Burne-Jones, also from the 19^th century.

The tour finished at about 4:30, and we set off to find the bus to the Park & Ride car park.

I think that everyone found the day instructive and enjoyable.

There are some more photographs on the Photo Gallery here.