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Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford

Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on a bank of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more formally known under its current royal charter as "The Principal and Fellows of the College of the Lady Margaret in the University of Oxford".

The college was founded in 1878, closely collaborating with Somerville College. Both colleges opened their doors in 1879 as the first two women's colleges of Oxford. The college began admitting men in 1979. The college has just under 400 undergraduate students, around 200 postgraduate students and 24 visiting students. In 2016, the college became the only college in Oxford or Cambridge to offer a Foundation Year for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

In 2018, Lady Margaret Hall ranked 21st out of 30 in Oxford's Norrington Table, a measurement of the performance of students in finals.

The college's colours are blue, yellow and white. The college uses a coat of arms that accompanies the college's motto "Souvent me Souviens", an Old French phrase meaning "I often remember" or "Think of me often", the motto of Lady Margaret Beaufort, who founded Christ's College and St John's College at Cambridge, and after whom the college is named.

The principal, since October 2022, is Stephen Blyth. Notable alumni of Lady Margaret Hall include Benazir Bhutto, Michael Gove, Nigella Lawson, Josie Long, Ann Widdecombe and Malala Yousafzai.

Founding
In June 1878, the Association for the Higher Education of Women was formed, aiming for the eventual creation of a college for women in Oxford. Some of the more prominent members of the association were George Granville Bradley, Master of University College, T. H. Green, a prominent liberal philosopher and Fellow of Balliol College, and Edward Stuart Talbot, Warden of Keble College. Talbot insisted on a specifically Anglican institution, which was unacceptable to most of the other members. Some of the Anglican members of the association had specifically wanted to endow an Anglican college after Moncure Conway from the humanist South Place Religious Society in London offered a large sum of money towards a secular women's college; the established church was already concerned that University College London, which had recently become the first university to admit women, would lead "advanced women" away from Christianity.

The two parties eventually split, and Talbot's group founded Lady Margaret Hall, while T. H. Green founded Somerville College. Lady Margaret Hall opened its doors to its first nine students in 1879. The first 21 students from Somerville and Lady Margaret Hall attended lectures in rooms above a baker's shop on Little Clarendon Street. Despite the college's High Anglican origins, not all students were devout Christians.

The college was named after Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, patron of scholarship and learning. The first principal was Elizabeth Wordsworth, the great-niece of the poet William Wordsworth and daughter of Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln.

Growth and development
With a new building opening in 1894 the college expanded to 25 students.

The land on which the college is built was formerly part of the manor of Norham that belonged to St John's College. The college bought the land from St John's in 1894, the other institution driving a hard bargain and requiring a development price not only on the practical building land but also on the undevelopable water meadows. However, this land purchase marked a change in ambition from occupying residential buildings for teaching purposes to erecting buildings befitting an educational institution.

In 1897, members of Lady Margaret Hall founded the Lady Margaret Hall Settlement, as part of the settlement movement. It was a charitable initiative, originally a place for graduates from the college to live in North Lambeth where they would work with and help develop opportunities for the poor. Members of the college also helped found the Women's University Settlement, which continues to operate to this day, as the Blackfriars Settlement in south London.

Before 1920, the university refused to give academic degrees to women and would not acknowledge them as full members of the university. (Some of these women, nicknamed the steamboat ladies, were awarded ad eundem degrees by Trinity College Dublin, between 1904 and 1907. ) In 1920 the first women graduated from the college at the Sheldonian Theatre and the principal at the time, Henrietta Jex-Blake, was given an honorary degree.

During the Second World War women were not permitted to fight on the front line, and thus many of the students and fellows took up other roles to aid in the war effort, becoming nurses, firefighters and ambulance drivers. The Fellows' Lawn was dug up and the students grew vegetables as part of the Dig for Victory campaign.

In 1979, one hundred years after its foundation, the college began admitting men as well as women; it was the first of the women's colleges to do so, along with St. Anne's.

Members of the college
In 1919 J. R. R. Tolkien started to give private tuition to students at Oxford, including members of LMH, where his tuition was much needed given the college's limited resources and tutors in its early years. Later his daughter, Priscilla Reuel Tolkien, attended the college, graduating in 1951.

In 1948 Harper Lee, the future author of To Kill a Mockingbird, was a visiting student at LMH.

In 2017 Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever Nobel Prize Peace laureate and Pakistani campaigner for girls' education, became a student of the college; she described the interview as "the hardest interview of [her] life", and received an offer of AAA in her A-Levels. She graduated in 2020. Also in 2017, prospective Chemistry student Brian White faced deportation at the hands of the Home Office, but was able to take up his place at the college.

Foundation year
Lady Margaret Hall is the only Oxford college to offer a foundation year; the scheme recruits students from minority and underrepresented backgrounds, and offers successful applicants lower grade requirements than the standard Oxford entry grades. Students choose a subject to specialise in, and also take courses in study skills and other general subject areas, with the aim that they progress to an undergraduate degree at the college after a year of study. Pupils live in the college and have access to the same university facilities, both academic and social, as other students.

Modelled after a programme at Trinity College, Dublin, the four-year pilot scheme began in 2016 with 10 students, seven of whom went on to study at Oxford, with the other three receiving offers from different Russell Group universities. It was praised by David Lammy, a Labour MP who said the foundation year is "exactly the sort of thing that needs to be done", and by Les Ebdon, director of Office for Fair Access, who described the programme as "innovative and important".

Buildings and grounds

The development of the college's buildings is perhaps best thought of as a zigzag, beginning in the 1870s at the end of Norham Gardens and making its way down towards the River Cherwell, and then running back towards Norham Gardens forming quadrangles on the return journey. The following account of the buildings moves through the college as these spaces emerge for a visitor entering the college at the Porters' Lodge and walking to the river. Because of the way the college developed, the dates and styles of the buildings enclosing the quadrangles are not all of a piece.

Leatare Quadrangle

The Leatare quadrangle was completed in March 2017 and includes both the college's newest and oldest buildings. The main entrance consists of the front gates flanked by classical columns along with the porters' lodge (2017). On the North West side the Donald Fothergill Building (2017) contains student accommodation while the Clore Graduate Centre (2017) extends further out to the South East towards the University Parks.

The college's oldest buildings are along the South East side of the Leatare Quadrangle. The college's original house, a white brick gothic villa, is now known as Old Old Hall, while the adjoining red-brick extension designed by Basil Champneys is known as New Old Hall (1884). Old Old Hall originally housed the college chapel until the construction of the Deneke building. Opposite the entrance is the Wolfson West (1964), which was previously the entrance to the college.

Old Old Hall, which had been built as a speculative development on land leased from St John's College, was described as an "ugly little white villa" by the college's founder, Bishop Talbot in his 1923 history of the college. On several occasions in the twentieth century consideration was given to demolishing the earliest buildings of the college, but the temptation was resisted.

The only remaining visible evidence of the road that used to run alongside Old Old Hall and past the steps of Talbot Hall are the two large linden trees, which used to line the pavement before the road was removed to allow expansion of the college. The two smaller trees were planted during construction of the quadrangle. The recent expansion designed by John Simpson Architects was modelled after the Porta Maggiore in Rome, in conjunction with the simple façade of the Wolfson West building.

The MCR, located in the Clore Graduate Centre, is named after the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, who studied at the college from 1973 to 1977.

Wolfson Quadrangle

The architect of the main early college buildings, including Lodge, Talbot and Wordsworth, was Sir Reginald Blomfield, who had earlier worked on other educational commissions such as Shrewsbury School, and Exeter College, Oxford. He used the French Renaissance style of the 17th century for the buildings and chose red brick with white stone facings, setting a tone the college was to continue to follow in later work. These buildings describe the south and east of the Wolfson Quadrangle and run out into the gardens to the east. Blomfield was also involved in establishing and planning the gardens.

The central block, the Talbot Building (1910) on the North East of the main quad houses Talbot Hall and the Old Library (currently a reception and lecture room), while the accommodation for students and tutors is divided between three wings, the Wordsworth Building (1896), the Toynbee Building (1915) and the Lodge Building (1926).

Talbot Hall contains some fine oak panelling donated by former students to honour Elizabeth Wordsworth and, prior to the Deneke building, was used as a dining hall for the students. In recent years, it is used to house termly live music nights among other college events. The portraits in the Hall include the work of notable artists; among the portraits of principals are: In the old Library is a marble statue by Edith Bateson.
 * Sir J. J. Shannon's portrait of Dame Elizabeth
 * Philip de László's of Miss Jex-Blake
 * Sir Rodrigo Moynihan's of Dr Grier
 * Maud Sumner's of Miss Sutherland

On the North West is the Lynda Grier building (1962) housing the college library; this was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1961. The ground floor of Lynda Grier was originally student accommodation but in 2006 it was converted into a law library, which was opened that year by Cherie Blair. The library was of great importance when founded as women were not permitted to use the Bodleian Library, and thus is relatively large for an Oxford college. The Briggs room originally contained the entire archive of rare and antiquarian books donated to the college over the years. However, due to its size of around 2,000 books, the archive is now stored in the Lawrence Lacerte Rare Books Room in the new Law Library extension on the ground floor. The collection includes a Quran created c. 1600 and a Latin translation of Galileo's Dialogo from 1663.

Lynda Grier and Wolfson West were designed by Raymond Erith. In recent years the Wolfson Quadrangle, in contrast to many Oxbridge quadrangles, has been planted with wild flowers instead of an intensively managed, striped quadrangle lawn.

Lannon Quadrangle

Named after former principal, Dame Frances Lannon, the quadrangle consists of the Sutherland Building (1971) and the Pipe Partridge Building (2010). Behind this is Sutherland's sister building, Kathleen Lee (1972), which houses the JCR.

The first phase of the recent plan to expand the college, the Pipe Partridge Building, was completed in early 2010 and was opened by the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Lord Patten of Barnes, in April 2010.

The Pipe Partridge Building includes the 136-seat Simpkins Lee theatre, a dining hall, seminar rooms and 64 new undergraduate study bedrooms.

It won the Georgian Group award for the best new building in the classical tradition.

Chapel and Deneke
To the north-east extends the large Deneke block (1932) along with the hall and the college's Byzantine-style chapel where the choir practises and carol services are held in Michaelmas term. These were designed by Giles Gilbert Scott. The chapel has simple decoration with several paintings on the walls, and a statue of Margaret Beaufort that lies in the central section of the chapel. The passageway that leads to the chapel is referred to within the college as "Hell's Passage". The name was derived from the 19th-century illustrations of Dante's Inferno, by John D. Batten, that used to decorate its walls.

The chapel is in the form of a Greek cross was dedicated by the college's founder Edward Stuart Talbot, in January 1933.

In autumn 2019, Andrew Foreshew-Cain became Chaplain. In April 2019, he and other LGBT clergy in the Church of England started the Campaign for Equal Marriage in the Church of England, calling on the church to allow same-sex couples to be married in Church of England parishes, and to stop discriminating against people in such marriages.

Gardens and grounds

Lady Margaret Hall is one of the few Oxford colleges that backs onto the River Cherwell. It is set in spacious grounds (about 12 acre). The grounds include a set of playing fields, netball and tennis courts, a punt house, topiary, and large herbaceous planting schemes along with vegetable borders. There is a Fellows' Garden – hidden from view by tall hedgerows – and a Fellows' Lawn, on which walking is forbidden.

Student life
The Junior Common Room (JCR) is a physical room as well as being the association of the undergraduate members of the college. It represents its members to the college authorities and facilitates activities and budgets as well as clubs and societies. Officers are elected by the student body to communicate internally and externally on matters regarding student life.

Graduate students have similar support from that for the JCR in the Middle Common Room (MCR).

In 2022, Lady Margaret Hall was the first Oxford college to sign a government-backed pledge on ending non-disclosure agreements in cases of sexual misconduct. This followed reporting by The Times that eight female LMH students felt unsafe after the college's response to their complaints of student sexual violence between 2015 and 2021. One undergraduate said that she was threatened with expulsion if she spoke about being raped by a man who was previously reported to the college for sexual violence, and was made to sign a confidentiality agreement by the then Principal Alan Rusbridger. The college initially disputed the undergraduate's claim, but under Rusbridger's successor Christine Gerrard settled the case and paid damages to the woman. Gerrard described the pledge as part of reforms to strengthen safeguarding procedures.

Accommodation

Accommodation is always provided for undergraduates for 3 years of their study, and provided for some graduates. The accommodation is found throughout college with a ballot system giving first choice of room to the students of higher years. The Deneke building contains exclusively accommodation for first year undergraduates and students visiting from other universities.

Boating
Given the River Cherwell running past the bottom of LMH's grounds, the students have always had a strong history of spending time by or on the river with the first boat, Lady Maggie, purchased in 1885. The punt house, by tradition, opens on May Day.

Sports

In addition to university-wide societies, students at Lady Margaret Hall can also join societies specific to the college The college has a gym, found near the entrance by Pipe Partridge.

Rowing

LMH's rowing club, Lady Margaret Hall Boat Club (LMHBC) is one of the largest sports club within the college. In recent years, the club has won blades in OURCs events multiple times. The club has a boat house shared with Trinity College on Boat House Island by Christ Church Meadows, along with a purpose built erg shed, constructed to aid in training. The Men's 1st VIII have raced in the Temple Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta on several occasions. On multiple years including 2018 and 2019, members of the club have rowed in The Boat Race, an annual competition between Oxford and Cambridge.

The college's boat club has, like other UK Rowing Clubs, distinctive blazers that can be awarded by the club to members who attain membership of certain VIIIs or race with distinction in Summer Eights or Torpids. These blazers have blue and yellow trim and a blue Beaufort portcullis on them, which is the emblem of the boat club and increasingly other sports clubs.

Rowing blades commemorating success in the intercollegiate rowing competitions decorate the walls of the bar.

Football
The college football ground is situated adjacent to Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and is shared with St Catherine's College and Trinity College.

Art collection
In light of its history, the hall has a collection of portraits of early/distinguished women academics. Early Principals Lynda Grier, Dame Lucy Sutherland and Sally Chilver, along with other members of the college, were keen collectors of contemporary art and bequeathed many of these works to the College.

A Fellow in Fine Art, Elizabeth Price, was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2012.

The college's art collection includes works by:
 * Maggi Hambling
 * John Singer Sargent
 * Sir Stanley Spencer
 * Philip de László

Coat of arms
The college's coat of arms features devices that recall those associated with its foundation:

 * The portcullis is from the arms of Lady Margaret Beaufort
 * The bell is a symbol of the Wordsworth family.
 * The Talbot dogs represent Edward Talbot

The original coat of arms consisted of three daisies intertwined and bore the motto - "Ex solo ad solem" meaning "From the earth to the sun" and can be seen to adorn Talbot hall, and the Wordsworth and Toynbee buildings. The previous coat of arms gave its name to one of the early college student publications from the 1890s – The Daisy.

After the 50th anniversary of the college, the coat of arms was replaced, now encompassing features that represent the history and founding of the college.

Deneke talks
In the 20th century, the yearly Deneke talks were held in memory of Philip Maurice Deneke who died in 1924. Lectures in this series included "Goethe on nature and science" in 1942 by Nobel laureate Charles Scott Sherrington, and in 1933, Albert Einstein gave the talk "Einiges zur atomistic", concluding the address as follows: "The deeper we search, the more we find there is to know, and as long as humanity exists I believe it will always be so." Margaret Deneke, daughter of Philip, wrote of the talk in her memoirs:

Literature
In Phillip Pullman's The Secret Commonwealth, the character Lyra Belacqua attends an Oxford college, St Sophia's, which bears many similarities to Lady Margaret Hall: from its location on the map seen in "Lyra's Oxford" to being one of the first colleges to offer women an education.

A thinly disguised version of the college appeared as "Lady Matilda's College" in an episode of Lewis; portions of the episode were filmed within the hall.

The grounds, along with those of Trinity College, Oxford, were the basis for Fleet College in the American author Charles Finch's novel set in Oxford University, The Last Enchantments.

Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay includes a St Simeon's College, located approximately on the site of Lady Margaret Hall.

Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones had a St Margaret's College, which is based on Lady Margaret Hall.

The fictional St Scholastika's College in Val McDermid's 2010 novel Trick of the Dark is a formerly all-female college located in North Oxford, adjacent to the University Parks, with grounds backing on to the river, and buildings of red and yellow brick; it thus appears to be inspired as much by Lady Margaret Hall as by McDermid's own alma mater, St. Hilda's College, Oxford.

Royal visits
Queen Elizabeth II visited the hall in 1961.

Charles, Prince of Wales visited the college in 2006.

Anne, Princess Royal visited the college in 2014.

Steam locomotive
A Great Western Railway 6959 Class locomotive named Lady Margaret Hall, number 7911, was built in 1950.

It was one of the "Modified Hall" class and it was in service in the South East until December 1963.

Gardens
Unusually for Oxford colleges, students are permitted to walk on the Talbot Quadrangle, the main quad of the college. In Trinity term, a spiral of wildflowers are planted, creating a grass walkway into the centre of the quad. This is the only wildflower quad in Oxford. There is a circular wooden bench dedicated to Iris Murdoch in the college gardens where she used to go walking.

Formal Hall
The college's candlelit Formal Hall is held every Friday of term.

Lady Margaret Hall is one of nine Oxford colleges to use the "two-word" Latin grace; this grace is also used by five colleges at the University of Cambridge. The person presiding at High Table says the grace in two parts at formal meals. The first half of the grace, the ante cibum, is said before the meal starts and the second, the post cibum, once the meal's conclusion. It is as follows:

Benedictus benedicat - "May the Blessed One give a blessing"

Benedicto benedicatur - "Let praise be given to the Blessed One" or "Let a blessing be given by the Blessed One"

In contrast to some other colleges, gowns are not worn to formal hall, though they are still required at special occasions such as the Scholars' dinner and the Founders' and Benefactors' dinner.

Poet in Residence
The college has a poet in residence.

Chapel
The chapel at LMH holds weekly evensong every Friday, with services led by Andrew Foreshew-Cain, as well as Catholic communions and other seasonal services such as the Christmas carol service and the Ash Wednesday service. The LMH Chapel Choir is led by Paul Burke.

Notable members
Alumni of the college (who are termed Senior Members) include:
 * Gertrude Bell, writer and diplomat
 * Dame Harriet Baldwin, politician and chair of the Treasury Select Committee
 * Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan
 * Neil Ferguson, epidemiologist
 * Michael Gove, politician
 * Eglantyne Jebb, founder of Save the Children
 * Nigella Lawson, journalist and celebrity television cooking show presenter
 * Eliza Manningham-Buller, former director general of MI5
 * Barbara Mills, former Director of Public Prosecutions
 * Pauline Neville-Jones, former Minister of State for Security and Counter-Terrorism
 * Dominic Raab, politician
 * Marina Warner, writer
 * Baroness Warnock, philosopher
 * C. V. Wedgwood, historian
 * Ann Widdecombe, politician
 * Malala Yousafzai, youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate and female education activist

Principals
Notable principals of the college include:

 * Alan Rusbridger
 * Dame Elizabeth Wordsworth
 * Dame Francis Lannon

title: Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford


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Linacre College, Oxford

Linacre College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the UK whose members comprise approximately 50 fellows and 550 postgraduate students.

Linacre is a diverse college in terms of both the international composition of its members (the majority of whom are from outside the UK and have come from over 133 countries), as well as the disciplines studied. Linacre was the first graduate college in the UK for both sexes and all subjects. Unlike most colleges, students and fellows share the same common room and there is no high table.

The college was founded in 1962 and is named after Thomas Linacre (1460–1524), founder of the Royal College of Physicians as well as a distinguished renaissance humanist — multidisciplinary interests that the college aims to reflect.

The college is located on St Cross Road at its junction with South Parks Road, bordering University Parks to the north and the University Science Area to the west.

History
Linacre College (called Linacre House for its first three years) was the UK's first graduate society for both sexes and all subjects. Founding Principal John Bamborough described it as "a deliberate experiment by the University to see whether the needs of graduate students could be met by a new type of society."

It was founded on 1 August 1962, in premises on St Aldate's formerly occupied by St Catherine's Society (now St Catherine's College) and currently home to the university's Music Department. Initially there were 115 members of whom only 30 were British. The first senior members included Isaiah Berlin, Dorothy Hodgkin and John Hicks.

In November 1964, Linacre became a self-governing society and then on 1 August 1986 an independent college of Oxford University by royal charter. In 1977, Linacre moved to its present site at Cherwell Edge, a Queen Anne building designed in part by Basil Champneys, which was formerly a private home, a convent of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, and a residence for students of other colleges. Since 2010, the principal has been Nick Brown.

Proposed renaming
On 31 October 2021, the college signed a memorandum of understanding with SOVICO Group, represented by their chairwoman Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao to receive a donation of £155 million. The MoU sets out the intention to create a new graduate centre and endow graduate access scholarships. After receipt of the first £50 million, the College would approach the Privy Council to ask for permission to change the name from Linacre College to Thao College. The donation and proposed name change has been a source of controversy for some university staff and students due to SOVICO's interests in fossil fuel industries.

In June 2022, UK Secretary of State for Education Michelle Donelan announced that there would be a formal investigation into the memorandum of understanding between the College and SOVICO group, due to concerns raised in the House of Commons.

Coat of arms and motto
In 1988 Linacre College was granted a coat of arms blazoned:
 * Sable an open Book proper edged Or bound Gules the dexter page charged with the Greek Letter Alpha the sinister page charged with the Greek Letter Omega both Sable the whole between three Escallops Argent.

The college motto beneath the escutcheon is No End To Learning. College colours are grey, yellow and black (or silver, gold and sable) but only the latter two colours are used for rowing blades and most sports clothing.

College Grace
The College Grace is said in Latin by the Principal (or a designated Fellow) at formal dinners in Hall. Before commencement of the meal the words "Benedictus benedicat" ('May the Blessed One give a blessing') are said, all standing. After the completion of the meal the words "Benedicto benedicatur" ('May the Blessed One be blessed') are said, all standing.

Buildings and facilities
Linacre's main site is on the corner of South Parks Road and St Cross Road. In addition to the original building of 1886 (now known as the OC Tanner Building) there are three much newer accommodation blocks on the main site, all built of "Linacre College Special Blend Brick" with matching Queen Anne style architecture. The Bamborough, Abraham, and Griffiths buildings were completed in 1986, 1995, and 2008 respectively, raising the total number of student rooms on the main college site to 92.

OC Tanner Building
The oldest part of the college, known as the OC Tanner Building, contains most of the central facilities, all staff offices and some student accommodation. The heart of the building is the large common room, which has a bar and other leisure facilities. The college library, formerly a chapel, includes shared computing facilities for college members.

Gilbert Ryle Collection
As well as the main library there is also Gilbert Ryle's personal library, part of which he donated in 1968, and the remainder after his death in 1976. Ryle was involved in the creation of Linacre House in 1962, when the institution had no library. When Ryle retired in 1968, he donated many of his books to Linacre College, and the remainder of the collection after he died in 1976. The books are stored in the Linacre Bookcase and are available for use in the Linacre Library.

Bamborough Building
The first major addition to the main college site was the Bamborough Building, which opened in 1985 and was officially named in 1986. It is located beside the OC Tanner Building to form a quad featuring an ornamental fountain. A plaque on the Bamborough Building commemorates it winning an Oxford Preservation Trust award in 1987.

Abraham Building
The Edward & Asbjörg Abraham Building, completed in 1995, is primarily a residential building offering single bedrooms for students. It was designed and built as part of a movement within Linacre to raise environmental awareness and promote sustainable development. The building was named UK Green Building of the Year 1996 and won the BCE Environmental Leadership Award as well as the Oxfordshire special conservation award of 1995. A photovoltaic system was installed on the roofs of Abraham and Griffiths Buildings in 2011. The quad enclosed by the Tanner, Abraham and Griffiths buildings was named in 2012 after Jaki Leverson a former student, and contains a sculpture entitled 'The Dancing Phoenix' by Hugo Powell.

The basement of the Abraham Building houses a music practice room and the college gym, which has four ergometers, a good range of weights, various other gym equipment and space for several classes.

Griffiths Building
The newest residence on the main site is the Griffiths Building, named after former student and Honorary Fellow Rodney Griffiths. Completed in 2008, the building has 28 en suite single rooms and 4 en suite double rooms with shared kitchens. It was a finalist for two awards of The Brick Development Association.

Dining hall
Between the OC Tanner and Abraham Buildings is Linacre's large dining hall, added in 1977, which operates a canteen service most weekdays for lunch and evening meal.

The Rom Harré Garden
The most recent major development at Linacre has been the completion of a garden extension on the main site of the college in 2010. This is a quiet spot with flowers and outdoor seating. Rom Harré is a former Vice-Principal and Emeritus Fellow.

Off site accommodation
Linacre also owns or leases a number of buildings off the main site, including properties on Banbury Road, Bradmore Road, Divinity Road, Iffley Road, Stanley Road and Walton Street, which provide a further 102 rooms (including rooms for couples). The college generally offers accommodation to all first-year students (freshers) and the percentage of graduate students housed within college accommodation exceeds the university average. Students typically move into private shared housing in and around Oxford after their first year.

Common Room
Much of the college's social and sporting life is coordinated through the Common Room, of which all students, fellows and staff are members. The Common Room's elected executive committee oversees activities and works closely with college officials to represent its members' interests.

The Common Room organises numerous events during term time. Particular highlights include termly bops, which are among the largest student-run parties in Oxford. Operating across two floors and outside areas, the bops are themed parties open to members of other colleges. The biggest bop of the year is usually the matriculation bop ("sexy sub-fusc” theme) which usually attracts a queue far in excess of the 450 person capacity. In 2015, 750 people enjoyed the event at any given time, and more than 950 people attended it throughout the night. Other social events include smaller college parties, movie nights, cake baking, cheese and wine tasting and lectures.

Clubs and societies
Like all colleges, Linacre has many active sports teams and its members also represent the university in various sports. Active societies and clubs include the Linacre Music Society, Linacre College Boat Club, Linacre Recreational Football Society, Linacre Ladies that Lift weightlifting society, Linacre Yoga Society, Linacre Green Society, and Linacre Intercultural Society and Linacre Photo Society, among others.

Sustainability and ethics
The college has a strong environmental ethos and has gained a reputation as the 'green' college of Oxford through a number of environmental initiatives over the years including an official sustainability policy. Linacre has been ranked greenest college by OUSU in a number of years. The common room executive hosts an environment officer and there is an active green society since 2007 as well as an allotment society. Linacre's Abraham building won Green Building of the Year 1996 and as well as the BCE Environmental Leadership Award. In 2006 Linacre became the first carbon neutral college in Oxford by offsetting carbon emissions with a three-year contract with ClimateCare but stopped being carbon neutral in 2008.

In 2010 Linacre committed to the 10:10 campaign to reduce carbon emissions 10% that year. It has more recently set a target of 40% reduction over ten years until 2020. A photovoltaic system was installed on the roofs of Abraham and Griffiths Buildings in 2011. In 2016 Linacre invested £100,000 into the Low Carbon Hub, a renewable energy social enterprise. Linacre was the first Oxford college to achieve fairtrade status in September 2006. In 2016 Linacre also hosted a seminar series on the sustainability and ethics of banking.

Linacre runs two major public lectures each year:

Linacre Lectures on the Environment
Throughout its history the college has run an annual series of Linacre Lectures open to non-members, the first of which were given by Brian Aldiss, Robert Graves and Isaiah Berlin. Since 1991 these public lectures have focused on environmental challenges.
 * 2017: John Knox, "Global Threats to Environmental Human Rights Defenders".
 * 2014: Michael Oppenheimer, "Migration, Interconnection, Conflict: Emergent Issues and Indirect Impacts in IPCC's Fifth Assessment"
 * 2013: Mike Gidney, David Heath, and Gordon McGranahan on "Food Security and Sustainability"
 * 2012: Carl Folke, Robert Costanza, and others on "Environmental Governance and Resilience"
 * 2011: Lester R. Brown, Paul Ekins, and others on "Riding the Perfect Storm"

Tanner Lectures on Human Values
The college also holds the Tanner Lectures on Human Values.
 * 2019: Strobe Talbott, "A President for Dark Times: the Age of Reason Meets the Age of Trump".
 * 2018: Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, "Economics for the Human Race".
 * 2017: George F. R. Ellis, "On the Origin and Nature of Values".
 * 2016: Shirley Williams, "The Value of Europe and European Values".
 * 2015: Peter Singer, "From Moral Neutrality to Effective Altruism: The Changing Scope and Significance of Moral Philosophy".
 * 2014: Shami Chakrabarti, "Human Rights as Human Values".
 * 2013: Michael Ignatieff, "Representation and Responsibility: Ethics and Public Office".

Alumni

 * Juan Ossio Acuña, anthropologist and historian, and the first Peruvian Minister of Culture
 * Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, journalist
 * Carolyn Browne, diplomat, British Ambassador to Kazakhstan, former British Ambassador to Azerbaijan
 * Stefan Buczacki, botanist, horticulturist, broadcaster, author
 * James J. Busuttil, lawyer, legal academic and company director
 * Deborah Cadbury, author and television producer
 * Edward Chen, CBE, GBS, Professor and Fellow of the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong
 * Nigel A. L. Clarke, Minister of Finance and the Public Service of Jamaica and Jamaican Member of Parliament
 * Heather Couper, astronomer, television and radio presenter, writer, and film producer; served as commissioner for the Millennium Commission
 * Gianni De Fraja, Professor of Economics at the University of Nottingham
 * Flavio Delbono, Italian economist and politician
 * Satsuki Eda, served as President of the House of Councillors of Japan
 * Neil Ferguson,, epidemiologist, Professor of Mathematical Biology and head of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London
 * Raymond Flood, former Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College
 * Philip A. Gale, Professor of Chemistry and Head of School, University of Sydney
 * Crispin Gardiner, New Zealand theoretical physicist and professor at University of Otago
 * Elspeth Garman, Professor of Molecular Biophysics at Oxford
 * David Gavaghan, Professor of Computational Biology at Oxford
 * Frene Ginwala, South African politician and former journalist
 * Carolyn Tanner Irish, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah
 * Dafydd Glyn Jones, Welsh scholar and lexicographer
 * Joanna Kavenna, novelist, essayist and travel writer, Granta Best of Young British Novelists 2013
 * David Kelly, biological weapons expert
 * John Keown, Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Christian Ethics at Georgetown University
 * Lady Gabriella Kingston, anthropologist and freelance journalist
 * Guy Lloyd-Jones,, Forbes Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh
 * Jef McAllister, American journalist, author and lawyer, former White House Correspondent and London Bureau Chief of Time magazine
 * Alister McGrath, Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at Oxford
 * P. Michael McKinley, United States Ambassador to Brazil, former United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, Colombia, and Peru
 * Urjit Patel, 24th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India
 * Anthony Pierce, former Bishop of Swansea and Brecon
 * Kenneth Joseph Riley, former Canon Precentor at Liverpool Cathedral
 * Ian Stanes, former Archdeacon of Loughborough
 * Brian Tanner, Professor of Physics and Dean of Knowledge Transfer at Durham University
 * Paul Tellier, former Clerk of the Privy Council (Canada)
 * Stephen Venner, Bishop to the Forces and Bishop for the Falkland Islands
 * Keith Ward, British cleric, philosopher and theologian
 * Alexis Weedon, UNESCO chairholder in New Media Forms of the Book at the University of Bedfordshire
 * Jake Wetzel, Olympic gold medallist rower
 * Martin Wharton, Bishop of Newcastle

Fellows

 * Silke Ackermann, Director of the History of Science Museum, Oxford, and the first woman to direct a museum at the university
 * Martin Aitken,, Oxford professor of archaeometry
 * Hazel Assender, Professor in Materials at Oxford
 * James Bennett, Professor of the History of Science at Oxford, former Director of the History of Science Museum, Oxford
 * Hermann Blaschko, Reader in Biochemical Pharmacology at Oxford
 * Simon Buczacki, Richard Blackwell Pharsalia Professor of Colorectal Surgery at Oxford
 * Brian Catling, Professor of Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art
 * Rupert Cecil, World War II bomber pilot (DFC and Bar), scientific intelligence officer, and first Dean and Vice Principal of Linacre College
 * Chris Dobson, chemist and structural biologist, and Master of St John's College, Cambridge
 * Ursula Dronke, former Vigfússon Reader in Old Norse at Oxford
 * Terry Eagleton, literary critic and theorist, Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University
 * Margaret Gowing,, holder of the first chair in the History of Science at Oxford
 * Rom Harré, former Director of the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science at the London School of Economics
 * Sir John Hicks, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
 * Ursula Hicks, economist and founder of The Review of Economic Studies
 * Schuyler Jones,, anthropologist and Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum
 * Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel Prize–winning biochemist, former President of the Royal Society, Chancellor of the University of Bristol
 * Michael Stumpf, Professor of Theoretical Systems Biology at Imperial College
 * Henri Tajfel, former Chair of Social Psychology at the University of Bristol
 * Michael J. Whelan, Professor in the Department of Materials at Oxford, and recipient of multiple awards for work in crystallography and microscopy including the Hughes Medal, the C.V. Boys Prize, and the Gjønnes Medal

Honorary Fellows

 * David Hope, Baron Hope of Thornes
 * Malala Yousafazai, youngest individual to win the Nobel Peace Prize and advocate for women's education
 * Obert C. Tanner
 * Geoffrey Thomas

Principals

 * 1962–1988: John Bamborough, founding principal
 * 1988–1996: Sir Bryan Cartledge
 * 1996–2010: Paul Slack
 * 2010–present: Nick Brown

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Linacre College, Oxford


text:
Mansfield College, Oxford

Mansfield College, Oxford is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. The college was founded in Birmingham in 1838 as a college for Nonconformist students. It moved to Oxford in 1886 and was renamed Mansfield College after George Mansfield and his sister Elizabeth. In 1995 a royal charter was awarded giving the institution full college status. The college grounds are located on Mansfield Road, near the centre of Oxford.

As of February 2018, the college comprises 231 undergraduates, 158 graduates, 34 visiting students, and 67 fellows and academics.

Helen Mountfield, a barrister and legal scholar, has been the principal of the college since 2018.

History
The college was founded in 1838, under the patronage of George Storer Mansfield (1764–1837) and his two sisters Sarah (1767–1853) and Elizabeth (1772–1847), as Spring Hill College, Birmingham, a college for Nonconformist students. In the nineteenth century, although students from all religious denominations were legally entitled to attend universities, they were forbidden by statute from taking degrees unless they conformed to the Church of England.

In 1871, the Universities Tests Act abolished all religious tests for non-theological degrees at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham Universities. For the first time the educational and social opportunities offered by Britain's premier institutions were open to some Nonconformists. The Prime Minister who enacted these reforms, William Ewart Gladstone, encouraged the creation of a Nonconformist college at Oxford.

Spring Hill College moved to Oxford in 1886 and was renamed Mansfield College after George Mansfield and his sister Elizabeth. The Victorian buildings, designed by Basil Champneys on a site bought from Merton College, were formally opened in October 1889.

Mansfield was the first Nonconformist college to open in Oxford. Initially the college accepted men only, the first woman (Constance Coltman) being admitted to read for an external degree in 1913.

During World War II, over forty members of staff from the Government Code & Cypher School moved to the college to work on British codes and cyphers.

Like many of Oxford's colleges, Mansfield admitted its first mixed-sex cohort in 1979, having previously not accepted women to read for Oxford degrees.

In 1955 the college was granted the status of permanent private hall within the University of Oxford and in 1995 a royal charter was awarded giving the institution full college status.

Nonconformist roots
Since the college was first formally integrated into the university structure in 1955, its Nonconformist aspects have gradually diminished. Until 2007 Mansfield trained United Reformed Church (URC) ordinands, who became fully matriculated members of the university and received degrees.

The Nonconformist history of the college is however still apparent in a few of its features. A portrait of Oliver Cromwell hangs in the Senior Common Room and portraits of the dissenters of 1662 hang in the library and the corridors of the main college building, together with portraits of Viscount Saye and Sele, John Hampden, Thomas Jollie and Hugh Peters. The college chapel is unconsecrated, and contains stained glass windows and statues depicting leading figures from Nonconformist movements, including Cromwell, Sir Henry Vane and William Penn. Chapel services are still conducted in a Nonconformist tradition. Over the years attendance at chapel services has declined and the make-up of the general student body no longer reflects the Nonconformist religious origins of the college.

Grounds
The grounds of Mansfield College are located on Mansfield Road, near the centre of Oxford, and to the south of the Science Area. The grounds are near the University Parks and the River Cherwell. The college shares a boundary wall with Wadham College.

Buildings
The main building was designed by architect Basil Champneys, and built between 1887 and 1889. It houses the main college library, the law library and the theology library. It is also home to the college's Junior Common Room, Middle Common Room, and Senior Common Room. The main college building encloses three sides of the large quadrangle, which has a circular lawn. The college also has several other buildings, primarily used for student accommodation, which are opposite the main building. Unusually, Mansfield College is not accessed via the porter's lodge, the college staff maintaining that this is representative of its open and non-conformist ethos. However, early outlines of schematics for the college show an enclosed second quadrangle behind the main building, with the front tower serving as a gatehouse into this area. However, the college's constituent poverty and lack of funds owing to its non-conformist history prevented these plans from being executed. What was planned to be a traditional style porter's lodge can still be found in the main building: on 1902 plans, the tiny room opening directly on to the entrance hall is labelled 'Porter'.

The latest addition to the college's facilities, the Hands Building, was designed by Rick Mather Architects and uses renewable energy sources. It incorporates 74 en-suite study bedrooms, seminar rooms and a 160-seat auditorium that will be used for lectures, as a cinema, moot court and performing arts space. It was nominated for the Royal Institute of British Architects South Regional Awards 2019.

Academic performance
The Norrington Table is an annual ranking of the colleges of the University of Oxford by number and class of degrees awarded. In 2019 Mansfield ranked 5th out of 30 Colleges in the table. The university advises that due to the small number of degrees awarded the rankings should be treated with caution. Mansfield's academic performance, as reflected in the Norrington Table, is currently within the same 10% range as most of the other colleges.

Student life
Mansfield College Boat Club and a number of other college organisations are popular amongst the students, achieving results competitive with the larger colleges. Many of the sports teams are "combined" in partnership with Merton College.

Like many of the constituent colleges of Oxford University, Mansfield holds a ball once every three years.

In Oxford tradition, Mansfield College holds regular formal dinners. These take place every Wednesday and Friday in the Chapel Hall.

Mansfield is known for placing emphasis on access, welfare and equality, with over 90% of students coming from a state school background. The college is recognized as a University College of Sanctuary by the UK charity City of Sanctuary, and has launched a fully-funded Sanctuary Scholarship.

College grace
In 2011, Mansfield College adopted two distinct pre-supper graces, one religious and one non-religious, in an effort to be inclusive to persons of different faiths, or none.

Prior to 2011, the college used the following, specifically Christian grace, adopted in 1953:

Omnipotens Deus, clementissime Pater, omnis boni fons, in donis tuis gaudentes nomen tuum magnificamus, per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Translated: Almighty God, Father of mercies and fount of every good, in the enjoyment of thy gifts we bless thy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Media Stories
1. [https://www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/for-mansfield-forever/forever/ ''For Mansfield. Forever.'' Campaign]

The Guardian, 'Oxbridge must help pupils from state schools succeed, college head says', 10 March 2024

2. The appointment of Matt Cook as the UK's first professor of LGBTQ+ History at Mansfield College, University of Oxford.

 * The Guardian, 5 June 2023
 * The Telegraph, 5 June 2023
 * The Times, 6 June 2023
 * The Independent, June 2023
 * The Pink News, 5 June 2023
 * The Guardian, 8 February 2022

Other features include the Evening Standard, The Irish News, Gay Times, World at One, Jack FM, Talk TV amongst others.

3. Other Press

 * The Economist, 'State-school admissions are rising at Oxford and Cambridge', 11 March 2023
 * Counsel, 'Oxbridge Legal Heads: the rise of the barrister-principal', 28 July 2020
 * The Guardian, 'Last year one Oxford college admitted 96% of its students from state schools. How did they do it?', 24 March 2020
 * The Sunday Times, 'State pupils flock to Oxford college and degree results soar', 16 February 2020
 * The Times, 'Oxbridge leaders urge 95% intake from state schools', 30 October 2022

Principals

 * 1886 to 1909: Andrew Martin Fairbairn; first principal of Mansfield College
 * 1909 to 1932: William Boothby Selbie
 * 1932 to 1953: Nathaniel Micklem
 * 1953 to 1970: John Marsh
 * 1970 to 1977: George Bradford Caird
 * 1977 to 1986: Donald Armstrong Sykes
 * 1989 to 1996: Dennis John Trevelyan
 * 1996 to 2002: David Marquand
 * 2002 to 2011: Diana Walford
 * 2011 to 2018: Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws
 * 2018 to date: Helen Mountfield

Staff and fellows
The theologian Albert Schweitzer was a special lecturer at the college and often performed on the chapel organ. The Rev. John Muddiman, G. B. Caird Fellow in New Testament Theology, and Michael Freeden, director of the Centre for Political Ideologies and founding editor of the Journal of Political Ideologies, are two recently retired (now emeritus) fellows of the college. Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the British astrophysicist known for first discovering radio pulsars, is currently a visiting professor.

Honorary fellows of the college include Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the US; Shami Chakrabarti, former director of the civil rights group Liberty and chancellor of Oxford Brookes University; journalist and economist Will Hutton; politician Paddy Ashdown; actress Dame Maggie Smith; US senator Hillary Clinton; and barrister Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws.

Notable alumni

 * Robert Merrihew Adams, philosopher of religion
 * Pamela Sue Anderson, philosopher
 * Marcus Borg, US academic and theologian
 * Sir Chris Bryant, MP
 * G. B. Caird, biblical scholar, Senior Tutor, and Principal; later Dean Ireland's Professor of Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford.
 * Constance Coltman, one of the first women ordained to Christian ministry in Britain
 * Paul Crossley, pianist
 * Adam Curtis, BAFTA award-winning filmmaker, producer and writer
 * Kwesi Dickson, academic, theologian, author and former President of Methodist Church Ghana
 * James Dingemans, constitutional lawyer and prosecutor during the Hutton Inquiry
 * C. H. Dodd, theologian, chairman of New English Bible translators
 * John Glen, politician
 * Uri Gordon, anarchist writer and activist
 * Colin Gunton, theologian
 * Guy Hands, private equity investor, founder of Terra Firma Capital Partners
 * Peter Hessler, US writer and journalist
 * Charles Silvester Horne, MP, Nonconformist author, hymn writer and preacher
 * Lincoln Hurst, biblical scholar and film historian
 * Sir Philip Jones, Royal Navy Officer, an Admiral, First Sea Lord - Head of the Royal Navy
 * R. Tudur Jones, Welsh nationalist and theologian
 * Munira Mirza, former Head of the Policy Unit, 10 Downing Street
 * Joe Seddon, tech entrepreneur and CEO of Zero Gravity
 * Michael Pollan, US author, journalist and activist
 * Stephen Pollard, British author and journalist
 * Cecil Pugh, GC, Royal Air Force chaplain and George Cross recipient
 * H. Wheeler Robinson, Principal of Regent's Park College, Oxford and Old Testament scholar
 * Erik Routley, composer and musicologist
 * Justin Rowlatt, TV journalist
 * Adam von Trott, member of the German resistance in World War II
 * Amos Wilder, US poet and theologian

title: Mansfield College, Oxford


text:
Brogden, North Carolina

Brogden is a census-designated place (CDP) in Wayne County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,510 in 2020. It is included in the Goldsboro, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History
The community takes its name from the Brogden family, Quakers of English descent who settled in the area during the colonial period.

Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

Brogden is the birthplace of Ava Gardner.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 2.2 sqmi, of which, 2.2 sqmi of it is land and 0.04 sqmi of it (1.82%) is water.

Brogden's elevations are on average 175 feet above sea level. The area is underlain by unconsolidated beds of sand, clay and gravel. Most of these beds were deposited in seawater as the sea advanced and retreated during the geologic development of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. To a much lesser extent, streams deposited layers of sediment which mixed with that deposited on the sea floor.

The climate in Brogden is characterized by warm summers and moderate winters. The average temperature is about 62 degrees. Annual precipitation is about 50 inches of rainfall per year, with the major portion occurring in the late spring and summer.

Brogden also is the name of a farming community in neighboring Johnston County where Hollywood actress Ava Gardner lived as a child.

2020 census
''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.''

2000 Census
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,907 people, 1,030 households, and 784 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 1,346.1 PD/sqmi. There were 1,157 housing units at an average density of 535.8 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the CDP was 36.29% White, 56.90% African American, 0.52% Native American, 0.34% Asian, 4.27% from other races, and 1.69% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.67% of the population.

There were 1,030 households, out of which 35.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.6% were married couples living together, 21.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.8% were non-families. 18.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.82 and the average family size was 3.17.

In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 28.1% under the age of 18, 9.7% from 18 to 24, 28.8% from 25 to 44, 25.2% from 45 to 64, and 8.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.5 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $32,875, and the median income for a family was $35,804. Males had a median income of $25,545 versus $19,828 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $15,293. About 13.6% of families and 15.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.5% of those under age 18 and 29.4% of those age 65 or over.

Education
Education in Brogden is administered by the Wayne County Public School system with children attending schools in nearby townships. Higher education is offered through Wayne Community College in Goldsboro and Mount Olive College in Mount Olive.

Passenger

 * Air: Brogden is served through nearby Kinston Regional Jetport with service to Orlando, Florida. Raleigh-Durham International Airport is the closest major airport with service to more than 45 domestic and international destinations. Goldsboro-Wayne Municipal Airport is an airport located nearby, but is only used for general aviation.
 * Interstate Highway: I-795 is the closest Interstate to Brogden, which is located 7 miles north in Goldsboro.
 * Brogden is not served directly by passenger trains. The closest Amtrak station is located in Selma.
 * Bus: The area is served by Greyhound with a location in nearby Goldsboro.

Roads

 * The main highway in Brogden is US 117.

title: Brogden, North Carolina


text:
Merton College, Oxford

Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to support it. An important feature of de Merton's foundation was that this "college" was to be self-governing and the endowments were directly vested in the Warden and Fellows.

By 1274, when Walter retired from royal service and made his final revisions to the college statutes, the community was consolidated at its present site in the south east corner of the city of Oxford, and a rapid programme of building commenced. The hall and the chapel and the rest of the front quad were complete before the end of the 13th century. Mob Quad, one of Merton's quadrangles, was constructed between 1288 and 1378, and is claimed to be the oldest quadrangle in Oxford, while Merton College Library, located in Mob Quad and dating from 1373, is the oldest continuously functioning library for university academics and students in the world.

Like many of Oxford's colleges, Merton admitted its first mixed-sex cohort in 1979, after over seven centuries as an institution for men only. Merton's second female warden, Irene Tracey, was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 2022, and Professor Jennifer Payne was subsequently elected as acting warden in 2022 and as warden in 2023.

Alumni and academics past and present include five Nobel laureates, the writer J. R. R. Tolkien, who was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 to 1959, and Liz Truss, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in September and October 2022. Merton is one of the wealthiest colleges in Oxford and held funds totalling £298 million as of July 2020.

Foundation and origins

Merton College was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton, Lord Chancellor and Bishop of Rochester. It has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford, a claim which is disputed between Merton College, Balliol College and University College. One argument for Merton's claim is that it was the first college to be provided with statutes, a constitution governing the college set out at its founding. Merton's statutes date back to 1264, whereas neither Balliol nor University College had statutes until the 1280s.

Merton has an unbroken line of wardens dating back to 1264. Of these, many had great influence over the development of the college. Henry Savile was one notable leader who led the college to flourish in the early 17th century by extending its buildings and recruiting new fellows.

In 1333, masters from Merton were among those who left Oxford in an attempt to found a new university at Stamford. The leader of the rebels was reported to be one William de Barnby, a Yorkshireman who had been fellow and bursar of Merton College.

St Alban Hall

St Alban Hall was an independent academic hall owned by the convent of Littlemore until it was purchased by Merton College in 1548 following the dissolution of the convent. It continued as a separate institution until it was finally annexed by the college in 1881, on the resignation of its last Principal, William Charles Salter.

Parliamentarian sympathies in the Civil War
During the English Civil War, Merton was the only Oxford college to side with Parliament. This was due to an earlier dispute between the Warden, Nathaniel Brent, and the Visitor of Merton and Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. Brent had been Vicar-General to Laud, who had held a visitation of Merton College in 1638, and insisted on many radical reforms: his letters to Brent were couched in haughty and decisive language.

Brent, a parliamentarian, moved to London at the start of the Civil War: the college's buildings were commandeered by the Royalists and used to house much of Charles I's court when Oxford was the Royalists' capital. This included the King's French wife, Queen Henrietta Maria, who was housed in or near what is now the Queen's Room, the room above the arch between Front and Fellows' Quads. A portrait of Charles I hangs near the Queen's Room as a reminder of the role it played in his court.

Brent gave evidence against Laud in his trial in 1644. After Laud was executed on 10 January 1645, John Greaves, one of the subwardens of Merton and Savilian Professor of Astronomy, drew up a petition for Brent's removal from office; Brent was deposed by Charles I on 27 January 1646 and replaced by William Harvey.

Thomas Fairfax captured Oxford for the Parliamentarians after its third siege in 1646 and Brent returned from London. However, in 1647, a parliamentary commission (visitation) was set up by Parliament "for the correction of offences, abuses, and disorders" in the University of Oxford. Nathaniel Brent was the president of the visitors. Greaves was accused of sequestrating the college's plate and funds for King Charles I. Despite a deposition from his brother Thomas, Greaves had lost both his Merton fellowship and his Savilian chair by 9 November 1648.

Buildings and grounds

The "House of Scholars of Merton" originally had properties in Surrey (in present-day Old Malden) as well as in Oxford, but it was not until the mid-1260s that Walter de Merton acquired the core of the present site in Oxford, along the south side of what was then St John's Street (now Merton Street). The college was consolidated on this site by 1274, when Walter made his final revisions to the college statutes.

The initial acquisition included the parish church of St John (which was superseded by the chapel) and three houses to the east of the church which now form the north range of Front Quad. Walter also obtained permission from the king to extend from these properties south to the old city wall to form an approximately square site. The college continued to acquire other properties as they became available on both sides of Merton Street. At one time, the college owned all the land from the site that is now Christ Church to the south-eastern corner of the city. The land to the east eventually became the current Fellows' garden, while the western end was leased by Warden Richard Rawlins in 1515 for the foundation of Corpus Christi (at an annual rent of just over £4).

Chapel

By the late 1280s, the old church of St John the Baptist had fallen into "a ruinous condition", and the college accounts show that work on a new church began in about 1290. The present choir, with its enormous east window, was complete by 1294. The window is an important example (because it is so well dated) of how the strict geometrical conventions of the Early English Period of architecture were beginning to be relaxed at the end of the 13th century. The south transept was built in the 14th century, the north transept in the early years of the 15th. The great tower was complete by 1450. The chapel replaced the parish church of St. John and continued to serve as the parish church as well as the chapel until 1891. It is for this reason that it is generally referred to as Merton Church in older documents, and that there is a north door into the street as well as doors into the college. This dual role also probably explains the enormous scale of the chapel, which in its original design was to have a nave and two aisles extending to the west.

A new choral foundation was established in 2007, providing for a choir of sixteen undergraduate and graduate choral scholars singing from October 2008. The choir was formerly directed by Peter Phillips, director of the Tallis Scholars, and is now directed by Benjamin Nicholas, a former director of music at Tewkesbury Abbey. In 2013, the installation of a new organ, designed and built by Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, was completed. The chapel is known for its acoustics. A spire from the chapel has resided in Pavilion Garden VI of the University of Virginia since 1928, when "it was given to the University to honor Jefferson's educational ideals."

Front quad and the hall

The hall is the oldest surviving college building, originally completed before 1277, but apart from the fine medieval ironwork on the door, almost no trace of the ancient structure has survived the successive reconstruction efforts; first by James Wyatt in the 1790s and then again by Gilbert Scott in 1874, whose work included the “handsome oak roof”. The hall is still used daily for meals in term time. It is not usually open to visitors.

Front quad itself is probably the earliest collegiate quadrangle, but its informal, almost haphazard, pattern cannot be said to have influenced designers elsewhere. A reminder of its original domestic nature can be seen in the north east corner where one of the flagstones is marked "Well". The quad is formed of what would have been the back gardens of the three original houses that Walter acquired in the 1260s.

Mob Quad and library
Visitors to Merton are often told that Mob Quad is the oldest quadrangle of any Oxford or Cambridge college and set the pattern for future collegiate architecture. It was built in three phases: 1288–1291, 1304–1311, and finally completed with the Library in 1373–1378. But Merton's own Front Quad was probably enclosed earlier, albeit with a less unified design. Other colleges can point to similarly old and unaltered quadrangles, for example Old Court at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, built c.1353–1377.

Fellows' Quad

The grandest quadrangle in Merton is the Fellows' Quadrangle, immediately south of the hall. The quad was the culmination of the work undertaken by Henry Savile at the beginning of the 17th century. The foundation stone was laid shortly after breakfast on 13 September 1608 (as recorded in the college Register), and work was complete by September 1610 (although the battlements were added later). The southern gateway is surmounted by a tower of the four Orders, probably inspired by Italian examples that Warden Savile would have seen on his European travels. The main contractors were from Yorkshire (as was Savile); John Ackroyd and John Bentley of Halifax supervised the stonework, and Thomas Holt the timber. This group were also later employed to work on the Bodleian Library and Wadham College.

Other buildings

Most of the other buildings are Victorian or later and include: St. Alban's Quad (or "Stubbins"), designed by Basil Champneys, built on the site of the medieval St Alban Hall (elements of the older façade are incorporated into the part that faces onto Merton Street); the Grove building, built in 1864 by William Butterfield but "chastened" in the 1930s by T.H. Hughes; the buildings beyond the Fellows' Garden called "Rose Lane"; several buildings north of Merton Street, including a real tennis court, and the Old Warden's Lodgings (designed by Champneys in 1903); and a new quadrangle in Holywell Street, some distance away from the college.

TS Eliot Lecture Theatre
TS Eliot Lecture Theatre is a new lecture theatre named after T. S. Eliot, a former member of the college, opened in 2010. It has a bust of the writer by Jacob Epstein, presented by Frank Brenchley, a former member and Fellow of the college. Brenchley presented his collection of Eliot first editions and ephemera to the college, which is believed to be the second largest collection of such material worldwide. The foyer is illuminated by a lighting display representing three constellations that were visible on the night of 14 September 1264, the day the college was founded.

Gardens
The garden fills the southeastern corner of the old walled city of Oxford. The walls may be seen from Christ Church Meadows and Merton Field (now used by Magdalen College School, Oxford as a playing field for cricket, rugby, and football). The gardens are notable for a mulberry tree planted in the early 17th century, an armillary sundial, an extensive lawn, a Herma statue, and the old Fellows' Summer House (now used as a music room and rehearsal space).

Student life

Merton admits both undergraduate and graduate students. It admitted its first female students in 1980 and was the second former male college to elect a female head of house (in 1994). Merton has traditionally had single-sex accommodation for first-year undergraduates, with female students going into the Rose Lane buildings and most male students going into three houses on Merton Street. This policy was abandoned in 2007, with all accommodation now mixed by sex and course.

Undergraduate admission to the college, like other Oxford colleges, is based solely on academic potential. In 2010, it was (incorrectly) reported that Merton had not admitted a black student in the previous five years. A university spokeswoman commented that black students were more likely to apply for particularly oversubscribed subjects. The university also reported that Merton had admitted at least one black undergraduate since 2005.

Reputation
Since the introduction of an official Norrington Table published by the university in 2004, Merton occupied one of the top three positions every year (often coming in 1st), until 2012 when it dropped to 14th. In 2014, it regained the first position, preserving its status as one of the most academically successful colleges of the last twenty years. In 2021, Merton was ranked Oxford's top college in the Norrington Table, with a score of 82.9.

Traditions
At the 'Time Ceremony', students dressed in formal academic dress walk backwards around the Fellows' Quad drinking port. Traditionally participants also held candles, but this practice has been abandoned in recent years. Many students have now adopted the habit of linking arms and twirling around at each corner of the quad. The alleged purpose of this tradition is to maintain the integrity of the space–time continuum during the transition from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time, which occurs in the early hours of the last Sunday in October. However, the ceremony (invented by two undergraduates in 1971) mostly serves as a spoof of other Oxford ceremonies, and historically as a celebration of the end of the experimental period of British Standard Time from 1968 to 1971 when the UK stayed one hour ahead of GMT all year round. There are three toasts associated with the ceremony. The first is "to a good old time!"; the second, a joint toast to the sundial and the nearby mulberry tree (morus nigra), "o tempora, o more"; and the third, "long live the counter-revolution!".

Merton is the only college in Oxford to hold a triennial winter ball, instead of the more common Commemoration ball. The most recent of these was held on 26 November 2022.

Societies

Merton has a number of drinking and dining societies, along the lines of other colleges. These include the all-male Myrmidons, the female-equivalent Myrmaids and L'Ancien Régime. The Myrmidon club is open to all members of the college in the present day, male or female, and hosts termly black tie events.

Merton is host to a number of subject-specific societies, the most notable being the Halsbury Society (Law) and the Chalcenterics (Classics). Other academic societies include the Neave Society, which aims to discuss and debate political issues, and the Bodley Club, founded in 1894 as a forum for undergraduate papers on literature but now a speaker society.

The Bodley Club
The Bodley Club is a speaker society at Merton College, Oxford. Founded in 1894 as a forum in which undergraduates delivered academic papers on literature, the club has changed form over the years, and was reformed in the 1980s as a speaker society. All members of the college, and usually members of the university as a whole, are invited to their events.

The club began on 19 May 1894 (though it was not christened 'The Bodley Club' until June). The initial constitution contained a rule (Rule 7) which stated that 'a written paper is preferred, but any member may speak on any literary subject instead or may propose that any literary work be read at the meeting.' It was not long before this provision was required, as the minute-book reveals in its entry for 19 October 1894: 'Owing to unpardonable slackness on the part of members, the four months of vacation proved insufficient to collect coherent ideas on any particular subject...However an agreeable and instructive evening was passed in reading Tennyson's 'Maud'.' From early years the club has maintained a troubled existence, and the Secretary noted on 1 November 1900 a motion of censure 'against a person or persons unknown who were responsible for the undoubted blackness which is creeping over the Bodley Club.' Nevertheless, the club has continued in one form or another to the present day.

Among the notable papers delivered to the Bodley Club are those by Frederic Harrison, Harold Henry Joachim, Henry Hamilton Fyfe (brother of the Secretary, William), Northrop Frye, Alister Clavering Hardy, and Ronald Knox. Several of the club's first members went on to become significant figures, including Herbert George Flaxman Spurrell and William Hamilton Fyfe.

Sports

Merton has a long-standing sporting relationship with Mansfield College, with the colleges fielding amalgamated sports teams for many major sports. In rowing, Merton College Boat Club has been Head of the River in Summer Eights once; its men's 1st VIII held the headship in 1951. Merton's women have done better in recent years, gaining the headship in Torpids in 2003 and rowing over to defend the title in 2004.

Grace
The college preprandial grace is amongst the longest in Oxford, and is always recited before formal dinners in Hall, usually by the senior postmaster present. The first two lines of the Latin text are based on verses 15 and 16 of Psalm 145.
 * Oculi omnium in te respiciunt, Domine. Tu das escam illis tempore opportuno.
 * Aperis manum tuam, et imples omne animal benedictione tua.
 * Benedicas nobis, Deus, omnibus donis quae de tua beneficentia accepturi simus.
 * Per Jesum Christum dominum nostrum, Amen.

Roughly translated it means:
 * The eyes of the world look up to thee, O Lord. Thou givest them food in due season.
 * Thou openest thy hand and fillest every creature with thy blessing.
 * Bless us, O God, with all the gifts which by thy good works we are about to receive.
 * Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Amen.

For the relevant verses of the Psalm, the Authorized Version has:
 * 15. The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
 * 16. Thou openst thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.

In contrast, Merton's post-prandial grace is brief: Benedictus benedicat ("Let him who has been blessed, give blessing"). The latter grace is spoken by the senior Fellow present at the end of dinner on High Table.

At the University of Cambridge, a slightly different version of the Latin text of these verses is painted around Old Hall in Queens' College, Cambridge, and is "commonly in use at other Cambridge colleges".

People associated with Merton
Merton alumni (Mertonians) and fellows have pursued careers in a variety of disciplines.

1264 to 1900
Among the earliest people that have been claimed as Merton fellows are William of Ockham and Duns Scotus, outstanding academic figures from the early 14th century (however, these claims are disputed). Other early fellows include the Oxford Calculators, a group of 14th-century thinkers associated with Merton who took a logico-mathematical approach to philosophical problems. Theologian and philosopher John Wycliffe was another early fellow of the college.

Founder of the Bodleian Library, Thomas Bodley, was admitted as fellow in 1564. Another significant figure, Henry Savile, was appointed Warden some years later in 1585 (held the position until 1621) and had great influence of the development of the college. William Harvey, who was the first to describe in detail the systemic circulation, was warden from 1645 to 1646. Lord Randolph Churchill, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons (and father of Winston Churchill), matriculated in October 1867, while Max Beerbohm, an English essayist, parodist, and caricaturist studied at Merton in the 1890s and was Secretary of the Myrmidon Club.

1900 to today
Merton has also produced notable alumni and fellows in more recent times. In science, Merton is associated with four Nobel prize winners: chemist Frederick Soddy (1921), zoologist Nikolaas Tinbergen (1973), physicist Anthony Leggett (2003) and physicist Anton Zeilinger (2022). Other Mertonians in science include Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, mathematician Andrew Wiles who proved Fermat's Last Theorem, computer scientist Tony Hoare, chemist George Radda, economist Catherine Tucker, geneticist Alec Jeffreys and cryptographer Artur Ekert.

Women at Merton
Just like the other ancient colleges of Oxford, Merton was originally an all-male college. It admitted its first female students in 1980 and became the second former all-male college to elect a female head of house when Jessica Rawson was appointed as Warden in 1994. Professor Irene Tracey was appointed as Merton's second female warden in 2019, and later became Oxford's second female Vice-Chancellor. She was succeeded by another woman as warden, Jennifer Payne.

Alumnae of Merton include the shortest-serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in history Liz Truss and Princess Akiko of Mikasa.

title: Merton College, Oxford


text:
Lincoln College, Oxford

Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the then bishop of Lincoln.

Notable alumni include the physician John Radcliffe, the founder of Methodism John Wesley, antibiotics scientists Howard Florey, Edward Abraham, and Norman Heatley, writers Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and David John Moore Cornwell (John le Carré), the journalist Rachel Maddow, former British prime minister Rishi Sunak, and Labour politician Shabana Mahmood. Mensa was founded at Lincoln College in 1946. Lincoln College has one of the oldest working medieval kitchens in the UK.

Founding
Richard Fleming, the then bishop of Lincoln, founded the college in order to combat the Lollard teachings of John Wyclif. He intended it to be "a little college of true students of theology who would defend the mysteries of Scripture against those ignorant laymen who profaned with swinish snouts its most holy pearls".. To this end, he obtained a charter for the college from King Henry VI, which combined the parishes of All Saints, St Michael at the North Gate, and St Mildred's within the college under a rector. The college now uses All Saints Church as its library and has strong ties with St Michael's Church at the North Gate, having used it as a stand-in for the college chapel when necessary.

Despite insufficient endowment and trouble from the Wars of the Roses (for their charter was from the deposed Lancastrian), the college has survived and flourished thanks to the efforts of its fellows and the munificence of a second bishop of Lincoln, Thomas Rotherham. Richard Fleming died in 1431, and the first rector, William Chamberleyn, in 1434, leaving the college with few buildings and little money. The second rector, John Beke, secured the college's safety by attracting donors. By 1436, the college had seven fellows. John Forest, Dean of Wells and a close friend of Beke's, donated such an amount that the college promised to recognise him as a co-founder; it did not keep this promise. His gifts saw the construction of a chapel, a library, hall and kitchen. After a pointed sermon from the incumbent rector, Thomas Rotherham was compelled to give his support and effectively re-founded it in 1478, with a new charter from King Edward IV.

18th century
In the 18th century, Lincoln became the cradle of Methodism when John Wesley, a fellow there from 1726, held religious meetings with his brother Charles and the rest of Wesley's 'Holy Club', whom the rest of the university took to calling 'Bible-moths'. His appearances at College became less frequent after he departed for Georgia as a missionary chaplain in 1735. Indeed, he took to signing his publications as "John Wesley, Sometime Fellow of Lincoln College". A portrait of him hangs in the Hall, and a bust overlooks the front quad. The room where he is believed to have worked is also named after him, and was renovated by American Methodists at the beginning of the 20th century.

Rivalry
As is common with Oxford colleges, the college has a long-standing rivalry with neighbour Brasenose College (which was founded by a later bishop of Lincoln, William Smyth). The two colleges share a tradition revived annually on Ascension Day. The story goes that, centuries ago, as a mob chased students at the university through the town, the Lincoln porter allowed in the Lincoln students but refused entry to the Brasenose member, leaving him to the mercy of the mob. An alternative is that a Lincoln man bested a Brasenose man in a duel. Either episode resulted in the Brasenose student's death, and ever since, on Ascension Day, Lincoln College has invited in members of Brasenose College every year through the one door connecting the two colleges, for free beer as penance. Since the nineteenth century, the beer has been flavoured with ivy so as to discourage excessive consumption.

Modern day
Academically, Lincoln was one of the top ten in the Norrington Table each year from 2006 to 2015 (excluding 2010 and 2011). Lincoln ranked third in the Norrington Table in 2021 and second in 2022.

The college is associated with the Goblin Club, an exclusive all-male dining society founded in 1902. In May 2019, the JCR voted to extend a ban on the society on the grounds that it was perceived to be both elitist and racist.

In 1958, the college was the first in Oxford or Cambridge to provide a Middle Common Room exclusively for the use of graduate students. Like many of Oxford's colleges, Lincoln admitted its first mixed-sex cohort in 1979, after more than half a millennium as a men-only institution. The MCR is now located in the Berrow Foundation Building, which was inaugurated in 2014.

In 2007, the college took the rare step of unveiling a commissioned portrait of two members of staff who were not fellows or benefactors of the college, in commemoration of their work. Chef Jim Murden and Butler Kevin Egleston have worked in the college's Kitchen and Buttery for 33 and 28 years respectively, as of 2010. Artist Daphne Todd was commissioned for the painting, who has had such previous sitters as the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Spike Milligan.

As part of the college's commitment to environmental sustainability, a dedicated Green Impact team was set up in 2021, which has since won an Oxford University gold award. Biodiversity initiatives across the college's various properties have led to creation of a wild-flower garden outside the entrance to the college library.

Architecture
According to Nikolaus Pevsner, Lincoln College preserves "more of the character of a 15th century college than any other in Oxford". This is mainly because both the façade to Turl Street and the front quad are still of only two storeys (although the parapets and battlements are of the 19th century). The college also owns most of the buildings across Turl Street from the college proper, in whole or in part, which chiefly contain student accommodation. The creeper that covers the college's front quad walls is Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), dark green in the summer, through to scarlet in autumn, whilst being bare in winter.

There are three quads: the Front Quad (15th century), the Chapel Quad (1608–1631) and The Grove (19th century), as well as a number of irregular spaces. Unlike many other colleges, all of the architecture of the college proper is stone and there is no modern accommodation annexe. To quote the Lincoln College Freshers' Handbook, "Unlike most colleges, we have no grotty sixties annexe to spoil all the pretty bits". The college bar, Deep Hall (or Deepers), is immediately below the great hall and used to be the college beer cellar. It is one of the oldest parts of the college, and the pillars inside it are perhaps the oldest feature of the college. The wine cellar is accessed through Deep Hall, and extends completely beneath the Grove.

The Rector's lodgings in Turl Street are neo-Georgian and were built in 1929–1930; they are reached from within college through a gate in Chapel Quad, but have a main door on Turl Street.

The college is known as being the setting for many literary works. C.P. Snow was inspired for his novel The Masters by the story of Mark Pattison, a fellow at Lincoln, whose enthusiastic hopes for Lincoln were frustrated by older, more conservative fellows of the college; Snow's story transposes the story to a Cambridge College. It was the setting for three episodes of Inspector Morse. Later, Lewis has used Turl Street in front of the college for filming. Lincoln College is the setting for much of the plot in Heresy by S.J. Parris (pseudonym for the literary critic Stephanie Merritt), a historical crime novel.

Chapel
The college chapel was built in late perpendicular style between 1629 and 1631; its windows are enamelled rather than stained, which is a process of painting the windows then firing them, a complicated procedure. They are the work of Abraham van Linge, who was an expert in this technique. The east window of the chapel depicts twelve biblical scenes: the top six depict scenes from Jesus' life (including the Last Supper), whilst the six below depict corresponding scenes from the Old Testament (including Adam and Eve at Creation and the whale spitting out Jonah). The north windows show the Twelve Prophets, and the south windows the Twelve Apostles. The screen separating the ante-chapel (containing the organ) from the chapel proper is made of cedar, and reportedly filled the chapel with the strong scent of cedar for around the first one hundred years of its existence.

Much of the chapel was restored in a project beginning in 1999, having been deemed to be in unacceptable disrepair in the early 1990s, when a funding campaign began. The black slate and white marble tiles were repaired, cleaned and replaced where necessary, whilst most of the age damage was to be found in the woodwork, which was suffering greatly from poor ventilation and having been laid directly on to earth, resulting in worm and wet rot. Cracks in the enamel of the windows were also repaired where most obvious and disfiguring. The renovations were made with the intention of preserving the chapel's 17th-century character as much as possible. The chapel has remained much unchanged since the wooden figurines (of Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Moses and Aaron) were placed on the front pews and the carved ceiling was installed in the 1680s.

Library
Perhaps the college's most striking feature, its library, is located in the converted 18th-century All Saints Church handed over to the college in 1971. All Saints church tower is a feature of Oxford's skyline, one of the city's "dreaming spires". After the church spire collapsed in 1700, amateur architect and Dean of Christ Church Henry Aldrich designed a new church. It is believed, however, that on some of the later features of the church, particularly on the tower and spire, the work of Nicholas Hawksmoor, the Baroque architects, is to be found. The tower has a full peal of eight bells, which are regularly rung.

Its library holds some 60,000 books. Graduates and undergraduates are able to work in the building until 2.00 a.m. most nights; the Bodleian and faculty libraries have earlier closing times. It is kept up-to-date by regular purchases, and welcomes suggestions for books pertinent to studies. The upper reading room, or Cohen Room, has an elaborate plastered ceiling and the Senior Library (downstairs) holds some of the college's older books, including pamphlets from the English Civil War, Wesleyana, and plays dating from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, as well as a small collection of manuscripts. The science library is also to be found downstairs. Access to the library is generally restricted to current students and staff at the college, although alumni may use the library if acceptable justification is provided.

Academic links
Lincoln College has visiting undergraduate student arrangements with Middlebury College, Simon's Rock College of Bard, Drew University, and National Taiwan University. The college also has ties to Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English, which runs a summer graduate course using Lincoln's facilities during the University of Oxford's long summer vacation. A clock donated by Middlebury stands in the Porters' Lodge.

Grace
The college grace is read aloud at every formal hall, usually by a student. To encourage readers, students who read the grace twice in a term receive a bottle of wine. The college grace is in Latin.

Coat of arms
The college arms incorporate (1) the arms of Bishop Richard Fleming, the founder; (2) the arms of the See of Lincoln; (3) the arms of Bishop Thomas Rotherham, the second founder.

The blazon is:
 * Tierced per pale, Barry of six argent and azure, in chief three lozenges gules, on the second bar of an argent a mullet pierced sable; Argent, thereon an escutcheon of Gules two lions passant guardant or, on a chief azure the Blessed Virgin Mary ducally crowned seated on a throne issuant from the chief, on her dexter arm the infant Jesus and holding in her sinister hand a sceptre, all gold: the escutcheon ensigned with a mitre azure garnished and stringed or; Vert, three stags statant two and one or.

Accommodation
The college guarantees all undergraduates three years of college-owned accommodation. Similarly, virtually all graduate students are provided housing for the duration of their studies. The college's housing stock is extensive and centrally located. About 50 students live on the three quads described above, with over 100 more living in rooms above the shops on the other side of Turl Street. These include the Mitre rooms, formerly guest rooms of the Mitre Inn, which has been owned by the college since the 15th century. The accommodation was incorporated into the college in 1969, but the restaurants were left to the inn. Lincoln House, directly across from the college, was constructed in 1939 as an annexe. There were at one point vague plans for a bridge over Turl Street connecting the annexe to the college proper; these never materialised. Further accommodation is provided at Bear Lane (across High Street). Donors Emily and John Carr gave to the college numbers 113 and 114 on the High Street, with land extending back to Bear Lane, which the college still owns and constitutes the Bear Lane accommodation.

On Museum Road near Keble College is a further accommodation complex. 12 terraced houses are officially called Lincoln Hall, but most commonly referred to as simply 'Mus Road'. The EPA Science Centre, named after Edward Abraham, was constructed behind them in the early 21st century and contains apartment-style accommodation, teaching facilities and the college's archives. A number of outlying houses make up the remainder of the housing stock.

Junior Common Room
Due to Lincoln's small numbers and tight-knit community, its Junior Common Room (JCR) plays a greater role in student life than do the JCRs of most other colleges. JCR elections, held in Trinity and Michaelmas Terms, attract one of the highest turnouts of any Oxford college. The JCR, like all JCRs in Oxford, is both a communal room for undergraduates (with a television, kitchen, vending machine, daily newspapers, a DVD library and sofas) as well as the name of the body that represents said undergraduates to the senior members of college and on a university-wide basis. All undergraduate members of the college are automatically members of the JCR, unless they specifically express a desire not to be a part of it. Honorary membership to others is sometimes extended, but have limited rights compared to other members.

The JCR is run by an Executive of ten officers, headed by the President, which is ultimately responsible for the JCR, whilst the JCR Committee comprises forty-two members and fulfils a wide range of duties, all aimed at the general improvement of the lives of and facilities available to the undergraduate body of the college. Members of the JCR Committee are elected by popular vote. Shabana Mahmood, the MP for Birmingham Ladywood, served as JCR president in 2000–2001. JCR meetings are held three times a term, in 2nd week, 5th week and 8th week of each.

The JCR was founded in 1854 as the Lincoln College Debating Society but was renamed in 1919 (although it continued to be referred to by its former name for some time after). From 1886, the society provided members of the Common Room with tobacco and cigarettes from its funds, as well as tea and coffee; however, "The President shall have the power to stop smoking while the Torpid [a rowing eight entering a regatta in Hilary Term] and the Eight [an eight entering a regatta in Trinity Term] are in training." Tobacco and cigarettes are no longer available from the JCR, but tea and coffee are to be found in the JCR kitchen.

Middle Common Room
The Lincoln MCR is the oldest (founded in 1960) of the Oxford MCRs. With around 350 graduate students in residence each year, the MCR organises a full and varied programme of meetings, social events and sporting activities during term time and vacations. The MCR is located in the Berrow Foundation Building, completed in 2016 by design studio Stanton Williams.

People associated with Lincoln
Notable former students of the college have progressed to careers in academia, business, politics and sports. Alumni include; John Radcliffe (renowned physician after whom the Radcliffe Camera, Radcliffe Infirmary, Radcliffe Observatory and John Radcliffe Hospital are named), Howard Florey (who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 for his role in large scale production of penicillin), Edward Abraham and Norman Heatley (biochemists also instrumental in the development of penicillin), Philip May (husband of former Prime Minister Theresa May), Steph Cook (Olympic gold medalist), William Davenant (poet), John Hobson (economist and influential theorist of imperialism), John le Carré (author), Rachel Maddow (political commentator and author), Dr. Seuss (author and illustrator), Nevil Sidgwick (chemist), Rishi Sunak (British Prime Minister), Adebayo Ogunlesi (lawyer and investment banker), Deborah Bowman (medical ethicist), Edward Thomas (poet) and John Wesley (theologian).

From 1954 to 1972, the Rector of the college was Walter Fraser Oakeshott, most famous for discovering the Winchester Manuscript of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur in 1934 while an Assistant Master at Winchester College, and after whom Lincoln College's largest performance space is named.

The academic Mark Pattison, elected as Rector of the college in 1861, is thought to have been the inspiration for the character of Dr. Casaubon in George Eliot's novel Middlemarch.

The current Rector of Lincoln College is Henry Woudhuysen. He will retire at the end of the 2023/24 academic year.

Lincoln was the first college in Oxford (or Cambridge) to admit a Jewish Fellow, the Australian-born philosopher Samuel Alexander (appointed 1882).

Years after the success of his Cold War spy novels, novelist and Lincoln graduate John le Carré, himself a one-time spy, revealed that fictional spymaster George Smiley was partly modelled on former Lincoln rector Vivian H. H. Green. At least one other recent Lincoln Rector, Sir Maurice Shock, enjoyed a prior career in British intelligence, although there is little evidence to substantiate the college's reputation as a recruiting ground for spies.

In 1955, Paul Shuffrey, the civil servant and editor, and a former Lincoln student, endowed a fellowship in memory of his father, the leading architect and architectural designer, Leonard Shuffrey.

Between 1998 and 2002, four future Parliamentarians studied at Lincoln at overlapping times: Rishi Sunak, Lee Rowley, Shabana Mahmood and Charles Banner.

Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, heir apparent to King Philippe, started to read history and politics in 2021.

title: Lincoln College, Oxford