Brasenose College | |
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Blazon: see below
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University | Oxford |
Location | Radcliffe Square |
Coordinates | 51°45′12″N 1°15′17″W / 51.753206°N 1.254731°WCoordinates: 51°45′12″N 1°15′17″W / 51.753206°N 1.254731°W |
Full name | The King's Hall and College of Brasenose |
Latin name | Aula regia et collegium aenei nasi |
Established | 1509 |
Named for | Bronze door knocker |
Previous names | Brazen Nose College |
Sister college | Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge |
Principal | John Bowers |
Undergraduates | 364 (2011/2012) |
Postgraduates | 205 |
Website | www |
Boat club | Brasenose College Boatclub |
Map | |
Brasenose College (abbr. BNC), officially The King's Hall and College of Brasenose, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1509, with the College library and current chapel added in the mid-seventeenth century. The College's New Quadrangle was completed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with additional residence areas completed in the 1960s and 1970s.
As of 2012[update], it has a financial endowment of £90 million. For the four degree years 2011/2014, Brasenose averaged 10th in the Norrington Table (an unofficial measure of performance in undergraduate degree examinations).
Brasenose is home to one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world, Brasenose College Boat Club.
The history of Brasenose College, Oxford stretches back to 1509, when the college was founded on the site of Brasenose Hall. Its name is believed to derive from the name of a brass or bronze knocker that adorned the hall's door.
The college was associated with Lancashire and Cheshire, the county origins of its two founders – Sir Richard Sutton and the Bishop of Lincoln, William Smyth – a link which was maintained strongly until the latter half of the twentieth century. The first principals navigated Brasenose, with its Catholic sympathisers, through the reformation and continuing religious reforms.
Most of Brasenose favoured the Royalist side during the English Civil War, although it produced notable generals and clergy on both sides.
The library and chapel were completed in the mid-seventeenth century, despite Brasenose suffering continuing money problems.
The post-1785 period would see an era of prosperity of the college under Principal William Cleaver. The college began to be populated by gentlemen, its income doubling between 1790 and 1810, and academic success considerable. Efforts to reconstruct Brasenose were not completed, however, until the second half of the century with the addition of New Quad between 1886 and 1911. Brasenose's financial position remained secure, although under the tenure of Principal Edward Hartopp Cradock Brasenose's academic record waned greatly, with much of its success focussed on sports – where it excelled most notably in cricket and rowing.