Between the years 1492 and 1508 the great Bell Tower, one of the chief land marks of Oxford, and the buildings completing the Chaplains' quad were erected.
The Great Tower (1492-1509). The College of St Mary Magdalen in the University of Oxford
The first clock was one of “new iron” made by a mason, a painter, and a brewer, who guaranteed for the sum of £10 to make it go “ sufficiently and truly for a year and a day. The beautiful custom of the choristers singing in the dawn of May Day morning on the tower began about this time, probably as one of the rites in a festival on the date of its completion. Anthony Wood records in later years that: “The choral ministers of this House do, according to an ancient custom, salute Flora every year on the first of May at four in the morning with vocal music of several parts, which having been sometimes well per formed hath given great content to the neighbour hood and auditors under neath.”
Magdalen College seen across the fields of Christ Church.
In the middle of the eighteenth century it was “a merry concert of both vocal and instrumental music consisting of several merry ketches, and lasting almost two hours.” The alteration of the hour to five o ' clock is supposed to have taken place one May Day at the end of the eighteenth century, the weather being unpropitious when the organist and choir were about to ascend the tower, and curtailing their musical performance they sang a hymn from the College Grace, which is still used, choosing it because they knew it by heart. The wearing of surplices was introduced at a later date.
William Holman Hunt. May Morning on Magdalen Tower. 1888-91. Oil on canvas 62 x 80 ½ inches. Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight.
Bibliography
Lang, Elsie M. The Oxford Colleges. London: T. Werner. HathiTrust online version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Web. 8 November 2022.
Last modified 27 November 2022