Worcester known as Gloucester College, was founded in the thirteenth century for the benefit of young Benedictine monks who came from the various abbeys and priories scattered over the country, each abbey and priory building on the necessary accommodation for its students. Several of these simple picturesque lodgings with the arms of their abbeys on a shield over the door are still standing - viz. those to the east of the new buildings on the north side of the large quadrangle which were occupied by the monks of Abingdon, the western ones on the south side which belonged to Pershore, the next, No. 8 staircase to Westminster, No. 9 to Winchcombe and Ramsey, No. II to Canterbury, and No. 12 to St Albans. The monks' kitchen was the room on the right at the far end of No. 12, and is still distinguished by a large chimney. The abbots of St Albans were the most generous supporters of the new foundation; one of them, John Whethamstede, after making the lodgings for his students “finer than any other house in Gloucester College,” built library, chapel, and garden - wall, and was in consequence declared “ chief benefactor and second founder.”
Great festivities attended the assumption of a degree in those days. When the first doctor' s degree was taken by a monk from Gloucester Abbey in 1298, not only were the members of his own community present, but also the abbots of Westminster, Reading, Abingdon, Evesham, andM almesbury, representatives of the other Benedictine abbots and prelates through out the province of Canter bury, and a hundred noble men and esquires, from each of whom he received a present: “So the inception was celebrated to the honour of this House and the whole Order. "One Bene dictine custom is still maintained : the porter awakes the students every morning by hammering on all the staircases with a wooden mallet.
With the suppression of the monasteries an end came to Gloucester College ; it was used for a time as a palace by the Bishop of Oxford, and in 1560 it passed into the hands of Sir Thomas White, who went to “great cost in re-edifying the buildings that were utterly decayed and made it a house of students,” calling it Gloucester Hall. It was unsuccessful, and the Principal was soon compelled to let a number of the rooms out to tenants, female as well as male. This however proved a most fortunate event, as the famous Thomas Allen, whose influence restored the college to more than its former prosperity, came to live on No. 9 stair case, and remained there until his death, sixty years later. Old books speak of him as “the very soul and sun of all the mathematicians of his time, "and indeed many ignorant folk looked upon him as a magician, a belief carefully fostered by his servant, who “to impose on Freshmen and simple people, would tell them that sometimes he would meet the spirits coming up his stairs like bees.”
In his time Richard Lovelace “became a gentleman commoner of Gloucester Hall... his age 16, being then accounted the most amiable and beautiful person that ever eye beheld - a person also of innate modesty, virtue and courtly deportment, which made him then much admired and adored by the female sex.” Allen bequeathed his valuable collection of MSS. to his pupil, Sir Kenelm Digby, who placed it in the Bodleian Library.
After a second period of decay lasting through the Commonwealth and Restoration, when things grew so bad that at last there was “not one scholar in Gloucester Hall,” Dr Woodroffe, an energetic, pushing man, was appointed Principal. He spent several hundred pounds out of his own purse in making the college “fit for the Muses,” and then conceived the idea approved by several eminent men, of offering to take twenty Greek scholars for a special course of study, the hope being that a reunion with the Greek Church would ensue. Accordingly five scholars came over to begin with, but "though they were well enough treated at first yet afterwards they and those that came after them, were so ill accommodated... that some of them staid not many months and others would have gone if they had known how.” Eventually an end was put to the matter by the receipt of a missive from Constantinople stating that “the irregular life of certain priests of the Eastern Church living in London is a matter of great concern to the Church, wherefore the Church forbids any to go and study at Oxford be they ever so willing." Dr Woodroffe, however, cared little for the failure of this scheme, being already absorbed in a far more ambitious one. Sir Thomas Cookes, a Worcestershire baronet, had announced his intention of spending £10,000 on an Oxford college, and the Doctor had instantly set about securing it for Gloucester. At first Sir Thomas lent a favourable ear to his representations, but becoming wearied by the Doctor's importunity he postponed the matter, and finally died leaving it in the hands of certain bishops who showed no disposition to hasten a settlement. Ten years went by and Dr Woodroffe died, his ambition unachieved; but two years later the trustees at last decided in favour of Gloucester and paid over the money.
Great were the rejoicings; the college was entirely reorganised and entered upon a new lease of life under the name of Worcester College. As time went on other moneys came in under various wills, the most generous benefactor being Dr George Clarke, and in 1720 a complete restoration of the buildings was put in hand. The next step was to buy up the land surrounding the college, and part of it was laid out by Richard Greswell in 1829 as the beautiful gardens now Worcester' s pride, the charm of which is heightened by the Pool, a cool, quiet lake on which white swans glide out of sight among green and shady woodland. The entrance to the gardens is under a narrow archway near the south-west corner of the quadrangle, and strangers are freely admitted. In 1863 the present decoration of the chapel was begun, the money for it, £7000, being subscribed by members of the college. The subject of it is the “Te Deum” and “Benedicite,” “the world and all that therein is” uniting in the worship of the Creator, the very finials of the stalls forming part of the concep tion. A competent authority declared that “ in no exist ing English building has so much study been devoted to a scheme of decoration, and so much care lavished on its execution.”
Among the most distinguished members of Worcester College was Thomas de Quincey, who had rooms on No. 10 staircase. He used to live very quietly, going without even necessaries in order to buy books. It was customary in those days to dress for Hall, and on one occasion de Quincey, having parted with his only waistcoat for the sake of a volume he had coveted, went in to dinner endeavour ing to hide the lack, but in vain, and he was promptly “sconced” - i. e. he was condemned to drain at a draught a tankard or sconce-pot, containing three pints. This penalty, which even now is occasionally enforced in Oxford, was usually imposed upon those who had obtained some special distinction , and if it were successfully performed the victim could sconce the whole table. Worcester possesses thirteen of these tankards, which are known among the undergraduates by such names as “Old Tom ,” “Old Tom's Brother," “Blue Peter,” etc . De Quincey left Oxford suddenly just before the close of an examination in which he was doing brilliantly .
An unusually large proportion of Worcester men have always been the sons of clergymen, and an equally large proportion have them selves taken holy orders .
The college has done well on the river , considering its small numbers . A Wor cester man took part in the very first college race of which there are any records .
Bibliography
Artistic Colored Views of Oxford Being Proof Sheets of the Postcards of Oxford. Illustrated by W. G. Blackall. Oxford: E. Cross, nd. Internet Archive version of a copy in St. Michael's College Toronto. 3 October 2012.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 8 November 2022