Bodleian Library The University of Oxford England
University College owes its origins to William of Durham, who died in 1249. A legend grew up in the 1380s that we were really founded even earlier, by King Alfred in 872, and, understandably enough, became widely accepted as the truth. Nowadays, however, William of Durham is accepted as Univ's true founder, but that still gives us a claim to be the oldest College in Oxford or Cambridge. Originally Univ. was open only to Fellows reading theology, but by the early sixteenth century, most other Colleges had begun to accept undergraduates, and Univ followed suit. The earliest undergraduates all had to pay their own way, but towards the end of the century the College found benefactors to endow undergraduate scholarships. Such scholarships were important ways of helping boys from middling to poor backgrounds to better themselves. As Univ slowly grew in size and wealth, work began in 1634 to replace its medieval buildings with a new Front Quad, paid for with gifts from many Old Members. Although half the new Quad was finished by 1640, it took almost thirty years to complete the remainder, because of the Civil War. The College was luckier with its other main quadrangle, Radcliffe Quad, built in only three years, 1716-1719, thanks to a bequest from one Old Member, John Radcliffe, whose statue can be seen there. In the eighteenth century, Univ became one of the most intellectually active Colleges in Oxford: former students and Fellows could be found in senior positions in the government and the judiciary. One of Univ's early scientists was Edmund Cartwright, the inventor of the power loom. The early nineteenth century, however, was a less distinguished period: the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley came here in 1810, but was expelled the following year. The Shelley Memorial It was only later in the century that Univ began to expand and improve again. In 1842 the so-called New Building was erected to the designs of Charles Barry, and a Library was built in 1861. The
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