Harris Manchester College, Oxford

Harris Manchester College Latin: Collegium de Harris et Manchester UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Veritas Libertas Pietas
Harris Manchester College Arlosh Quad
Principal:	Professor Jane Shaw
Website:	www.hmc.ox.ac.uk
Location

Harris Manchester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It was founded in Warrington in Lancashire in 1757 as a college for Unitarian students and moved to Oxford in 1893. It became a full college of the university in 1996, taking its current name to commemorate its predecessor the Manchester Academy and a benefaction by Lord Harris of Peckham.

The college's postgraduate and undergraduate places are exclusively for students aged 21 years or over. With around 100 undergraduates and 150 postgraduates, Harris Manchester is the smallest undergraduate college in either of the Oxbridge universities.

History

Foundation and relocation

Warrington Academy

The college started as the Warrington Academy in 1757 where its teachers included Joseph Priestley, before being refounded as the Manchester Academy in Manchester in 1786. Originally run by Presbyterians, it was one of several dissenting academies that provided religious nonconformists with higher education, as at the time the only universities in England – Oxford and Cambridge – were restricted to Anglicans. It taught radical theology as well as modern subjects, such as science, modern languages, language, and history; as well as the classics. Its most famous professor was John Dalton, developer of atomic theory.

The college changed its location five times before settling in Oxford. It was located in Manchester between 1786 and 1803. It moved to York until 1840. It was located at 38 Monkgate, just outside Monkbar; later this was the first building of the College of Ripon and York St John (now York St John University). The key person in York was Charles Wellbeloved, a Unitarian minister, after whom a function room in the college is named. Because he would not move to Manchester, the college moved to York to have him as head. At first he taught all subjects, but hired additional tutors after a year. He always worked hard and several times his health broke. Wellbeloved did not allow the school to be called Unitarian because he wanted students to have an open mind and to discover the truth for themselves. In 1809 he wrote to George Wood:

I do not and will not teach Unitarianism or any ism but Christianism. I will endeavour to teach the students how to study the Scripture—nice if they find Unitarianism there—well if animism—well if Trinitarianism—well, only let them find something for themselves.

Under Wellbeloved's principalship 235 students were educated at the college: 121 divinity students and 114 laymen. Of the former, 30 did not enter the ministry and five entered the Anglican priesthood. Among the lay students were scholars, public servants, businessmen, and notable men in the arts. The majority was Unitarian.

In 1840, when age forced him to retire, the college moved back to Manchester, where it stayed until 1853. In 1840, the college started an association with the University of London, and gained the right to present students for degrees from London. Between 1853 and 1889 the college was located in London, in University Hall, Gordon Square. From London it moved to Oxford, opening its new buildings in 1893. In Oxford, the Unitarian Manchester College was viewed with alarm by orthodox Anglicans. William Sanday was warned that his presence at the official opening of 'an institution which professedly allows such fundamental Christian truths as the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation to be treated as open questions' would 'tend to the severance of the friendly relation subsisting between the university and the Church'.

Social reform

College Motto inscribed above Main Building entrance

In its early days, the college supported reforming causes, such as the abolition of slavery (1778), and the repeal of the Test Act (1828) and the Corporation Act (1828). In 1922 the principal, L.P. Jacks, hosted Rudolf Steiner to present a conference on alternative education and the model Waldorf school at Stuttgart, Germany which led to the establishment of such schools in Britain.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the college provided courses for the Workers' Educational Association.

Women were permitted to attend some lectures in college from 1876, and in 1877, the college set up a series of examinations in theology, which could be taken by women as well as men. In 1901, Gertrude von Petzold graduated from her training at Manchester College to become a minister in the Unitarian church. This was possible despite the fact that Oxford University did not formally accept female students or award them degrees until 1920 because Manchester College was at that time associated with the University of London, which in 1878 became the first UK university to award degrees to women.

Second World War

Manchester College played a significant part in the planning of the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944. The Ministry of Works and Buildings requisitioned most of the college's buildings on 17 October 1941 to facilitate the Naval Intelligence and the Inter-Services Topographic Department (ISTD). ISTD operations focussed on gathering of topographical intelligence for the day when the Allies would return to continental Europe.

Departments were divided between Oxford and Cambridge, but it was the ISTD section in Manchester College which planned Operation Overlord, known as the D-Day landings. The college's Arlosh Hall served as the main centre of operations, with Nissen huts and tents put up in the quads. Among various other sources, the nearby School of Geography of the university supplied the ISTD with many maps and charts which proved an essential part in the success of the invasion.

Modern day

The Mansfield Road façade

Manchester College became a permanent private hall of Oxford University in 1990 and subsequently a full constituent college, being granted a royal charter in 1996. At the same time, it changed its name to Harris Manchester College in recognition of a benefaction by Philip Harris, Baron Harris of Peckham. Formerly known as Manchester College, it is listed in the University Statutes (V.1) as Manchester Academy and Harris College, and at university ceremonies it is called Collegium de Harris et Manchester.

Today the college only accepts students over the age of 21, both for undergraduate and graduate studies. The college tries to continue its liberal and pioneering ethos, considering its mature student focus as a modern means of providing higher education to those that have been excluded from it in the past.

The college houses several research centres, including the Commercial Law Centre, directed by Kristin van Zwieten, Clifford Chance Professor of Law and Finance, which engages in research in all aspects of national, international, transnational and comparative law relating to commerce and finance; and the Wellbeing Research Centre, directed by Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, which applies interdisciplinary research and teaching on well-being at Oxford.

Buildings

The main quad was designed by architect Thomas Worthington, and built between 1889 and 1893. It houses the Tate Library and the chapel. The Arlosh hall, designed by Percy Worthington, was added in 1913. The college also has several newer buildings to the West of the main quad. In 2013–2014 the Siew-Sngiem Clock Tower & Sukum Navapan Gate were added to the Arlosh quad. The inscription on the tower "It is later than you think, but it is never too late", refers to the role of the college in educating mature students.

In 2018 a new building named Maevadi Hall was completed after two years of construction. It is situated to the west of the Arlosh Hall and contains a conference room, student accommodation and a student social area.

Chapel

Interior of chapel

The chapel designed by "Worthington and Elgood" was inaugurated in 1893. The chapel is notable for its stained-glass windows by the Pre-Raphaelite artists Sir Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, as well as its ornate wood carvings and organ, which was painted by Morris and Co. Seating in the chapel consisted of individual chairs until pews were added in 1897. The oak screen was added in 1896 and the original windows were made of plain glass until the installation of stained glass windows in 1895 and 1899.

Particularly noteworthy are the stained glass windows on the north wall of the chapel, which were installed in 1896 and depict the Six Days of Creation. These were donated by James and Isabella Arlosh in memory of their son Godfrey. The Unitarian-affiliated Manchester College Oxford Chapel Society meets in the college chapel on Sundays. The society is affiliated to the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.

The Tate Library

Library gallery

Despite being one of the smallest colleges of Oxford University, Harris Manchester has the sixth largest college library and offers the best student population to book ratio. It houses a collection of books and manuscripts dating back to the fifteenth century and is famous for its antiquarian books, tract collection, and library of Protestant Dissent. The Tate Library was built by Sir Henry Tate, the benefactor behind London's Tate Gallery. The library was expanded in 2011 with the addition of a gallery, designed to blend in with the Victorian Gothic architecture. The library is well stocked in all the major subjects offered by the college including English Literature, Philosophy, Theology, Politics, Economics, Law, History and Medicine. It also holds a significant collection on the history of Protestant dissent in England and is home to the Carpenter Library of World Religions, donated to the college by its former principal, J. Estlin Carpenter.

Harris Manchester College is located 200 metres from the Bodleian Library, the main research library of Oxford University, as well as the English, History, Social Sciences, and Law faculty libraries.

Pictures

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Harris Manchester College, Oxford)

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  Siew-Sngiem Clock Tower and Sukum Navapan Gate
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  Tate Library
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  Stained-glass windows of chapel
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  College grounds
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  Dining hall
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  Exterior of chapel

Outside links

• Manchester College
• Virtual tour

References

• Davis, V.D. (1932). A History of Manchester College: From Its Foundation in Manchester to Its Establishment in Oxford. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.. https://books.google.com/books?id=pxJDAAAAIAAJ. 
• Schulman, Frank (1999). A Fine Victorian Gentleman: The Life and Times of Charles Wellbeloved. Oxford: Harris Manchester College. ISBN 0953484912. https://books.google.com/books?id=qP4mAQAAIAAJ.