St Hilda's College, Oxford

St Hilda's College Latin: Collegium Sanctae Hildae UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
non frustra vixi
Oxford, Oxfordshire
South Building
Principal:	Sarah Springman
Website:	st-hildas.ox.ac.uk
Location
Grid reference:	SP52190588
Location:	51°44’57"N, 1°14’43"W

St Hilda's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is named after the Anglo-Saxon saint Hilda of Whitby and was founded in 1893 as a hall for women; it remained a women's college until 2008. St Hilda's was the last single-sex college in the university as Somerville College had admitted men in 1994. The college now has almost equal numbers of men and women at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

History

St Hilda's was founded by Dorothea Beale (who was also a headmistress at Cheltenham Ladies' College) in 1893, as St Hilda's Hall and recognised by the Association for the Education of Women as a women's hall in 1896. It was founded as a women's college, a status it retained until 2008. Whilst other Oxford colleges gradually became co-educational, no serious debate at St Hilda's occurred until 1997, according to a former vice-principal, and then the debate solely applied to the issue of staff appointments. After a vote on 7 June 2006 by the Governing Body, men and women can be admitted as fellows and students. This vote was pushed through with a narrow margin and followed previous unsuccessful votes. This led to protests from students because of the "high-handed" manner in which they were held.

In October 2007 a supplemental charter was granted and in 2008 male students were admitted to St Hilda's for the first time. The college now has almost equal numbers of men and women at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. In August 2018, the interim Norrington Table showed that 98 per cent of St Hilda's finalist undergraduates obtained at least a 2.i in their degree.

St Hilda's was the first women's college in Oxford and Cambridge to create a women's rowing VIII in 1911. It was St Hilda's student H.G. Wanklyn who formed Oxford University Women's Boat Club and coxed in the inaugural Women's Boat Race of 1927, with five Hilda's rowers. In 1969, the St Hilda's Eight made Oxford history when they became the first ever female crew to row in the Summer Eights. They placed 12th.

Buildings and grounds

Milham Ford Building by the Cherwell

The college is located at the eastern end of the High Street, over Magdalen Bridge, in Cowley Place, making it the only University of Oxford college to the east of the River Cherwell. It is the most conveniently situated Oxford college for the Iffley Road Sports Complex, a focus for Oxford University Sport.

Buildings

Its grounds include six major buildings, which contain student accommodation, teaching areas, dining hall, the library and administration blocks. The first building occupied by the hall was Cowley House built by Humphrey Sibthorp. Together with later extensions it is now known as Hall. In 1921 the hall acquired the lease of Cherwell Hall, now known as South, which was originally Cowley Grange, a house built by A. G. Vernon Harcourt. The lease of Milham Ford, a former school between Hall and South, was acquired in 1958. More recent additions are Wolfson (opened in 1964), Garden (by Alison and Peter Smithson, opened in 1971), and the Christina Barratt Building (opened in 2001). In autumn 2020, a new Boundary Building replaced some of the older buildings, while Milham Ford, which was demolished in 2018, was replaced by a new riverside "Pavilion". The college also owns a number of properties on Iffley Road, and in the Cowley area.

The Kathleen Major Library

The original library was held within Hall Building but was limited in space and offerings. In 1909, a new basement wing was opened, and more resources began to be added to collections. The college's second principal, Christine Mary Elizabeth Burrows, known as Miss Burrows, is credited with compiling the first catalogue for the library; thus, St. Hilda's first library was named for her. The building saw two more expansions and was completed in 1935, though renovations and expansions would continue through to today. The library was renamed in 2005 for Kathleen Major, former librarian and president of the college, and pioneer of the archive profession.

The library has three floors, seven reading rooms, and 150 study spaces, and has desktop computers as well as a printer, scanner, and photocopier. The main reading room has an art gallery, as well as views of the River Cherwell and the Oxford spires.

Grounds

The college grounds stretch along the banks of the Cherwell, with many college rooms overlooking the river and playing fields beyond. The college has its own fleet of punts, which students of the college may use free of charge in summer months. Unfortunately, this location at times led to problems with flooding in the former Milham Ford building.

Pictures

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about St Hilda's College, Oxford)

• 
  Garden Building
• 
  Hall building and Porters' Lodge (now demolished)
• 
  College library
• 
  South Building as seen from the croquet lawn
• 
  The exterior of the JdP
• 
  Anniversary building and Pavilion

Outside links

• St Hilda's College
• Junior Common Room (undergraduates)