Category: Archives

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Archives Rare books

Work experience in the Library & Archives

In July 2024 two pupils from local schools spent a week working with the Hertford Library and Archives team. The team enjoyed welcoming the pupils, introducing them to how libraries and archives work and their enthusiasm for the library’s summer stock check and the special collections digitisation projects! The placements were organised through the College’s links with local schools.

Year 10 Work Experience Week

Getting selected to work at Hertford College Library for my year 10 work experience gave me an insight into how libraries actually run. On the first day, I was given a timetable looking at what I’m doing each day, and why. I was given an induction introducing me to the workplace, along with a tour which led me to the library. Although before I didn’t have much experience of libraries, except for the one that my school has open for all students that I rarely use and go to, Hertford library taught me about things like ‘rare books’, ‘archives’ and ‘oral history’ that I quickly learnt.

Monday: I had a look at the inside of the bridge which is described as one of the most famous buildings in Oxford and attracts most of the tourists. Emilie the HR Manager gave me and the other work experience students from my school the history of the bridge and how it was built. I was shy at first when I was separated from the others, but as I was introduced to the librarians Alice and Katherine, they showed me what I’d be doing with them over the course of the five days I’m here. After having a tour of the main areas, I was introduced to ‘rare books’. I was shown features of rare books, how they were made at the time, and how they’re taken care of, by the rare books cataloguer Sophie.

View of windows and ceiling of Hertford's bridge. Curved windows with decorative leadwork and a wood panelled ceiling.
Inside of Hertford’s bridge
Hertford College's bridge over New College Lane. Historic bridge in light brown stone joining two buildings.
Outside view of Hertford’s bridge

On Tuesday, since Hertford currently has a temporary library, we went to Regent’s Park College, which gave me another view of college libraries. The main thing I learned was how to stock check books. This included scanning them, organising them alphabetically, cleaning, and putting them back on the shelves. I found it a bit tiring at first but as I gradually did it for longer, I began to get into the flow and enjoyed it a bit.

Inside of Regent's Park College Library, with low shelves down the middle of the room filled with books and a large skylight.
Regent’s Park Library
Close-up of shelves in Regent's Park Library. Gold inscription n a shelf-end in the foreground, with shelves full of books in the background.
Shelves in Regent’s Park Library
A curved window in Regent's park Library which has a map of the British Empire in frosted detail. There is a curved bench and two curved desks below it.
Map window in Regent’s Park

Wednesday: I went to the Weston, visited an exhibition on an author named Kafka, then visited another one focusing on famous writers editing their work. I saw some of the library from the ground floor, and it looked really nice with how it was showcased with the glass and shelving.

Book showing butterflies and caterpillars from Kafka display.
Item in the Kafka display at the Weston Library

Thursday, I met the College archivist Lucy, I learnt about her job which involves looking at old archives and records from former students and learnt how to scan and digitise them. This included documents, statements, old records and even sound recordings. On Friday, I did more work with Lucy, I listened to a tape recording of someone answering a questionnaire, and wrote notes about it. Then I had a trip to Balliol College which was really fascinating as I saw the variety of books and rooms they had.

Reading room in Balliol College Library. Wooden study table with chairs, shelving in background with books and photographs on display.
Balliol College Library
Wooden book shelves in Balliol College Library
Shelves in Balliol Library
Stained glass window in Balliol Library
Stained glass in Balliol Library

I’m now writing to summarise and explain the highlights of my work experience here at Hertford and experience here. The highlights were definitely looking at the archives, stock checking and visiting other colleges, meeting different people who had different jobs and roles and having to get into routine of getting up for work.

Year 12 Work Experience Week

I arrived on Monday and Emilie showed me around the site then took me to see Alice and Katherine (the librarians) in the library where I started doing stock checking which is repetitive but fun. Afterwards I took some pictures of Ortus Sanitatis – it was really old and had interesting annotations I couldn’t read.

Woodcut print of an apple tree form Ortus Sanitatis, with the annotation 'Apples' next to it.
‘Apples’ in Ortus Sanitatis
Initial letter 'H' from a page of Ortus Sanitatis
‘H’ in Ortus Sanitatis
Long annotation in the margin of a page of Ortus Sanitatis
Marginalia in Ortus Sanitatis

On Tuesday I came in and started with stock checking again, then we went to visit Wadham. We went down into their library and saw really old and rare books. One was the huge King James bible (Wadham’s librarians have made a video about this one). Another was an eleventh century book of gospels and not many people have seen it so I feel really lucky.

Page of Wadham's copy of the Book of Gospels, with a large letter B illuminated in Blue and Red.
Book of Gospels
The front desk of Wadham's Library, with a column and handrail for steps in the foreground.
Wadham’s working library

After this we went back and took more pictures of books for the display. This one was a first edition copy of Newton’s Principia which had another edition’s corrections as annotations.

A page from Newton's Principia, with a mathematical diagram and several annotations replacing crossed-out lines.
Newton’s Principia

On Wednesday I stock checked more books and have now done over 700 (1300 done total). I also went to Mansfield College and looked around their grounds. Their library has a lot of intricate decoration and some displays of books. I also made notes on a recorded interview of an alumnus talking about their time as a student in the 1940s, which was interesting. I also talked to the accountant (Judi) and discussed her job and surrounding jobs as I am interested in joining that field of work. She gave me some good advice and thought I would be a good accountant.

On Thursday I met with the archivist Lucy and looked at some of Jackson’s architectural drawings of Hertford College, University of Oxford. We then gave a tour to another work experience student from Mansfield.

A page from the Jackson drawings, showing a close-up detail of an altar cloth in blue red and gold.
Altar cloth detail
A page from the Jackson drawings, showing a plan for the chapel portico.
Chapel portico

On Friday with Lucy we digitalised some old portraits and letters from the 1800s and some alumni questionnaires from the survey in 1985. I then stock checked more books, with 1500 done in total.

I didn’t really know what to expect coming into a library but I learnt that you need to be confident in your hands, you need to be able to carry multiple books easily but also be able to gently handle old and rare books.

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Archives

Magdalen Hall to Hertford College: The Early Days of the Boat Club

The first accession of 2024 is a Secretary’s Book for Magdalen Hall Boat Club, starting in 1868 and ending in1880. It is a handsome volume in good condition, covered with parchment and fastened with a metal clasp. It is unique in covering the period of transition as Magdalen Hall was incorporated as Hertford College in 1874 and a new Boat Club was formed in 1875.

‘Seven Hundred Years of an Oxford College (Hertford College, 1284-1984) ed. Andrew Goudie (1999) contains a short article on the early history of the Hertford Boat Club which refers to a lost Secretary’s Book known as ‘The Old Book’. The introduction in the second Secretary’s Book, written by the then Secretary Edward Buck, summarises the earlier history of the Club as recorded in the lost volume. From these details it seems that our recently acquired item is the missing first Secretary’s Book.

There are few entries for the years 1868 to 1875 and the Magdalen Hall Boat Club does not seem to have been particularly busy or indeed successful. In 1871 they competed in the Summer Eights race and did manage to bump St Edmund’s Hall, noting that this was the first bump made by Magdalen Hall for 20 years.

The first entry in the Secretary’s Book recording a Fours Race in May Term 1868

There are a number of blank pages left after the Summer term in 1874 and the entries do not start again until summer term 1875, after the changeover from Magdalen Hall to Hertford College:

At the first full meeting of the Club in autumn 1875 the main business seemed to be choosing the new Club colours of crimson and white. There is much discussion of what rate the Club subscriptions should be set at, and whether they should ‘in future subscribe to Clasper instead of Salter’ for boat maintenance. More importantly by the next Eights Week in May 1876 the Secretary recorded that the new crew had improved considerably and risen four places. By November 1877 a long held wish had been fulfilled with the acquisition of a new College barge.

Henry Disney & Edward Buck

Below is one of the earliest photographs in the College archives, taken in 1879 and showing a group of undergraduates. Two of these students, Henry William Disney and Edward Buck, were dedicated members of the Boat Club Committee and rowed in numerous competitions for the College and University. Henry Disney is seated 2nd from the left on the middle row and Edward Buck is at the far right hand end of the same row. Richard Dawson, who is standing on the back row, was also a member of the Boat Club Committee and appears in many of the crew lists.

Hertford College Group, 1879 [Hertford College Archives]

Edward Buck matriculated at Hertford College in 1876, a brilliant mathematician who won the Herschel Astronomy Prize in 1881. He was Treasurer and Secretary of the Boat Club for most of his time as an undergraduate and for a period subsequently. He went onto become a schoolmaster, working in Barbados for a number of years, but eventually at Christ’s Hospital in Horsham. He continued a close personal connection with the College for many years.

Henry William Disney matriculated at Hertford in 1877, also studying mathematics and taking his BA in 1880. He was a musician and keen sportsman, taking part in athletics as well as many rowing activities. In April 1879 he rowed for Oxford in the Boat Race against Cambridge University, the first member of Hertford College to do so. He went on to become a Barrister at Lincoln’s Inn in 1884 and published several legal textbooks, including ‘The Law of Carriage by Railway’ and ‘The Elements of Commercial Law’.

The Secretary’s Book records that Disney was elected Captain and Buck the Treasurer of the Club in the Autumn term of 1878. The following year (1879) Disney was re-elected as Captain and Buck became the Club Secretary. Disney was one of the Oxford team which competed unsuccessfully in the University Boat Race that year. Buck had more success, being on the winning crew of the University Boat Race in 1881, along with two other Hertford men.

Disney and Buck continued their connection with Hertford long after they graduated. Disney’s own son, Anthony, matriculated at Hertford in 1922 and was Secretary of the Club from 1922 to 1924. Buck continued his involvement with the Boat Club for many years, and the College Magazines record that the ‘Old Oxford Blue Mr Buck’ was still coaching the rowing crews well into the 1920s.

Building on Success

The years after the formation of the new Boat Club demonstrate how much the Club had improved its performance since the old Magdalen Hall days, encouraged by the enthusiastic support of Principal Henry Boyd. The races held during Eights Week in May 1878 shows the Club rising steadily up the ranks:

Bumps Chart showing the progress of the Eights Week races, contained in the Secretary’s Book

‘It is hardly possible to comment on the success of this eight. We never had a hard race, and there is no doubt we could have gone up many more places had there been more nights, as we were universally allowed to be one of the best and fastest eights on the river. A great deal of our success was due to the pains taken by Mr Lamb in coaching us, & to the assistance given him by Mr Jackson. To both these gentlemen the Boat Club owes its best thanks. We rowed in a new boat built for us by Clasper which suited us admirably’

Secretary’s Book, Minutes for Summer Term 1878

Flushed with success, in the summer of 1878 the committee decided that the members had improved enough to send a crew, including Disney, to the Henley Regatta. It’s possible that their earlier success in the Summer Eights race meant that they overestimated their abilities; as their luck ran out on the second day of the Regatta, resulting in an ignominious finish to the race. This was due in no small part to a poor choice of crew members, who struggled towards the end of their race with Columbia College:

‘Here Fenner who was very much overstrained, & indeed ought never to have rowed in this race, either fainted or lost his head, and ran them into the bank’.

Secretary’s Book, Minutes for Summer 1878

The newspaper account of the Regatta, carefully pasted into the Secretary’s book, puts it rather more kindly:

Head of the River 1881

The last entries in the Secretary’s Book finish in the Autumn term of 1880 but the Club continued onwards and upwards, culminating in their triumphant success in Eights Week of May 1881. Edward Buck rowed for the winning team although sadly for Disney he had already graduated and left Oxford by this point. Principal Boyd could not resist sending off a telegram to his friend John Egerton and former member of Brasenose to announce Hertford’s prowess. Egerton was not impressed at such a lack of tact:

‘I wonder whether you expect me to thank you for sending me that wretched telegram on Saturday night… the bump having taken place at the winning post I could have inferred for myself the fact of a fine race without being reminded of it by a telegraph boy.

I must be content that we have been bumped by Hertford College & not by “Magg’len ‘all” – I cannot well imagine a greater testimonial to the change which has come over the latter institution in its improved condition under your care, than the fact of your boat being second and probably head. Now that our chance of leadership is gone, I would sooner see you head than any other college – so if you do go up, I will in spirit join your bump supper in an extra good cup of tea. If you don’t go up I must console myself with the reflection that you probably will be more disappointed by the blight of your fond hopes, than rejoiced by the fact of having bumped Brasenose.’

Letter from John C Egerton to Principal Henry Boyd, 23 May 1881 [Hertford College Archives]

A postcard sent to Disney announced the news and summoned him back to Oxford to ‘make a row’:

Postcard sent to Henry Disney on 23 May 1881, enclosed in the Secretary’s Book [Hertford College Archives]

It’s safe to assume that Disney and Buck were present at the celebrations, including fireworks and a large bonfire whereby the students ‘burnt their boats’, which took place in Hertford Quad on the night of Wed 25th May. Quite apart from the perceived danger of fire spreading to the Radcliffe Camera and the Bodleian, the Brasenose crew who had broken into Hertford knocked down the College Porter. Principal Boyd seems to have taken a lenient view of the students’ activities, as he explained in subsequent telegrams to Egerton. Egerton himself wrote that he was sure the Brasenose crew only wanted to congratulate the winners, although he hoped that they were not drunk and had apologised to the Porter.

We are delighted to have acquired this volume for the College archives. The lost Secretary’s Book fills an important gap in our existing collections and is a lovely illustration of College life during this significant period of change for Magdalen Hall and Hertford College.

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Archives Rare books

A Very Serviceable Library

19th century photography of Hertford quad showing library building with Radcliffe Camera in background

Hertford’s Library has gradually grown over the past two centuries. As the college prepares for a major library rebuild project to create a library fit for the 21st century we look back over some of the key developments in its history.

1820: Magdalen Hall’s dreadful fire

Magdalen Hall was based in a site adjacent to Magdalen College on Oxford’s High Street from its foundation in the late 15th century to the early 19th century. A fire in their buildings on the High Street proved the catalyst for its move to Catte Street.

Newspaper cutting entitled 'Destruction of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, by Fire'.

‘I have just time to inform you, that a dreadful fire broke out in Magdalen Hall…this morning, about three o’clock, which totally consumed the whole range of buildings, consisting of about eighteen sets of rooms, in three hours… No lives were lost. All the furniture, books, &c. destroyed. It is supposed to have originated in the room of a young man over the common rooms…’

Source: Morning Chronicle, 11 Jan 1820

Following this fire, which was caused by a student who left a candle burning and fell asleep, Magdalen Hall moved onto the crumbling Catte Street site of Hertford College (previously Hart Hall). In 1874 Magdalen Hall legally became a college of Oxford University and revived the name Hertford College. In the subsequent 200 years the library collections have moved around the sites as storage requirements and members’ needs have changed. The library has never had a purpose built space on the Catte Street site.

Source: Skelton, Oxonia Antiqua Restaurata (1843)

1908: A new chapel

Architect T.G. Jackson designed the new chapel, bridge, dining hall and spiral staircase at Hertford in the early 20th century.

On these plans you can see the new chapel design on the right and the small old chapel on the left, which is now the library. Behind the original chapel is a toilet block (now the site of the library staff office)! Initially the old chapel remained as a single large library room, which would have been a very well lit space.

Building plans for the college in the 20th century, with the chapel pictured.
T.G. Jackson’s architectural drawing for the new Chapel.

‘…Chapel is becoming so famous that the local guides, who used to dismiss Hertford in a single sentence, have found it necessary to add a new speech to their repertoire and to extend their itinerary. This is a mixed blessing, but we may set against it the great though very secular advantages which have resulted from the evacuation of the Old Chapel, which, by the abolition of the ‘horse box’ and the addition of a gallery, has been converted into a very serviceable Library. There is room in it for a surprisingly large number of books, and tables have been provided for the accommodation of readers, who are now admitted at most hours of the day.’

Hertford College Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1910)
Architectural plan of the original chapel before conversion into the library
Jackson plan of the original chapel before conversion into the library
Black and white picture of interior of original Hertford Chapel, looking towards the altar with choir benches on either side
Interior of original Hertford Chapel before it became the library building
Black and white picture of 19th century view of Old Buildings Quad, with rounded top of Radcliffe Camera visible behind stone buildings of quad.
19th century view of Old Buildings Quad before the building of the new chapel and dining hall

The Library keeps on growing

Demand for study space and bookshelves continued right through the 20th century (and still does today). In the 1960s a library extension was built onto the old building. The space, including the old building, was split into two floors, creating a light-filled first floor and a very dark ground floor. Further extensions were added in the basement levels in the nineties and noughties to meet the continued demand for more space.

Hertford is planning a library rebuild to support many future generations in their academic studies. This project will create additional accessible individual and group study areas, space for the modern book collections, and specialist storage and consultation space for the special collections.

Related posts

The Early Modern Library

Treasured Donations

Resources and links

Information about our upcoming library renovation project

Rare Books and Archives at Hertford

Hertford Archives’ guide to the history and records of Hart Hall, Magdalen Hall and Hertford College

Categories
Archives

Memories of 1939: Lieutenant Tom Roberts

Just a month after Britain had declared war on Germany in September 1939, a group of young men assembled for their freshmen photograph in the quad of Hertford College. In the middle of the group was Thomas John Foster Roberts who had come up from Carmarthenshire to read Engineering. On that autumn day, his carefree smile was matched by the unruly lock of hair which had escaped from his neat side parting.

Close-up of Tom Roberts (L) and Dom Mintoff (R) on the second to back row in the 1939 freshman photograph

Whatever hopes Tom had for his university education were cut short by the war. In 1940, aged 19, he enlisted with the Royal Engineers 20 Field Company, a unit which worked with infantry divisions on the ground in occupied Europe. He would have worked with his fellow “sappers” – from the French to undermine – on bridging, demolition, semi-permanent defences, roadblocks and the disposal of unexploded bombs.

Although military service took him far away from Oxford and he had had barely a year as a student, Tom remembered his experiences at Hertford fondly. Whether exploring the ancient city and its buildings or whiling away happy hours on the river, the young engineer always had his camera with him.

Dom Mintoff, the future Prime Minister of Malta and the freshman pictured to the right of Tom in the 1939 photograph, recalled their shared passion for photography.

“Roberts invited me to his rooms and […] opened his treasured album of waterfalls and mountain peaks, blossoming trees in country lanes, his father’s garden and mansions peopled with all the persons dearest to him. They were all stills, yet he imparted to every photo an artistic touch that evoked living reality.”

Mintoff, Malta, Mediterra : My Youth, Dom Mintoff (2018)

The small square prints capture an Oxford which, in 1940, must have seemed a million miles away from the war in Europe. Leaning out from the window of his college room, Tom photographed the famous Hertford bridge – less than 20 years old at the time – and the dazzlingly new edifice of Giles Gilbert Scott’s New Bodleian Library.

He also captured the luxury of leisure time which he wasn’t to have as a Royal Engineer: afternoons spent punting on the Cherwell or watching the rowers from the college barges which, in the 1940s, were still moored on the Thames.

Tom Roberts, 1940

These were happy memories which Tom took with him to the battlefield. After a day of gruelling work, we can imagine that he would take out the Oxford prints and dream of some future in which he’d be able to return to Hertford and finish his studies.

Like so many others, Tom never made it home. He was killed in action during the Normandy landings on 27th June 1944, aged just 23. He was buried at the St. Manvieu War Cemetery in Cheux.

Tom’s photographs of Oxford were returned to his family along with the rest of his personal possessions. The war had put an end to the “undeclared ambition” of “the gentlest and the merriest” of the 1939 freshmen – in the words of his friend Mintoff – “to see the name Roberts writ large on the silver screen as the cameraman of a film performed by famous stars.”

Categories
Archives

A short guide to Hart Hall & the first Hertford College

Image of Hertford College showing buildings and trees

Today’s Hertford College is the successor of two medieval halls of the University of Oxford. The site has been the home of Hart Hall, Magdalen Hall (not to be confused with the separate institution of Magdalen College) and a previous ‘Hertford College’ which existed from 1740–1818. Hart Hall was originally established around the 1280s as an academic hall for students studying at the University. It carried on in this form until 1740 when Principal Richard Newton re-formed Hart Hall as an independent college. This first Hertford College was not successful and it was forced to close in 1816.

Hart Hall in the Middle Ages

Towards the end of the 13th century Hart Hall was one of five academic halls, or student lodging houses, that were situated around the piece of land in Oxford now occupied by Hertford College. The origins of these halls are unclear, but it is known that at some time in the 1280s Hart Hall, which was situated between Black Hall and Shield Hall, was purchased by Elias of Hertford. In 1312 Walter of Stapledon, the Bishop of Exeter, bought the hall and its land, along with the neighbouring Arthur Hall.

This map of the centre of Oxford shows the site of the present day Hertford College with the locations of Hart Hall & Black Hall shown in the hatched areas. Reproduced by kind permission of the British Historic Towns Atlas © Historic Towns Trust

Bishop Stapledon planned to found a new college, and 1314 he obtained a licence to establish a hall for twelve poor scholars and for a short period Hart Hall housed these students and was known as Stapledon Hall. However the scholars soon moved to the newly founded Exeter College on Turl Street and Hart Hall reverted to its former status. Exeter College retained the freehold and rented Hart Hall as accommodation for much of the 14th century.

During the 15th century the Hall to some extent began to develop as a separate institution, but Exeter College remained the owner of the freehold and continued to exert its influence over the appointment of the Principal, who was usually an Exeter Fellow. Subsequent Principals paid rent to Exeter College until well into the 18th century.

Sydney Hamilton’s sketch of the medieval site, made c. 1896 during his time as Hertford Librarian ©Hertford College Archives

During this period the Hall seems to have been one of the larger and more successful halls; it was, for example, one of the few late medieval halls to have its own library. From the beginning of the 16th century other halls declined as the colleges began to allow more of their students to live in. Hart Hall maintained its numbers, recording 45 students in 1551 but with only one endowment finances were always a struggle.

Hart Hall after the Reformation

David Loggan’s engraving of Hart Hall made in 1675 for his book Oxonia Illustrata. ©Hertford College Archives

The patronage of Exeter College enabled Hart Hall to survive the shocks of the Reformation and absorb its nearby competitors, including Black Hall and Cat Hall. Although it lost the income from Sir John Bignell’s endowment, the Hall flourished under the tenure of Principal Richard Randall (1559–1599) who carried out substantial alterations and new buildings. He was also the first to make a break with Exeter College, by resigning his fellowship whilst remaining Principal of Hart Hall.

The years leading up to the Civil War saw a decline in numbers at the Hall, and by 1646 it was almost deserted. Following a visitation from the Parliamentary Commissioners Oliver Cromwell took the unusual step of directly appointing Dr Philip Stephens as Principal, who succeeded in restoring the fortunes of the Hall until he was ejected at the Restoration in 1660.

From Hart Hall to Hertford College

Dr Richard Newton from a portrait in Hertford College Collections, artist unknown, c. 1740 ©Hertford College Archives

In July 1710 Dr Richard Newton, a former pupil of Westminster School and tutor at Oxford’s Christ Church, became Principal of Hart Hall. This ambitious man immediately began to put his interest in educational and university reform into practice by planning the transformation of Hart Hall. He intended to promote its academic credentials and standing of the students and to create an impressive new set of buildings on the site, although most of these building plans were never carried out. However within six years he had paid off the college’s debts and added some new buildings on the south-eastern corner of the site, as well as a new chapel consecrated in November 1716.

Frontispiece from Dr Newton’s proposed statutes for his new college, published in 1739 & revised in 1747 ©Hertford College Archives

More successful were his plans to incorporate the Hall as a College. In 1739 Newton published his famous ‘Scheme of Disciplines with Statutes intended to be established by a Royal Charter for the education of youth in Hart Hall, in the University of Oxford’. Although these were fiercely opposed by many individuals in Oxford as well as by Exeter College which claimed partial ownership of the site, in 1740 Newton finally obtained a charter and statutes that would allow Hart Hall to be incorporated as an Oxford College. The Statutes were revised in 1748.

Dr Newton’s reforms

A lack of endowments meant that the college’s financial position was always precarious. Right from the start as Principal of Hart Hall, Newton exercised a ruthless control over college administration and finances. As a large proportion of his students were studying for Holy Orders, and so did not generate much of an income for the college, he was keen to attract Gentlemen Commoners and the higher fees that they paid. To this end he was also determined to make his college a model of learning, good behaviour and Christian morality.

“It is injoined, That no Person be continued a Member of this House, whose Iregular, Immoral, or Irreligious Behaviour in it shall render the Methods of Education described in these Statutes Fruitless to Himself, and his Conversation Dangerous to the Rest of the society; And that the Principal and Tutors be watchful to observe the First Steps which young Men take to any Evil Habits, and endeavour, by proper Representations and Penalties, to prevent their Ruin.”

Newton’s Rules & Statutes, Sect. X: Of Behaviour
The oath of admission to be made by each student, as set out in Newton’s Statutes ©Hertford College Archives

All of the students, including Gentlemen Commoners, had to agree to abide by Newton’s rules for governing the college. They were closely supervised and expected to work hard and live frugally in college, avoiding the temptations of the town and its coffee houses, of which he particularly disapproved.

Newton’s reintroduction of twice-weekly disputations, numerous lectures and a weekly speech day and essay, kept the students more than fully occupied — to the extent that in 1725, a group of students rebelled against his strict regime and tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to migrate to other colleges.

The decline of the first Hertford College

Although Dr Newton eventually won the battle for incorporation and was able to a certain extent impose his model of academic life, he never obtained enough endowments to sustain this incarnation of Hertford College. After his death in 1753 the college declined, the number of Fellows and tutors was reduced and by 1810 there were virtually no matriculations. Eventually the underfunding and inability to attract Fellows and even a Principal led to the de facto collapse of the college. Any kind of meaningful academic and college life, and even the buildings themselves, deteriorated.

Detail from Joseph Skelton’s engraving of the ruined Hertford College in 1822 ©Hertford College Archives

The Fellows of Magdalen College, who had long been looking for a means of taking back the site occupied by Magdalen Hall, saw their opportunity and on 4 May 1816 a University Inquisition dissolved Hertford College. The college and its assets were transferred to the Crown, and the last remaining Fellow was pensioned off.

In due course an Act of Parliament granted the property to the University in trust for Magdalen Hall, which moved to the Catte Street site after a fire destroyed its own buildings next to Magdalen College in 1820. Magdalen Hall continued until its incorporation as a full college in 1874 when it once again took the name of Hertford College.

The Archives

Sadly only a small collection survives from this period, and this relates primarily to the Principal Newton’s Hertford College. It includes the Foundation Statutes and Rules devised by Newton, and most importantly the early 19th century library catalogues. Descriptions for these records can be viewed via our online catalogue , along with research guides to our archive holdings and specialist topics.

  • Printed title page of sermon
    Frontispiece for Richard Newton’s sermon for the consecration of Hart Hall’s new chapel ©Hertford College Archives
  • Handwritten library catalogue
    A page from Hertford College Library Catalogue, 1800 ©Hertford College Archives
  • Handwritten copy of legal proceedings
    The judgement made by Oxford University against George Selwyn in 1745 for ‘Prophaning the Lord’s Supper’ ©Hertford College Archives
  • Handwritten copy of legal proceedings
    George Selwyn’s appeal against his expulsion from the University ©Hertford College Archives
Categories
Archives

The undergraduate Evelyn Waugh

Detail of black and white group photograph showing two rows of seated students and fellows

Evelyn Waugh is one of Hertford College’s most famous — and occasionally infamous — alumni. Waugh had originally hoped to go to New College in Oxford, but was offered a place as a History Scholar at Hertford College, where he matriculated in January 1922.

Hertford College in the early 20th Century

Waugh arrived prepared to love Oxford and was full of good intentions, but by his own later admission did very little academic work whilst at Hertford and took only a casual interest in college activities. Sadly for biographers and Waugh enthusiasts this means that the college archives contain only glimpses of Waugh during his time as an undergraduate at Oxford.

College life

Waugh arrived partway through the academic year. In A Little Learning he describes Hertford as ‘a respectable but rather dreary little college’; and it was certainly still recovering from the ravages of the First World War. Student numbers were small, buildings dilipidated and accommodation cramped.

Page from a college Buttery Book recording Waugh’s weekly expenses for the Summer term of 1922 ©Hertford College Archives
Page from Hertford College Register of Room Allocations 1915–1929, recording the rooms allocated to Waugh in Michaelmas Term 1923 ©Hertford College Archives

Dinners were less elaborate and breakfast was served in hall as a common meal — in 1921 the college magazine noted with sadness that it was ‘no longer customary to entertain to three-course breakfasts’, although lunch was still ‘consumed decently in private’. Hertford had the advantage of cheaper living costs than many of the Oxford colleges and for his first two terms at Hertford Waugh occupied relatively inexpensive ground floor rooms (Staircase III room 30) in the Old Buildings Quad.

Waugh’s ground floor room at the front of the Old Quad, possibly the inspiration for Charles Ryder’s rooms as portrayed in ‘Brideshead Revisited’ ©Hertford College Archives

In the autumn term of 1922, however, he moved to a rather grander and more expensive set of rooms in Staircase II (now the Bursary Staircase) of the Old Buildings Quad. He was to occupy these rooms for the following four terms.The other sets in Staircase II were occupied by a fellow student, Anthony Disney, and three Fellows (Denniston, Murphy & Campbell). Perhaps for reasons of economy, Waugh moved for his final two terms in 1924 to a less grand set of rooms in Staircase V of the Old Buildings Quad, known as ‘The Cottage’.

Waugh appears in only two official photographs in Hertford College Archives. He arrived too late to be included in the Freshmen photograph for 1922 but a Gilman & Soame college group photograph taken in 1923 shows a youthful Evelyn on the front row, rather too close for comfort to his history tutor and arch enemy, CRMF Cruttwell. Close by we can tentatively identify his friends Terence Greenidge and Anthony Bushell. 

Evelyn Waugh is seated on the front row, 5th from the right; in the detail he appears on the bottom right. From the left of the bottom row detail is possibly Anthony Bushell & Terence Greenidge. Behind them in the middle of the second row Cruttwell is clearly visible in academic dress, with a dark suit, white tie & gown. ©Hertford College Archives.

Waugh in the centre of the front row of this undated photograph (c. 1923), possibly of members of the Junior Common Dining Club; from a Junior Common Room photograph album ©Hertford College Archives.

Waugh seems to have taken very little part in college activities as he quickly became involved in the Oxford Union and outside societies such as the Hypocrites’ Club. He was, however, a member of the college’s idiosyncratic Fox Society, for which he became the Secretary shortly after matriculating. Waugh and his friends obviously took great pleasure in debating, as these extracts from a Fox Society Minute Book demonstrate.

In November 1923 the Society held a joint debate with Trinity College, the motion being ‘This House wishes It was still at School’.

“Mr Waugh (Hertf.) complained of the self-righteousness of the House: the first speaker had stood for Freedom, the second for Faith, and the third for Virtue. He himself stood for a reasonable standard of personal comfort. At this point several visitors had to depart as their efforts to secure this ideal had involved them with the Proctors.”

Report from the Fox Society in the Hertford College Magazine for 1923 ©Hertford College Archives

Waugh & Principal Cruttwell

Portrait of Principal Cruttwell, reproduced from the Hertford College Magazine 1931 ©Hertford College Archives

C R M F Cruttwell was a distinguished historian and Lecturer in History at Hertford College from 1912. Although he eventually became Principal of Hertford he had never really recovered from wounds and shell shock sustained in the First World War and this may account for reports of his idiosyncratic behaviour. Waugh came to Hertford as a History Scholar and was therefore tutored by Cruttwell, but Waugh’s lack of interest in the subject meant that their relationship quickly deteriorated. Waugh wrote numerous unflattering depictions of Cruttwell in University publications and his own subsequent novels and memoirs — a persistent feud which he maintained until Cruttwell’s early death in 1941.

Records in Hertford College Archives point to a different interpretation of the relationship between Waugh and Cruttwell. Felix Markham, who succeeded Cruttwell as Modern History Tutor in 1931, considered Waugh’s descriptions of Cruttwell to be a caricature and travesty of the truth and that Cruttwell had rightly considered Waugh to be a thoroughly lazy and often drunken undergraduate. The actor and theatre director Frith Banbury matriculated at Hertford eight years after Waugh in 1930, and he later wrote a brief memoir for the archives of his time at the college. In it he notes: ‘Incidentally I do not have a vivid memory of ‘Crutters’, which leads me to the conclusion that Evelyn Waugh’s demonisation of him had more to do with Waugh than with Cruttwell’.

After Hertford

News of alumni in the Hertford College Magazine ©Hertford College Archives

Waugh sat his Schools exams in the summer of 1924 and achieved only a third class. As he had arrived part way through the academic year in 1922, he had intended to complete a further terms residence in order fulfil the requirements for his degree to be awarded. However his lack of academic progress meant that his father was unwilling to allow him to stay on, and this led to him leaving without having completed his terms, and so with no degree awarded. 

Minutes of the 610th Meeting of the Tyndale Society held in 1948, recording details of a talk given by Waugh ©Hertford College Archives

From Hertford Waugh spent a short time studying at art school in London, and then took up a teaching post at a school in Wales. Recorded here as ‘Denbigh School’, it was in fact Arnold House in North Wales, which became the inspiration for his first novel Decline and Fall.

In later life Waugh was not a particularly devoted alumnus, but he did make occasional returns to Hertford, mainly to speak at meetings of the Tyndale Society. The Minutes Book of the Tyndale Debating Society from May 1948 record the text of a paper given by Waugh entitled ‘Monsignor Ronald Knox as a Man of Letters’; and he returned in 1954 to give a talk on the wines of Burgundy, ‘with five sample bottles which he distributed among members’. In a letter written in 1952 to the Bursar W L Ferrar, however, he declined an invitation to a college dinner, on the grounds that as the journey from Somerset to Oxford was more laborious than travelling to the Amazon.

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