New College Tower (New)

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William de Wykeham — the Founder of "St. Mary's College of Winchester in Oxford" now called New College, the greatest statesman and ecclesiastic of his day, first gained the patronage of Edward III as an architect. The King made him supervisor of the works on Windsor Castle which it is said he partly pulled down and rebuilt to his own design so pleasing the King that his advancement was rapid reaching the highest position the State could give him, the Chancellorship of England.

He founded two great institutions, Winchester School andNew College (1379). The one was to compliment the other. Hither­to, mere boys coming to Oxford had fallen easy prey to the evils of the day; Winchester School, the original pattern for all our public schools, was to act as a nursery to the College.

The statutes of New College were framed on an elaborate scale with the intention of the foundation bearing comparison with the large Abbeys. The Warden was to live on the lines of the Abbot, the sub-Warden to preside over the Hall, like a Prior; there were to be ten Chaplains, three Clerks, seventy Scholars, and sixteen Choristers.

Wykeham developed his college so skilfully adapted to aca­demic life that, not only did subsequent colleges follow it as a model, but those already founded readjusted their buildings to the same ideal. Thus, although seventh in the order of its foun­dation, it is oldest as regards its buildings.

The front Quad, the Chapel and Hall, the Cloisters and the Bell Tower, are virtually the same as left by the Founder. In the magnificent Chapel, the figures in the reredos, destroyed at the Reformation, were replaced by others in 1894.

The glass in the ante - chapel is fourteenth century and is the finest of its date in England, except the great west window dating from 1782, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Also to be seen in the Chapel are the Founder's crozier encased in the north wall, a Titian, and Epstein's Lazarus.

First among the famous men the college produced was Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury and founder of All Souls.

Further dates: Gatehouse, Chapel, Hall 1380, First Quad 1380 (3rd storey 1674), Second Quad 1682-1707, Bell Tower 1400,

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