Peterhouse, Cambridge

Peterhouse
Location	Trumpington Street
Established	1284
Named for	Saint Peter
Previous names	The Scholars of the Bishop of Ely Saint Peter’s College
Colours
Sister college	Merton College, Oxford
Master	The Lord Wilson of Tillyorn
Undergraduates	284
Postgraduates	130
Website	http://www.pet.cam.ac.uk/
Boat club	http://www.srcf.ucam.org/pbc/

Peterhouse is the oldest college in the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has 284 undergraduates, 130 graduate students and 45 fellows, making it the smallest College in Cambridge, except for the specialized colleges that admit only women, graduates, or mature (over 21 years of age) students, some of which are smaller because of their specialized membership. The modern name of the college does not include the word "college", but rather is denoted solely by "Peterhouse".

History

The chapel cloisters, through which Old Court can be seen.

The foundation of Peterhouse dates to 1280, when a royal licence shows that Edward I allowed Hugo de Balsham to keep a number of scholars in the Hospital of St John, where they were to live according to the rules of the scholars of Merton. In 1284, he transferred to the present site with the purchase of two houses to accommodate a Master and fourteen “worthy but impoverished Fellows”, and Peterhouse was founded. A hall was built two years later; this is the oldest college building in Cambridge. Balsham died in 1286, bequeathing 300 marks that was used to buy further land. Following their removal from the Hospital of St John, the Master and Scholars were ordered to pay 20 shillings per year to the hospital, a practice which continued into the 20th Century. Hugh de Balsham also gave the new college and the hospital jointly the rectory of Thriplow. This rectory became solely the property of the college in 1284. This caused much dispute that was not resolved until the Court of Arches in 1320. Even then, disputes continued until 1340.

The college acquired the land of the Friars of the Sack, who were originally based to the south of the main college site following their dissolution in 1307. By the middle of the 14th Century, the college had acquired the majority of its modern grounds. The earliest surviving set of statutes for the college date from 1344, when Simon Montacute, Bishop of Ely gave them to the college. These statutes refer to older versions that no longer survive. Although based on those of Merton College, these statutes clearly display the lack of resources available to the college early in its existence. The statutes were used in 1345 to defeat an attempt by Edward III to appoint a candidate of his own as scholar. In 1354-55, William Moschett set up a trust that resulted in nearly 70 acres of land at Fen Ditton being transferred to the College by 1391-2. The College's relative poverty was resolved in 1401 when the college acquired the advowson and rectory of Hinton through the efforts of Bishop Fordham and John Newton.

In the late sixteenth century, under the Mastership of Andrew Perne, the College was known as a centre for Arminianism, while master John Cosin promoted a Laudian version of religious observance in the 1630s.

The college was the first in the University to have electric lighting installed, when Kelvin provided it for the hall and combination room to celebrate the College's six-hundredth anniversary in 1883-1884.

In the twentieth century, Peterhouse has had a reputation for excellence in both science and history. Notable history Fellows have included Adolphus William Ward, Harold Temperley, Herbert Butterfield, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Maurice Cowling and Niall Ferguson - see also Peterhouse school of history. Notable science Fellows have included Aaron Klug, Max Perutz and John Meurig Thomas.

In the 1980s Peterhouse acquired an association with Conservative, Thatcherite politics. Maurice Cowling and Roger Scruton were both influential Fellows of the College and are sometimes described as key figures in the so-called "Peterhouse right" – an intellectual movement linked to Margaret Thatcher. Michael Portillo and Michael Howard both studied at Peterhouse. This tradition of intellectual political thought has been upheld by the recent establishment of the Peterhouse Politics Society.

Student Life

The college has an active Junior Combination Room (JCR) and was one of the few student bodies in Cambridge successful in keeping rents low during a series of rent strikes in 2000. Peterhouse JCR’s official title is the Sexcentenary Club, often abbreviated to the "Sex Club".

Buildings and grounds

Chapel

Interior of the chapel

Viewed from the main entrance to Peterhouse on Trumpington Street, the altar end of the chapel is the most immediately visible building. The chapel was built in 1628 when the Master of the time Matthew Wren (Christopher Wren’s uncle) demolished the College’s original hostels. Previously the college had employed the adjacent Church of St Mary the Less as its chapel. The building’s style reflects the contemporary religious trend towards Arminianism The Laudian Gothic style of the chapel mixes Renaissance details but incorporated them into a traditional Gothic building. The chapel’s Renaissance architecture contains a Pieta altarpiece and a striking ceiling of golden suns. The original stained glass was destroyed by Parliamentarian forces in 1643, with only the east window’s crucifixion scene (based on Rubens' Le Coup de Lance) surviving. The current side windows are by Max Ainmuller, and were added in 1855. The cloisters on each side of the chapel date from the seventeenth cenrury. However, their design was classicised in 1709, while an ornamental porch was removed in 1755. The music manuscripts from the early years of the chapel survive, and are one of the most important collections of Tudor and Jacobean church music. The restoration of the 1763 Snetzler organ in the chapel was by Noel Mander.

Old Court

Old Court, facing the chapel

Old Court lies beyond the chapel cloisters. To the south of the court is the dining hall, the only College building that survives from the thirteenth century. It was re-mediaevalised in 1870 with fine panelling, an impressive oriel window, and a new timber roof by the architect George Gilbert Scott. The stained glass, with pieces by William Morris, Ford Madox Brown and Edward Burne-Jones, is a fine example of Pre-Raphaelite glass. The sixteenth-century fireplace now contains tiles, also by Morris.

The north and west sides of Old Court were added in the fifteenth century, and classicised three centuries later. The chapel makes up the fourth, east side to the court. Rooms in Old Court are occupied by a mixture of fellows and undergraduates. The west and north sides of the court also house Peterhouse’s JCR, and the student bar.

Gisborne Court

Gisborne Court is accessible through an archway leading from the west side of Old Court. It was built in 1825. Its cost was met with part of a benefaction of 1817 from the Rev. Francis Gisborne, a former Fellow. When the gift was announced to the Governing Body its size, £20,000, was so great that the Fellows took it at first as a practical joke. The court is built in white brick with stone dressings in a simple Tudor Gothic style from the designs of William Mclntosh Brookes. Only three sides to the court were built. The College is currently considering plans to build a fourth side in a similar style. Rooms in Gisborne Court are mainly occupied by undergraduates. Many previously housed distinguished alumni, including Lord Kelvin in I staircase.

Fen Court and the Birdwood Building

Beyond Gisborne Court is Fen Court, a twentieth century building partially on stilts. Fen Court was built between 1939 and 1941 from designs by H. C. Hughes and his partner Peter Bicknell. It was amongst the earliest buildings in Cambridge designed in the style of the Modern Movement pioneered by Walter Gropius at the Bauhaus. The carved panel by Anthony Foster over the entrance doorway evokes the mood in Britain as the building was completed. It bears the inscription DE PROFUNDIS CLAMAVI MCMXL ("out of the depths have I cried out 1940"), the first words of Psalm 130, one of the Penitential Psalms, and a depiction of St Peter saved in the midst of the sea.

The adjacent bath-house, known as the Birdwood Building, that makes up the western side of Gisborne Court was also designed by Hughes and Bicknell and was built between 1932 and 1934. It is now used as, amongst other things, a gym.

The Deer Park

Exterior of the Hall

The grounds to the south of Gisborne Court have been known as the Deer Park since deer were brought there in the nineteenth century. During that period it achieved fame as the smallest deer park in England. After the First World War the deer sickened and passed their illness onto stock imported from the Duke of Portland’s estate at Welbeck Abbey in an attempt to improve the situation.

A popular College rumour that the deer in the Deer Park were eaten as a result of rationing during the Second World War is apocryphal. A variation on this urban legend has it that the Fellows ate the deer during the recession of the 1970s, to cut corners on formal hall bills.

The William Stone building

The William Stone building lies to the south of the Deer Park and was funded by a bequest from William Stone (1857-1958), a former scholar of the college. Erected in 1963, it is an eight-storey brick tower which was much admired and photographed in the 1960s and 1970s by architectural students, especially from Japan. It houses a mixture of Fellows and undergraduates.

The Burroughs building

The Burroughs building is situated at the front of the college, parallel to the Chapel. It is named after its architect, Sir James Burroughs, the Master of Caius, and was built in 1736. It is one of several Cambridge neo-Palladian buildings designed by Burroughs. Others include the remodelling of the Hall and Old Court at Trinity Hall and the chapel at Clare College.

The Master’s Lodge

The Master’s Lodge is situated across Trumpington Street from the College, and was bequeathed to the College in 1727 by a Fellow, Dr Charles Beaumont, son of a former Master, Joseph Beaumont. It is built in red brick in the Queen Anne style.

The Hostel

The Hostel is situated next to the Master’s Lodge. It was built in a neo-Georgian style in 1926 from designs by Thomas Henry Lyon. The Hostel was intended to be part of a larger complex but only one wing was built. It presently houses undergraduates and some fellows. During the World War II the London School of Economics was housed in The Hostel and nearby buildings, at the invitation of the Master and Fellows.

Arms

The College has, during its history, used five different coats of arms. The one currently in use has two legitimate blazons. The first form is the original grant by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms, in 1575:

Or four pallets Gules within a border of the last charged with eight ducal coronets of the first.

The College did, however, habitually use a version with three pallets and this was allowed at the Herald's Visitation of Cambridgeshire in 1684. The latter version (with three pallets) was officially adopted by the Governing Body in 1935. The construction of the arms is that of the founder, Hugo de Balsham, surrounded by the crowns of the See of Ely.

Ghost

In 1997 and 1998, Peterhouse was the subject of media interest in the UK after several members of kitchen staff claimed to have seen a ghost in the College’s Combination Room. The ghost was said to be that of a former Bursar, Francis Dawes, who is now buried in the churchyard of Little St Mary’s, immediately to the north of the College. Francis Dawes had hanged himself with a bell rope in 1789, following irregularities over the election of Francis Barnes, a highly unpopular master. After the ghost was publicised in a series of newspaper articles, the College was rumoured to have conducted an exorcism. This would have been the college’s third exorcism; there are suggestions that the college conducted an exorcism in the 18th century, to banish a poltergeist. Also, a former Dean carried out a ceremony because of the appearance of a dark presence in a corner of the old courtyard overlooking the graveyard.

Dining societies

Peterhouse is home to many oddly named dining societies, such as the Strafford Club, the Cocoa Tree Club, the Peter Pals, and the Adonians. One dining society, the Authenticators, was named after a previous Master of the college, Lord Dacre of Glanton, who had made the mistake of authenticating the forged Hitler Diaries in the Sunday Times.

Peterhouse Grace

Benedic nos Domine, et dona Tua, quae de Tua largitate sumus sumpturi, et concede, ut illis salubriter nutriti, Tibi debitum obsequium praestare valeamus, per Christum Dominum nostrum, Amen.

Deus est caritas, et qui manet in caritate in Deo manet, et Deus in eo: sit Deus in nobis, et nos maneamus in ipso. Amen.

Bless us, O Lord, and your gifts, which of your bounty we are about to receive, and grant that, fed wholesomely upon them, we may be able to offer due service to you, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

God is love, and he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. May God be in us, and we in him. Amen.

Famous Petreans

See also Category:Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge

Name	Birth	Death	Career
Tom Askwith	1911	2001	Permanent Secretary Blue and Olympic oarsman
Richard Baker	1925		Newsreader
Charles Babbage	1791	1871	His analytical engine anticipated the modern computer
Augustus Theodore Bartholomew	1882	1933	Cambridge librarian
Steph Cook	1972		Gold medal Pentathlon Olympian
Richard Crashaw			Poet
Richard Eyre	1943		Film and theatre director
Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton	1735	1811	British Prime Minister
Colin Charles Greenwood	1969		Bass player of Radiohead
Syed Mohammed Hadi	1899	1971	Olympic athlete
Erich Heller	1911	1990	British essayist
Sir Christopher Heydon	1561	1623	English soldier and writer on astrology
Alexander Ashley Hill			Historian
Michael Howard	1941		Former leader of the Conservative Party
James Mason	1909	1984	Actor
James Clerk Maxwell	1831	1879	Physicist
Dan Mazer	1971		Comic writer
Chris Mead	1940	2003	Ornithologist
Sam Mendes	1965		Flm and stage director/producer
Christopher Meyer	1944		Former British ambassador to the USA
David Mitchell	1974		Comedian
Michael Portillo	1953		Former Conservative MP
Ed Smith	1977		Cricketer and author
Anthony St Leger	1732	1786	Soldier, politician, Governor of Saint Lucia Founder of the St. Leger Stakes
Frank Whittle	1907	1996	Developed jet propulsion
Peregrine Worsthorne	1923		Journalist

Famous Fellows of Peterhouse

See also Category:Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge

Name	Birth	Death	Career
Kingsley Amis	1922	1995	Novelist
Herbert Butterfield	1900	1979	Historian
Henry Cavendish	1731	1810	Scientist
Christopher Cockerell	1910	1999	Inventor of the hovercraft
Maurice Cowling	1926	2005	Historian
Richard Crashaw	1613	1649	Poet
James Dewar	1842	1923	Scientist
Niall Ferguson	1964		Historian
Thomas Gray	1716	1771	Poet
Lord Kelvin	1824	1907	Physicist
Aaron Klug	1926		Nobel Prize Winner
Archer Martin	1910	2002	Nobel Prize for developing partition chromatography
Edward Norman	1938		Theologian
Andrew Perne	1519	1589	Dean of Ely
Max Perutz	1914	2002	Nobel Prize for chemistry
Roger Scruton	1944		Philosopher
Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton	1914	2003	Historian
John Whitgift	1530	1604	Archbishop

External links

• Peterhouse official website
• Peterhouse Conferences & Catering website
• Virtual tour of Peterhouse
• JCR website
• Peterhouse Boat Club
• The Heywood Society website - Peterhouse theatre & film