Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Church bell towers often incorporate clocks, and secular towers usually do, the Italian term campanile, deriving from the word campana meaning bell, is synonymous with bell tower, though in English usage Campanile tends to be used to refer to a free standing bell tower. A bell tower may in some traditions be called a belfry, though this term may refer specifically to the substructure that houses the bells. The tallest free-standing bell tower in the world, approximately 110 m high, is the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, located at the University of Birmingham, bells are rung from a tower to enable them to be heard at a distance. Church bells can signify the time for worshippers to go to church for a communal service and they are rung on special occasions such as a wedding, or a funeral service. In some religious traditions they are used within the liturgy of the service to signify to people that a particular part of the service has been reached. A bell tower may have a bell, or a collection of bells which are tuned to a common scale.
They may be stationary and chimed, rung randomly by swinging through a small arc and they may house a carillon or chimes, in which the bells are sounded by hammers connected via cables to a keyboard. These can be found in churches and secular buildings in Europe and America including college. A variety of electronic devices exist to simulate the sound of bells, some churches have an exconjuratory in the bell tower, a space where ceremonies were conducted to ward off weather-related calamities, like storms and excessive rain. The main bell tower of the Cathedral of Murcia has four, in addition, most Christian denominations ring church bells to call the faithful to worship, signalling the start of a mass or service of worship. The Christian tradition of the ringing of bells from a belltower is analogous to Islamic tradition of the adhan from a minaret. In AD400, Paulinus of Nola introduced church bells into the Christian Church, by the 11th century, bells housed in belltowers became commonplace.
Historic bell towers exist throughout Europe, the Irish round towers are thought to have functioned in part as bell towers. Famous medieval European examples include Bruges, Ghent, perhaps the most famous European free-standing bell tower, however, is the so-called Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is the campanile of the Duomo di Pisa in Pisa, Italy. In 1999 thirty-two Belgian belfries were added to the UNESCOs list of World Heritage Sites, in 2005 this list was extended with one Belgian and twenty-three Northern French belfries and is since known as Belfries of Belgium and France. In the Middle Ages, cities sometimes kept their important documents in belfries, not all are on a large scale, the bell tower of Katúň, in Slovakia, is typical of the many more modest structures that were once common in country areas. Archaic wooden bell towers survive adjoining churches in Lithuania and as well as in parts of Poland
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college is associated with Christ Church Cathedral, which serves as the college chapel and it is the second wealthiest Oxford college by financial endowment with an endowment of £436m as of 2015. Christ Church has produced thirteen British prime ministers, more than any other Oxbridge college, the college was the setting for parts of Evelyn Waughs Brideshead Revisited, as well as a small part of Lewis Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland. More recently it has used in the filming of the movies of J. K. Rowlings Harry Potter series. Distinctive features of the architecture have been used as models by a number of other academic institutions, including the National University of Ireland, Galway. The University of Chicago and Cornell University both have reproductions of Christ Churchs dining hall, christChurch Cathedral in New Zealand, after which the City of Christchurch is named, is itself named after Christ Church, Oxford.
Stained glass windows in the cathedral and other buildings are by the Pre-Raphaelite William Morris group with designs by Edward Burne-Jones, Christ Church is partly responsible for the creation of University College Reading, which gained its own Royal Charter and became the University of Reading. The first female undergraduates matriculated at Christ Church in 1980 and he planned the establishment on a magnificent scale, but fell from grace in 1529, with the buildings only three-quarters complete, as they were to remain for 140 years. In 1531 the college was suppressed, but it was refounded in 1532 as King Henry VIIIs College by Henry VIII. Since the time of Queen Elizabeth I the college has associated with Westminster School. The dean remains to this day an ex member of the schools governing body. Major additions have made to the buildings through the centuries. To this day the bell in the tower, Great Tom, is rung 101 times at 9 pm at the former Oxford time every night, in former times this was done at midnight, signalling the close of all college gates throughout Oxford.
Since it took 20 minutes to ring the 101, Christ Church gates, unlike those of other colleges, when the ringing was moved back to 9,00 pm, Christ Church gates still remained open until 12.20,20 minutes than any other college. Although the clock itself now shows GMT/BST, Christ Church still follows Oxford time in the timings of services in the cathedral, King Charles I made the Deanery his palace and held his Parliament in the Great Hall during the English Civil War. In the evening of 29 May 1645, during the siege of Oxford. During the Commonwealth, John Owen attained considerable eminence, the Visitor of Christ Church is the reigning British sovereign, and the Bishop of Oxford is unique among English bishops in not being the Visitor of his own cathedral. The head of the college is the Dean of Christ Church, There are a senior and a junior censor the former of whom is responsible for academic matters, the latter for undergraduate discipline
Oxford
Oxford is a city in the South East region of England and the county town of Oxfordshire. With an estimated 2015 population of 168,270, it is the 52nd largest city in the United Kingdom, the city is situated 57 miles from London,69 miles from Bristol,65 miles from both Southampton and Birmingham and 25 miles from Reading. The city is known worldwide as the home of the University of Oxford, buildings in Oxford demonstrate notable examples of every English architectural period since the late Saxon period. Oxford is known as the city of dreaming spires, a term coined by poet Matthew Arnold, Oxford has a broad economic base. Its industries include motor manufacturing, publishing and a number of information technology and science-based businesses. Oxford was first settled in Saxon times and was known as Oxenaforda, meaning Ford of the Oxen. It began with the establishment of a crossing for oxen around AD900. In the 10th century, Oxford became an important military frontier town between the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex and was on several occasions raided by Danes, Oxford was heavily damaged during the Norman Invasion of 1066.
Following the conquest, the town was assigned to a governor, Robert DOyly, the castle has never been used for military purposes and its remains survive to this day. DOyly set up a community in the castle consisting of a chapel. The community never grew large but it earned its place in history as one of Britains oldest places of formal education and it was there that in 1139 Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his History of the Kings of Britain, a compilation of Arthurian legends. Mary at Oseney and to the canons serving God in that place and we have made this concession and confirmation in the Common council of the City and we have confirmed it with our common seal. These are those who have made this concession and confirmation, a grandson of King John established Rewley Abbey for the Cistercian Order, and friars of various orders all had houses of varying importance at Oxford. Parliaments were often held in the city during the 13th century, the Provisions of Oxford were instigated by a group of barons led by Simon de Montfort, these documents are often regarded as Englands first written constitution.
Richard I of England and John, King of England the sons of Henry II of England, were born at Beaumont Palace in Oxford, on 8 September 1157 and 24 December 1166 respectively. A plaque in Beaumont Street commemorates these events, the University of Oxford is first mentioned in 12th century records. Of the hundreds of Aularian houses that sprang up across the city, what put an end to the halls was the emergence of colleges. Oxfords earliest colleges were University College and Merton and these colleges were established at a time when Europeans were starting to translate the writings of Greek philosophers
Dunster House
Dunster House is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University. In the early days, room rents varied based on the floor, Dunster is unique among Harvard dormitories for its sixth-story walk-up, these rooms were originally rented by poorer students, such as Norman Mailer. The House was named in honor of Henry Dunster, a learned and industrious man and he was appointed to the Harvard presidency at the age of thirty-one, immediately after his arrival in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1640. He held the office during the early years of the Colony. The tower of Dunster House is inspired by, but somewhat smaller than, above the east wing is the Dunster family coat of arms, and above the west wing is the coat of arms of Magdalene College, where Henry Dunster matriculated in 1627. Dunster is located on the banks of the Charles River next to the John W. Weeks Footbridge, from above, its architectural shape, unusual among the River Houses, resembles a branching flowchart due to the odd trapezoidal footprint of the land on which it was built.
Dunster is slated for a full House renewal, a renovation that will begin in June 2014. It is known as one of the more social houses at Harvard, boasting popular Stein Clubs, dunsters current Masters are Roger Porter, who served in the White House during the administrations of both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and Ann Porter. The Houses first master was Chester N. Greenough, English Professor, former masters include Raoul Bott and Sally Falk Moore. Carlos E. Diaz Rosillo currently serves as the Allston Burr Resident Dean, dunsters mascot is the moose, inspired by the three golden elk on the Dunster family crest. For many years Dunster was reputed to have the highest grade-point average of any house, al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones were roommates at Dunster House in the late 1960s. Other notable Dunster alumni include Christopher Durang, Lindsay Hyde, Dan Wilson, and Jean Kwok
Stonemasonry
The craft of stonemasonry has existed since humanity could use and make tools - creating buildings and sculpture using stone from the earth. These materials have been used to construct many of the long-lasting, ancient monuments, cathedrals, quarrymen split veins, or sheets of rock, and extract the resulting blocks of stone from the ground. Sawyers cut these rough blocks into cuboids, to required size with diamond-tipped saws, the resulting block if ordered for a specific component is known as sawn six sides. Banker masons are workshop-based, and specialize in working the stones into the shapes required by a design, this set out on templets. They can produce anything from stones with simple chamfers to tracery windows, detailed mouldings and the more classical architectural building masonry. When working a stone from a block, the mason ensures that the stone is bedded in the right way. Occasionally though some stones need to be orientated correctly for the application, the basic tools and skills of the banker mason have existed as a trade for thousands of years.
Carvers cross the line from craft to art, and use their ability to carve stone into foliage, figures. Fixer masons specialize in the fixing of stones onto buildings, using lifting tackle, sometimes modern cements and epoxy resins are used, usually on specialist applications such as stone cladding. Metal fixings, from simple dowels and cramps to specialised single application fixings, are used, the precise tolerances necessary make this a highly skilled job. Memorial masons or monumental masons carve gravestones and inscriptions, the modern stonemason undergoes comprehensive training, both in the classroom and in the working environment. Hands-on skill is complemented by intimate knowledge of each type, its application and best uses. The mason may be skilled and competent to carry out one or all of the branches of stonemasonry. In some areas the trend is towards specialization, in other areas towards adaptability, stonemasons use all types of natural stone, igneous and sedimentary, while some use artificial stone as well.
Igneous stones, Granite is one of the hardest stones, with great persistence, simple mouldings can and have been carved into granite, for example in many Cornish churches and the city of Aberdeen. Generally, however, it is used for purposes that require its strength and durability, such as kerbstones, flooring, igneous stone ranges from very soft rocks such as pumice and scoria to somewhat harder rocks such as tuff and hard rocks such as granite and basalt. Metamorphic, Marble is a fine stone easily workable, that comes in various colours and it has traditionally been used for carving statues, and for facing many Byzantine and Renaissance Italian buildings. Their work was preceded by older sculptors from Mesopotamia and Egypt, the famous Acropolis of Athens is said to be constructed using the Pentelicon marble
Morris dance
Morris dance is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers, implements such as sticks and handkerchiefs may be wielded by the dancers. In a small number of dances for one or two people, steps are near and across a pair of tobacco pipes laid one across the other on the floor. The earliest known and surviving English written mention of Morris dance is dated to 1448, there are around 150 Morris sides in the United States. English expatriates form a part of the Morris tradition in Australia, New Zealand. There are isolated groups in other countries The name is first recorded in the century as Morisk dance, moreys daunce, morisse daunce. The term entered English via Flemish mooriske danse, comparable terms in other languages are German Moriskentanz, French morisques, Croatian moreška, and moresco, moresca or morisca in Italy and Spain. The modern spelling Morris-dance first appears in the 17th century and it is unclear why the dance was so named, unless in reference to fantastic dancing or costumes, i. e. the deliberately exotic flavour of the performance.
The English dance thus apparently arose as part of a wider 15th-century European fashion for supposedly Moorish spectacle, almost nothing is known about the folk dances of England prior to the mid-17th century. By the mid 17th century, the peasantry took part in Morris dances. The Puritan government of Oliver Cromwell, suppressed Whitsun Ales, when the crown was restored by Charles II, the springtime festivals were restored. In particular, Whitsun Ales came to be celebrated on Whitsunday, Morris dancing continued in popularity until the industrial revolution and its accompanying social changes. Four teams claim a lineage of tradition within their village or town, Bampton, Headington Quarry. However by the late 19th century, and in the West Country at least, d’Arcy Ferris, a Cheltenham based singer, music teacher and organiser of pageants, became intrigued by the tradition and sought to revive it. He first encountered Morris in Bidford and organised its revival, over the following years he took the side to several places in the West Country, from Malvern to Bicester and from Redditch to Moreton in Marsh.
By 1910, he and Cecil Sharp were in correspondence on the subject, several English folklorists were responsible for recording and reviving the tradition in the early 20th century, often from a bare handful of surviving members of mid-19th-century village sides. Among these, the most notable are Cecil Sharp, Maud Karpeles, boxing Day 1899 is widely regarded as the starting point for the Morris revival. Cecil Sharp was visiting at a house in Headington, near Oxford
Dissolution of the Monasteries
Although the policy was originally envisaged as increasing the regular income of the Crown, much former monastic property was sold off to fund Henrys military campaigns in the 1540s. Professor George W. Bernard argues, The dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s was one of the most revolutionary events in English history. one adult man in fifty was in religious orders. Very few English houses had been founded than the end of the 13th century, there was a Medieval proverb in England that said if the Abbot of Glastonbury married the Abbess of Shaftesbury, the heir would have more land than the King of England. The 200 houses of friars in England and Wales constituted a distinct wave of foundations almost all occurring in the 13th century. Friaries, for the most part, were concentrated in urban areas, the religious changes in England under Henry VIII and Edward VI were of a different nature from those taking place in Germany, France and Geneva. Bernard says there was concern in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries about the condition of the monasteries.
Pastoral care was seen as more important and vital than the monastic focus on contemplation, prayer. English monasticism in the 1530s may have faced grave and urgent problems, Henry wanted to change this, and in November 1529 Parliament passed Acts reforming apparent abuses in the English Church. These Acts sought to demonstrate that establishing royal jurisdiction over the Church would ensure progress in religious reformation where papal authority had been insufficient, the monasteries were next in line. The stories of monastic impropriety and excess that were to be collected by Thomas Cromwells visitors may have been biased and exaggerated. Levels of monastic debt were increasing, and average numbers of professed religious were falling, only a minority of houses could now support the twelve or thirteen professed religious usually regarded as the minimum necessary to maintain the full canonical hours of the Divine Office. Extensive monastic complexes dominated English towns of any size, but most were less than half full, renaissance princes throughout Europe were facing severe financial difficulties due to sharply rising expenditures, especially to pay for armies, fighting ships and fortifications.
Most tended, sooner or later, to resort to plundering monastic wealth, protestant princes would justify this by claiming divine authority, Catholic princes would obtain the agreement and connivance of the Papacy. Monastic wealth, regarded everywhere as excessive and idle, offered a standing temptation for cash-strapped secular, in terms of popular esteem however, the balance tilted the other way. By the time Henry VIII turned his mind to the business of monastery reform, the first case was that of the so-called Alien Priories. As a result of the Norman Conquest some French religious orders held substantial property through their daughter monasteries in England, some of these were merely granges, agricultural estates with a single foreign monk in residence to supervise things, others were rich foundations in their own right. Such estates were a source of income for the Crown in its French wars. If the property with which a house had been endowed by its founder were to be confiscated or surrendered, the house ceased to exist, whether its members continued in the religious life or not
Charles II of England
Charles II was king of England and Ireland. He was king of Scotland from 1649 until his deposition in 1651, Charles IIs father, Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, Cromwell became virtual dictator of England and Ireland, and Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands. A political crisis followed the death of Cromwell in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy. On 29 May 1660, his 30th birthday, he was received in London to public acclaim, after 1660, all legal documents were dated as if he had succeeded his father as king in 1649. Charless English parliament enacted laws known as the Clarendon Code, designed to shore up the position of the re-established Church of England, Charles acquiesced to the Clarendon Code even though he favoured a policy of religious tolerance. The major foreign policy issue of his reign was the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
In 1670, he entered into the treaty of Dover. Louis agreed to aid him in the Third Anglo-Dutch War and pay him a pension, Charles attempted to introduce religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters with his 1672 Royal Declaration of Indulgence, but the English Parliament forced him to withdraw it. In 1679, Titus Oatess revelations of a supposed Popish Plot sparked the Exclusion Crisis when it was revealed that Charless brother, the crisis saw the birth of the pro-exclusion Whig and anti-exclusion Tory parties. Charles sided with the Tories, following the discovery of the Rye House Plot to murder Charles and James in 1683, Charles dissolved the English Parliament in 1681, and ruled alone until his death on 6 February 1685. He was received into the Roman Catholic Church on his deathbed, Charless wife, Catherine of Braganza, bore no live children, but Charles acknowledged at least twelve illegitimate children by various mistresses. He was succeeded by his brother James, Charles II was born in St Jamess Palace on 29 May 1630.
His parents were Charles I and Henrietta Maria, Charles was their second son and child. Their first son was born about a year before Charles but died within a day, England and Ireland were respectively predominantly Anglican and Roman Catholic. At birth, Charles automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, at or around his eighth birthday, he was designated Prince of Wales, though he was never formally invested. During the 1640s, when Charles was still young, his father fought Parliamentary, by spring 1646, his father was losing the war, and Charles left England due to fears for his safety. Charles I surrendered into captivity in May 1646, at The Hague, Charles had a brief affair with Lucy Walter, who falsely claimed that they had secretly married
St Paul's Cathedral
St Pauls Cathedral, London, is an Anglican cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of London and the mother church of the Diocese of London. It sits on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grade 1 listed building and its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD604. The present church, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren and its construction, completed in Wrens lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding programme in the City after the Great Fire of London. The cathedral is one of the most famous and most recognisable sights of London and its dome, framed by the spires of Wrens City churches, dominated the skyline for 300 years. At 365 feet high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1967, the dome is among the highest in the world. St Pauls is the second-largest church building in area in the United Kingdom after Liverpool Cathedral, St Pauls Cathedral occupies a significant place in the national identity.
It is the subject of much promotional material, as well as of images of the dome surrounded by the smoke. St Pauls Cathedral is a church with hourly prayer and daily services. The entry fee is £18 for adults, the location of Londiniums original cathedral is unknown. In 1995, however, a large and ornate 5th century building on Tower Hill was excavated, the Elizabethan antiquarian William Camden argued that a temple to the goddess Diana had stood during Roman times on the site occupied by the medieval St Pauls Cathedral. Wren reported that he had no trace of any such temple during the works to build the new cathedral after the Great Fire. Bede records that in AD604 St Augustine consecrated Mellitus as the first bishop to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Saxons and their king, Sæberht. Sæberhts uncle and overlord, Æthelberht, king of Kent, built a dedicated to St Paul in London. It is assumed, although unproven, that this first Anglo-Saxon cathedral stood on the site as the medieval. On the death of Sæberht in about 616, his sons expelled Mellitus from London.
The fate of the first cathedral building is unknown and this building, or a successor, was destroyed by fire in 962, but rebuilt in the same year. King Æthelred the Unready was buried in the cathedral on his death in 1016, the cathedral was burnt, with much of the city, in a fire in 1087, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The fourth St Pauls, generally referred to as Old St Pauls, was begun by the Normans after the 1087 fire, a further fire in 1136 disrupted the work, and the new cathedral was not consecrated until 1240
Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor was an English architect. He was a figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Part of his work has been attributed to him only relatively recently. Hawksmoor was born in Nottinghamshire in 1661, into a farming family, almost certainly in East Drayton or Ragnall. On his death he was to property at nearby Ragnall, Dunham. It is not known where he received his schooling, but it was probably in more than basic literacy, haukesmore came to London, became clerk to Sr. Christopher Wren & thence became an Architect. Wren, hearing of his skill and genius for architecture. A surviving early sketch-book contains sketches and notes, some dated 1680 and 1683, of buildings in Nottingham, Warwick, Bristol and Northampton. These somewhat amateur drawings, now in the Royal Institute of British Architects Drawings Collection and his first official post was as Deputy Surveyor to Wren at Winchester Palace from 1683 until February 1685.
Hawksmoors signature appears on a contract for Winchester Palace in November 1684. Wren was paying him 2 shillings a day in 1685 as assistant in his office in Whitehall, from about 1684 to about 1700, Hawksmoor worked with Christopher Wren on projects including Chelsea Hospital, St. Pauls Cathedral, Hampton Court Palace and Greenwich Hospital. Thanks to Wrens influence as Surveyor-General, Hawksmoor was named Clerk of the Works at Kensington Palace, in 1718, when Wren was superseded by the new, amateur Surveyor, William Benson, Hawksmoor was deprived of his double post to provide places for Bensons brother. Poor Hawksmoor, wrote Vanbrugh in 1721, what a Barbarous Age have his fine, ingenious Parts fallen into. What woud Monsr, Colbert in France have given for such a man, only in 1726 after William Bensons successor Hewett died, was Hawksmoor restored to the secretaryship, though not the clerkship which was given to Filtcroft. In 1696, Hawksmoor was appointed surveyor to the Commissioners of Sewers for Westminster, in July 1721, John Vanbrugh made Hawksmoor his deputy as Comptroller of the Works.
By 1700 Hawksmoor had emerged as a major architectural personality, and his baroque, but somewhat classical and gothic architectural form was derived from his exploration of Antiquity, the Renaissance, the English Middle Ages and contemporary Italian baroque. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Hawksmoor never travelled to Italy on a Grand Tour. Instead he studied engravings especially monuments of ancient Rome and reconstructions of the Temple of Solomon, in 1702, Hawksmoor designed the baroque country house of Easton Neston in Northamptonshire for Sir William Fermor
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world, and the second oldest after Cambridge University Press. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the known as the delegates of the press. They are headed by the secretary to the delegates, who serves as OUPs chief executive, Oxford University has used a similar system to oversee OUP since the 17th century. The university became involved in the print trade around 1480, and grew into a printer of Bibles, prayer books. OUP took on the project became the Oxford English Dictionary in the late 19th century. Moves into international markets led to OUP opening its own offices outside the United Kingdom, by contracting out its printing and binding operations, the modern OUP publishes some 6,000 new titles around the world each year. OUP was first exempted from United States corporation tax in 1972, as a department of a charity, OUP is exempt from income tax and corporate tax in most countries, but may pay sales and other commercial taxes on its products.
The OUP today transfers 30% of its surplus to the rest of the university. OUP is the largest university press in the world by the number of publications, publishing more than 6,000 new books every year, the Oxford University Press Museum is located on Great Clarendon Street, Oxford. Visits must be booked in advance and are led by a member of the archive staff, displays include a 19th-century printing press, the OUP buildings, and the printing and history of the Oxford Almanack, Alice in Wonderland and the Oxford English Dictionary. The first printer associated with Oxford University was Theoderic Rood, the first book printed in Oxford, in 1478, an edition of Rufinuss Expositio in symbolum apostolorum, was printed by another, printer. Famously, this was mis-dated in Roman numerals as 1468, thus apparently pre-dating Caxton, roods printing included John Ankywylls Compendium totius grammaticae, which set new standards for teaching of Latin grammar. After Rood, printing connected with the university remained sporadic for over half a century, the chancellor, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, pleaded Oxfords case.
Some royal assent was obtained, since the printer Joseph Barnes began work, Oxfords chancellor, Archbishop William Laud, consolidated the legal status of the universitys printing in the 1630s. Laud envisaged a unified press of world repute, Oxford would establish it on university property, govern its operations, employ its staff, determine its printed work, and benefit from its proceeds. To that end, he petitioned Charles I for rights that would enable Oxford to compete with the Stationers Company and the Kings Printer and these were brought together in Oxfords Great Charter in 1636, which gave the university the right to print all manner of books. Laud obtained the privilege from the Crown of printing the King James or Authorized Version of Scripture at Oxford and this privilege created substantial returns in the next 250 years, although initially it was held in abeyance. The Stationers Company was deeply alarmed by the threat to its trade, under this, the Stationers paid an annual rent for the university not to exercise its full printing rights – money Oxford used to purchase new printing equipment for smaller purposes
Burford
Burford /ˈbɜːrfərd/ is a medieval town on the River Windrush in the Cotswold hills in West Oxfordshire, England. It is often referred to as the gateway to the Cotswolds, Burford is located 18 miles west of Oxford and 22 miles southeast of Cheltenham, about 2 miles from the Gloucestershire boundary. The toponym derives from the Old English words burh meaning fortified town or hilltown and ford, the 2011 Census recorded the population of Burford parish as 1,410 and Burford Ward as 1,847. Burford Priory is a house that stands on the site of a 13th-century Augustinian priory hospital. In the 1580s an Elizabethan house was built incorporating remnants of the building and it was remodelled in Jacobean style, probably after 1637, by which time the estate had been bought by William Lenthall, Speaker of the House of Commons in the Long Parliament. After 1912 the house and the chapel were restored for the philanthropist Emslie John Horniman, from 1949 Burford Priory housed the Society of the Salutation of Our Lady, a community of Church of England nuns.
In the 1980s, its numbers dwindled, so in 1987 it became a community including Church of England Benedictine monks. In 2008 the community sold the property and it is now a private dwelling, the town began in the middle Saxon period with the founding of a village near the site of the modern priory building. This settlement continued in use until just after the Norman conquest of England when the new town of Burford was built, on the site of the old village a hospital was founded which remained open until the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII. The modern priory building was constructed some 40 years later, in around 1580, the town centres most notable building is the Church of England parish church of Saint John the Baptist, which is a Grade I listed building. It is known for its merchants guild chapel, memorial to Henry VIIIs barber-surgeon, Edmund Harman, featuring South American Indians, in 1649 the church was used as a prison during the Civil War, when the New Model Army Banbury mutineers were held there.
Some of the 340 prisoners left carvings and graffiti, which survive in the church. The town centre has some 15th-century houses and the baroue style townhouse that is now Burford Methodist Church, between the 14th and 17th centuries Burford was important for its wool trade. The Tolsey, midway along Burfords High Street, which was once the point for trade, is now a museum. Burford has twice had a bell-foundry, one run by the Neale family in the 17th century, Henry Neale was a bell-founder between 1627 and 1641 and had a foundry at Somerford Keynes in Gloucestershire. Edward Neale had joined him as a bell-founder at Burford by 1635, numerous Neale bells remain in use, including at St Britius, Brize Norton, St Marys, Buscot, St James the Great, Fulbrook and SS Peter and Paul, Steeple Aston. A few Neale bells that are no longer rung are displayed in Burford parish church, Henry Bond had a bell-foundry at Westcot from 1851 to 1861. He moved it to Burford where he continued until 1905 and he was succeeded by Thomas Bond, who continued bell-founding at Burford until 1947
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