The course will enable participants to enter the world of Medieval and Renaissance Oxford in the great age of college foundation from c.1250-1550. Participants will develop an understanding of how college life was funded by agriculture organised by peasants on college estates, also income from churches and urban properties. Oxford University expanded with the founding of colleges from c.1250. This course will explore how education was funded by taxing the peasants who toiled on college estates. Merton College estates featured in Michael Wood’s TV series The Story of England. We will have two class visits to the archives and historical archives of Oxford. We will use college archives to discover how they built quods and chapels on their urban properties and after 1539 acquired monastic sites and developed new suburbs around Oxford.
Scholars and Peasants: How Oxford University was Funded, c.1250-1550
This is an In-person course which requires your attendance to the weekly meetings which take place in Oxford.
Overview
Programme details
Courses starts: 23 Apr 2025
Week 1: Introduction: Oxford Colleges and their property portfolios, 1250-1550
Week 2: Manors and Manorial Records: crops, harvests and taxes, 1086-1550
Week 3: Peasant Society: rich and poor families and work for men and women, 1086-1550
Week 4: The Colleges’, ‘spiritual property’, and commemoration of benefactors
Week 5: Town and Gown relations: urban property and the expansion of college sites
Week 6: Management of College Estates: Warden Woodward of New College
Week 7: Class Visit: archives and historic libraries of Oxford
Week 8: Building a college property portfolio in the later Middle Ages
Week 9: Winners and losers: redistribution of monastic land around Oxford to the colleges after 1539
Week 10: Class Visit: Walking Tour of Cowley manorial buildings & Visit to Oxfordshire History Centre
Recommended reading
All weekly class students may become borrowing members of the Rewley House Continuing Education Library for the duration of their course. Prospective students whose courses have not yet started are welcome to use the Library for reference. More information can be found on the Library website.
There is a Guide for Weekly Class students which will give you further information.
Availability of titles on the reading list (below) can be checked on SOLO, the library catalogue.
Preparatory reading
- English University Life in the Middle Ages / Cobban, Alan
- Cows and Curates: the story of the Land and Livings of Christ Church, Oxford / Curthoys, Judith
- A History of Oxford University / Green, V. H. H.
- A Medieval Oxfordshire Village: Cuxham 1240-1400 / Harvey, P. D. A.
- The Story of England: a village and its people through the whole of English History / Wood, Michael
Certification
To complete the course and receive a certificate, you will be required to attend at least 80% of the classes on the course and pass your final assignment. Upon successful completion, you will receive a link to download a University of Oxford digital certificate. Information on how to access this digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course you attended. You will be able to download your certificate or share it on social media if you choose to do so.
Fees
| Description | Costs |
|---|---|
| Course Fee | £285.00 |
| Take this course for CATS points | £30.00 |
Funding
If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:
Tutor
Dr Virginia Bainbridge
Dr Virginia Bainbridge has taught at a range of higher education institutions, including St. Hildas College, Oxford and Birkbeck College, London. Throughout her career she has engaged with adult learners and has researched and written history for a general audience. She has worked for the Victoria County History series and the National Archives Manorial Document Register. She published Gilds in the Medieval Countryside: Cambridgeshire c.1350-1550 (1996), and is completing a book called Prayer and Power: the Birgittine nuns of Syon Abbey c.1400-1600.
Course aims
The course will enable participants to enter the world of Medieval and Renaissance Oxford. The period c.1250-1550 was the great age of college foundation. Participants will develop an understanding of how college life was funded by agriculture organised by peasants on college estates, also income from churches and urban properties. By the end of the course they will have a good understanding of the place of education in the wider economy and society of the time.
Course objectives:
This course will introduce participants to the history of Oxford University in three formative centuries. They will explore the endowment of the colleges with manors, churches and urban rental properties which provided the income to fund education and building programmes. They will study the organisation of rural society by the peasants living on college manors, which provided most of the income to fund college life. They will encounter major personalities who founded colleges, including civil servant Walter de Merton, Queen Philippa of Hainault, three bishops of Winchester, and Lady Margaret Beaufort who influenced Tudor foundations. By contrast, Lincoln College was founded by wealthy Oxford merchants. The course will be based on historical publications, archive sources and discussion of buildings, manuscripts and art. There will be visits to two archives or libraries.
Teaching methods
The course will consist of 8 class sessions and 2 visits. A detailed bibliography, including the titles on the reading list, more references to journal articles, and relevant extracts from original source material will be presented to the students at the first session.
Each class will focus on the topic for that week. The tutor will give a presentation of 30-40 minutes, followed by questions and discussion and a short refreshment break. The class will reconvene to discuss the topic. Participants will share their thoughts on journal articles and source extracts allocated the previous week. They may divide into smaller groups and reconvene afterwards to share their conclusions to add variety to the sessions. Visual material will be included in the tutor’s presentations. Participants will also be encouraged to bring visual information about art and buildings to share with the group. These exercises will allow them to build up their confidence gradually towards identifying a topic and working towards the 1,500-word essay for assessment.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course students will be expected to: be familiar with the main trends in the history of Oxford University c.1250-1550, in particular the rise of the college system and the development of university and college buildings. They will be able to demonstrate a general knowledge of how the colleges were funded by income from tenants on their agricultural estates, from parish churches and urban properties. They will have explored primary and secondary sources, and also buildings and visual evidence. The course will provide a deeper understanding of the place of education in medieval and renaissance society.
Assessment methods
Assessment will be by one essay of 1,500 words on a topic chosen by the course participant. Participants will be encouraged to develop their skills by writing up brief summaries of source material and historical debate as notes for contributions in class.
Coursework is an integral part of all weekly classes and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework in order to benefit fully from the course. Only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work the required standard.
Students must submit a completed Declaration of Authorship form at the end of term when submitting your final piece of work. CATS points cannot be awarded without the aforementioned form - Declaration of Authorship form
Application
To earn credit (CATS points) for your course you will need to register and pay an additional £30 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online.
Please use the 'Book' or 'Apply' button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an enrolment form (Word) or enrolment form (Pdf).
Level and demands
The Department's Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, i.e. first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.
Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS)
To earn credit (CATS points) you will need to register and pay an additional £30 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. Students who register for CATS points will receive a Record of CATS points on successful completion of their course assessment.
Students who do not register for CATS points during the enrolment process can either register for CATS points prior to the start of their course or retrospectively from the January 1st after the current full academic year has been completed. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.