Clare College, Cambridge

Template:Oxbridge College Infobox Clare College is a college of the University of Cambridge, the second oldest surviving college after Peterhouse.

Clare is famous for its chapel choir and also for its gardens, which form part of what is known as the Backs (essentially the rear part of colleges which are next to the River Cam). The current Master is Anthony (Tony) J Badger, Paul Mellon Professor of American History.

History

The college was founded in 1326 by the university's Chancellor, Richard de Badew, and named University Hall. Providing maintenance for only two fellows, however, it soon hit financial hardship. In 1338 the college was refounded as Clare Hall by an endowment from Elizabeth de Clare, a granddaughter of Edward I, that provided for twenty fellows and ten students.

The college was known as Clare Hall up until 1856, when it changed its name to Clare College. (A new Clare Hall was founded by Clare as a postgraduate institution in 1966).

Clare's 'Old Court', which frames King's College Chapel as the left border of one of the most celebrated architectural vistas in England, was built between 1638 and 1715, with a long interruption for the English Civil War. The period spans the arrival of true classicism into the mainstream of British architecture. Its progress can be traced in the marked differences between the oldest wing (the north), which still has vaulting and other features in the unbroken tradition of English Gothic, and the final southern block, which shows a fully articulated classic style.

The college's chapel was built in 1763 and designed by James Burrough. Its altarpiece is Annunciation by Cipriani.

Clare has a much-photographed bridge over the river which has fourteen stone balls decorating it. In actual fact, one of the balls has a missing section. A number of apocryphal stories circulate concerning this - the one most commonly cited by members of college is that the original builder of the bridge was not paid the full amount for his work and so removed the segment to balance the difference in payment. A more likely explanation is that a wedge of stone cemented into the ball as part of a repair job became loose and fell out, presumably still lying on the river bed. The repair work is necessary when a stone ball becomes worn around the metal rod on which it is secured to the bridge; a wedge of stone is removed from the base of the ball (around the rod) in order to free it, it is then turned sideways, a hole is drilled at the new base to receive the rod, and the wedge-shaped gap is filled with a new piece of stone. This can be observed on other balls on the same bridge, where the seam between the main ball and the replacement wedge is visible and tangible, though difficult to spot as a repaired ball is always aligned to have the new wedge facing outwards.

The bridge is the oldest of Cambridge's current bridges.

College life

Clare is known as one of the most musical colleges in Cambridge. Many of its students play instruments, and its orchestra and choir attract some of the best young musicians in the country. It holds popular jazz and drum'n'bass nights in its cellars. The Scratch Perverts used to DJ regularly.

Great emphasis is placed on extra-curricular activities in addition to academic study. Freshers are traditionally welcomed by being told to 'get a life' and explore their potentials to the maximum. Clare uses a purely meritocratic selection system which awards points for academic and extra-curricular potential, and was widely praised for being the first college to open the details of its admissions procedure to the national press.

Clare is a very liberal college. The Socialist Workers' Student Society society meets there, and Clare students have previously been arrested for various direct action protests. A liberal attitude is taken during jazz and comedy nights. Its student paper, Clareification, published by the Union of Clare Students (which recently won "Best University College Paper" in "The Cambridge Student"), is filled with satirical articles mocking Cambridge traditions, reports on silly student antics, and college gossip in the infamous "Clareifornication" column. It is often the subject of criticism by the staff for risqué and tasteless content. It was recently described by the Master, Professor Badger, as "an unholy cross between the Sun on a bad day, and the Daily Sport". An earlier tagline, attributed to an infamous college fellow, held it to be a "squalid pornographic scandal rag run off on a photocopier."

Famous alumni

Peter Ackroyd, author
Sir Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby of Brandon, botanist and natural scientist, Master of the College 1959-1967, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1967-1969, founded Clare Hall, Cambridge
Peter Asprey, choral director, founded Ensemble Illuminati and Stile Antico
Edward Atkinson, Master of the College 1856-1915, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1862-1863
Sir David Attenborough, naturalist
John Fleetwood Baker, Baron Baker of Windrush, scientist and engineer, Professor of Mechanical Sciences (latterly renamed Professor of Engineering) at the University of Cambridge, 1943-1970
Sabine Baring-Gould, Victorian novelist
John Berryman, American poet
Samuel Blythe, Master of the College 1678-1713, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1684-1685, benefactor
Ivor Bolton, conductor and musical director, founded St James's Baroque Players
Sir John Boyd, now Master of Churchill College
Harvey Brough, musician and composer, founded Harvey and the Wallbangers
Hector Munro Chadwick, philologist and historian, Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Cambridge 1912-1941
Charles, Lord Cornwallis, British general in the American Revolutionary War
Richard Egarr, harpsichordist, fortepianist and musical director
Sir Geoffrey Rudolph Elton, historian of the Tudor period, Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge 1983-1988
Nicholas Ferrar, religious leader
Mansfield Duvall Forbes, historian, archivist and benefactor
Trent Ford, American actor and model
Henry Louis Gates, African-American academic
Sir Harry Godwin FRS, botanist and ecologist, Professor, founded the Godwin Institute for Quaternary Research in the University of Cambridge
John Guy, leading Tudor historian and Fellow of the College
Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, classicist, historian and archaeologist
David Howarth, Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge and Fellow of the College
James Rendel Harris, biblical scholar, theologian, palaeographer and mathematician
Thomas McKenny Hughes, Woodwardian Professor of Geology at the University of Cambridge 1873-1917
Tim Hunt, biochemist
Robert Key, Conservative MP
Tess Knighton, hispanist, musicologist, editor of Early Music and Fellow of the College
Hugh Latimer, Chaplain to Henry VIII, Bishop of Worcester and martyr
Peter Lilley, Conservative MP
Tim Loughton, Conservative MP
Andrew Manze, baroque violinist and broadcaster, musical director of The English Concert
Paul Mellon, benefactor
John Moore, Bishop of Ely 1707-1714
Arthur Darby Nock, classicist and historian of religion
Sir Roger Norrington, conductor, founded the London Classical Players
Matthew Parris, Broadcaster, political analyst and former Conservative MP
Sir Brian Pippard, first President of Clare Hall, Cambridge, Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge 1971-1984
William Brian Reddaway, economist, Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge 1969-1980
Geoffrey Robinson, Labour MP
George Ruggle, early seventeenth-century scholar, philologist and playwright
John Rutter, composer, conductor, editor, arranger and record producer
Cecil Sharp, folklorist and ethnographer
Siegfried Sassoon, war poet
Sir Nicholas John Shackleton FRS, geologist, Professor at the Godwin Institute for Quaternary Research and the Department of Earth Sciences in the University of Cambridge
Richard Stilgoe, songwriter, lyricist and musician
Harold McCarter Taylor, architectural historian
Dr Richard Taylor, Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern MP
Sir Henry Thirkill, physicist, Master of the College 1939-1958, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1945-1947
Robin Ticciati, conductor, pianist, percussionist and violinist, co-founded Aurora Orchestra
John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury 1691-1694
Christopher Wandesford, Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1640
James D. Watson, double helix discoverer and human genome advocate
Richard Wainwright, Liberal MP
Abraham Whelock, seventeenth-century scholar, philologist and Arabist
William Whiston, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge 1702-1711, theologian
William Whitehead, Poet Laureate 1757-1785
Andrew Wiles, mathematician who proved Fermat's last theorem
Most Revd and Rt Hon Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury 2003-present
Michael Wills, Labour MP
Rupert Sheldrake, paranormal researcher

External links