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  1. #1
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    Default College porter at Oxford

    Hi, I feel a bit silly asking but I have searched and searched for a description of what a college porter (1850s) would have done and nothing useful is coming up. My GG grandfather was a college porter at Oxford and lived in a college house. I think they were gatekeepers looking after people in the college and did various other tasks? Thanks.

  2. #2
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    Don't feel silly, its a reasonable question. I had an ancestor who was a porter at the Lord Leycester Hospital, and I didn't know either (still don't entirely, if I'm honest)

    I think your description is about right - they would ensure that the college ran smoothly by looking after the students needs, ensuring the rooms were in order, dealing with things like letters & parcels, and would usually control entry to the college - often via a visitors book.

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    Thanks, I felt silly because I just couldn't turn anything up via google! I thought something as commonplace as the duties of a college porter at Oxford would be right there in front of my eyea, but no... I can find modern day college porter descriptions but not from back then. I know they wore bowler hats though...

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    I strongly suspect, without any evidence, that the modern day role is very similar to that in the 1850s. Colleges in Oxford and Cambridge are not renowned for abandoning tradition.

  5. #5

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    A Royal Commission had been proposed into University reform and a meeting convened by the Heads of Houses of Divinity at Oxford to oppose. A "little bird" claimed to have overheard the discussions and sent a long letter to the local rag. It included -

    Oxford Chronicle & Reading Gazette, 4 May 1850

    "The Provost of Oriel rose to address the meeting - he could not sufficiently express by any force of language the abhorrence and aversion which he felt to all commissions and inquiries...

    Turning to matters which interested him more nearly, he hoped, above all things, that the discipline of the servants at Oriel would not be inquired into. Some people fancied that a college porter, for example, was put there to let people in; that was quite a mistake; his office, in fact, was similar to that fulfilled by themselves; he was put there to throw obstacles in the way, to keep people out, in short to give intruders uncivil answers and to pass his days in his shirtsleeves, beguiling the hours by whistling within the recess of his lodge; .......; he could not help thinking that the example of his porter might be followed with very great benefit by all University authorities as soon as the Commission came down"
    "dyfal donc a dyr y garreg"

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by 1224855 View Post
    Hi, I feel a bit silly asking but I have searched and searched for a description of what a college porter (1850s) would have done and nothing useful is coming up. My GG grandfather was a college porter at Oxford and lived in a college house. I think they were gatekeepers looking after people in the college and did various other tasks? Thanks.
    I live in Cambridge and have worked at two of the colleges. I now visit another college each week and have to collect keys from the Porter's Lodge.

    NOTHING gets past the Porter's in Cambridge colleges. They seem to know everything that goes on, where everything is and who everyone is. First place for any questions at college is the Porter's Lodge. It is manned 24 hours every day so always someone on duty. There is a great film called Porterhouse Blue with David Jason as a college porter. If you haven't already seen it, it is worth a look. It was also a TV series so could be on YouTube.

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    Interesting! Thanks.

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    Thanks Sue, I will look for Porterhouse Blue.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by suemalings View Post
    I live in Cambridge and have worked at two of the colleges. I now visit another college each week and have to collect keys from the Porter's Lodge.

    NOTHING gets past the Porter's in Cambridge colleges. They seem to know everything that goes on, where everything is and who everyone is. First place for any questions at college is the Porter's Lodge. It is manned 24 hours every day so always someone on duty. There is a great film called Porterhouse Blue with David Jason as a college porter. If you haven't already seen it, it is worth a look. It was also a TV series so could be on YouTube.
    Also recommended - "Endeavour" (TV series based on the "Morse" stories). Based in Oxford, so you get to see the Oxford buildings, great story-lines, and he usually gets to visit the University, Porters' Offices included.

  10. #10
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    A Dictionary of Occupational Terms Based on the Classification of Occupations used in the Census of Population, 1921.

    porter, college
    is in charge of gate at a college, answers enquiries; at resident colleges, locks gates at fixed hour; takes names of students entering late.

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