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Trinity College, Cambridge

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The Great Gate is the main entrance to the college, leading to the Great Court. A statue of the college founder, Henry VIII, stands in a niche above the doorway. In his hand he holds a table leg instead of the original sword and myths abound as to how the switch was carried out and by whom.
Clock tower in Great Court
Close-up of Great Gate
Great Court

Trinity College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Trinity is the second largest of all the colleges in Cambridge (and indeed Oxford), with around 660 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 160 Fellows. It is also the wealthiest Oxbridge college with an estimated financial endowment of £700m (2005) (on a per-student basis, Trinity is one of the best-endowed educational institutions in the world).

The college is a major landowner, including holdings in the port of Felixstowe, and the Cambridge Science Park. Trinity has a very strong academic tradition, with members having won thirty-one Nobel Prizes (sometimes erroneously described as "more than France"), five Fields Medals (mathematics) and one Abel Prize (mathematics). Trinity has many distinguished alumni - the most notable being Sir Isaac Newton.

Trinity College and King's College were for decades the main recruiting grounds for the Cambridge Apostles, an elite, intellectual secret society that once boasted members of real distinction but which is now considered to likely no longer exist.

Trinity's sister college is Christ Church, Oxford; both were founded by Henry VIII in 1546.

Trinity has many college societies: its rowing club is the First and Third Trinity Boat Club. The college May Ball is regarded by most as one of the highlights of the Oxbridge social calendar.

History

The college was founded by Henry VIII in 1546, from the merger of two existing colleges: Michaelhouse (founded by Hervey de Stanton in 1324), and King's Hall (established by Edward II in 1317 and refounded by Edward III in 1337).

At the time, Henry had been wiping out and seizing church lands from abbeys and monasteries. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge, being both religious institutions and quite rich, expected to be next in line. The king duly passed an Act of Parliament that allowed him to suppress (and confiscate the property of) any college he wished.

The universities used their contacts to plead with his 6th wife, Catherine Parr. The queen persuaded her husband not to close them down, but to create a new college. The king did not want to use royal funds, so he instead combined 2 colleges (King's Hall and Michaelhouse) and 7 hostels (Physwick (formerly part of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge), Gregory's, Ovyng's, Catherine's, Garratt, Margaret's, and Tyler's) to form Trinity. This, combined with lands confiscated from the Church, caused Trinity to be the richest and biggest college.

Most of the college's major buildings date from the 16th and 17th centuries. Thomas Nevile, who became Master of Trinity in 1593, rebuilt and re-designed much of the college. This work included the enlargement and completion of Great Court, and the construction of Nevile's Court between Great Court and the river Cam. Nevile's Court was completed in the late 17th century when the Wren Library, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was built.

Buildings

King's Hostel (1377-1416, various architects)
Located to the north of Great Court, behind the Clock Tower, this is (along with the Great Gate), the sole remaining building from King's Hall.
Great Court (principally 1599-1608, various architects)
The brainchild of Thomas Nevile, who demolished several existing buildings on this site, including almost the entirety of the former college of Michaelhouse. The sole remaining building of Michaelhouse was replaced by the current Kitchens (designed by James Essex) in 1770-1775. See 360° panorama of Great Court from the BBC.
Nevile's Court (1614, unknown architect)
Located between Great Court and the river, this court was created by a bequest by the college's master, Thomas Nevile, originally 2/3 of its current length and without the Wren Library. The appearance of the upper floor was remodelled slightly 2 centuries later.
Bishop's Hostel (1671, Robert Minchin)
A detached building to the south-west of Great Court, and named after John Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. Additional buildings were built in 1878 by Arthur Blomfield.
Wren Library (1676-1695, Christopher Wren)
Located at the west end of Nevile's Court, the Wren is one of Cambridge's most famous and well-endowed libraries. Among its notable possessions are two of Shakespeare's First Folios, a 14th-century manuscript of The Vision of Piers Plowman, and letters written by Sir Isaac Newton. Below the building are the pleasant Wren Library Cloisters, where students may enjoy a fine view of the Great Hall in front of them, and the river and Backs directly behind.
New Court (or King's Court; 1825, William Watkins)
Located to the south of Nevile's Court, and built in Tudor-Gothic style, this court is notable for the large tree in the centre. Many other "New Courts" in the colleges were built at this time to accommodate the new influx of students.
Whewell's Courts (1860 & 1868, Anthony Salvin)
Located across the street from Great Court, these two courts were entirely paid for by William Whewell, the then master of the college. Note: Whewell is pronounced "Hugh-well".
Angel Court (1957-1959, HC Husband)
Located between Great Court and Trinity Street.
Wolfson Building (1968-1972, Architects Co-Partnership)
Located to the south of Whewell's Court, on top of a podium above shops, this building resembles a brick-clad ziggurat, and is used exclusively for first-year accommodation. As of the academic year 2005-06, it is being renovated.
Blue Boar Court (1989, MacCormac Jamieson Prichard and Wright)
Located to the south of the Wolfson Building, on top of podium a floor up from ground level, and including the upper floors of several surrounding Georgian buildings on Trinity, Green and Sidney Street.
Burrell's Field (1995, MacCormac Jamieson Prichard)
Located on a site to the west of the main College buildings, opposite the Cambridge University Library.

There are also College rooms above shops in Bridge Street and Jesus Lane, behind Whewell's Court.

Traditions

The Great Court Run

The Great Court Run is an attempt to run round the perimeter of Great Court (approximately 367 metres), in the 43 seconds during the clock striking twelve. Students traditionally attempt the complete the circuit on the day of the Matriculation Dinner. It is a rather difficult challenge and the only people believed to have actually completed the run in time are Lord Burghley in 1927 and Sebastian Coe when he beat Steve Cram in a charity race in October 1988. Today the challenge is only open to freshers, many of whom compete in fancy dress.

Open-Air Concerts

One Sunday each June (the exact date depends on the university term), the College Choir perform a short concert immediately after the clock strikes 12 noon. Known as Singing from the Towers, half of the choir sings from the top of Great Gate, while the other half sings from the top of the Clock Tower (approximately 60 metres away), giving a strong antiphonal effect. Midway through the concert, a brass band performs from the top of Queen's Tower. Later that same day, the College Choir gives a second open-air concert, known as Singing on the River, where they perform madrigals (and arrangements of popular songs) from a raft of punts on the river.

Mallard (Wooden Duck)

Another tradition relates to a wooden duck (known as the Mallard), which resides in the rafters of the Great Hall. Students occasionally move the duck from one rafter to another (without permission from the college), having been photographed with the mallard as proof. This is considered very difficult, as access to the Hall outside meal-times is prohibited. In addition, the rafters are high so it has not been attempted for several years. During the Easter term of 2005, several pigeons entered the Hall through the windows in the pinnacle, and one knocked the Mallard off its rafter. It was found intact on the floor, and is currently held by the College catering staff. It is unknown whether it will be reinstated.

Bicycles and chair legs

For many years it was the custom for students to place a bicycle high in branches of the tree in the centre of New Court. Usually invisible except in winter, when the leaves had fallen, such bicycles tended to remain for several years before being removed by the authorities. The students then inserted another bicycle. Similarly, the sceptre held by the statue of Henry VIII mounted above the medieval Great Gate was replaced with a chair leg as a prank many years ago. It has remained there to this day.

College Rivalry

The college remains a great rival of St. John's who are their main competitor in sports and academia (John's is also built right next door to Trinity). This has given rise to a number of anecdotes and myths. It is often cited as the reason why the courts of Trinity generally have no J staircases, despite including other letters in alphabetical order. Burrell's Field has a J staircase but New, Great, Whewell's, Nevile's and Blue Boar Courts skip the letter. The reason is more one of tradition and the absence of the letter J in the Roman alphabet. There are also two small muzzle-loading cannons on the bowling green pointing in the direction of John's, though this orientation may be coincidental.

Minor Traditions

Trinity College undergraduate gowns are dark blue, as opposed to the black favoured by most other Cambridge colleges. The porters always wear black bowler hats – most other college porters do not.

Scholarships and Prizes

Trinity offers a Junior Scholarship (principally a monetary award and also, as of present, preference in the 3rd year room ballots) to undergraduates who achieve a first-class result in their first part of Tripos. Undergraduates who achieve such a result in subsequent parts of Tripos are granted a Senior Scholarship. This award can also be gained by first year undergraduates who finish very close to the top of their year. Junior and Senior Scholar students receive preferential treatment when choosing college rooms - Nevile's Court and Great Court rooms are especially prized. All final year undergraduates who achieve first-class honours in their final exams are offered financial support for proceeding with a Master's degree. Other support is available for PhD degrees. The highly regarded right to walk on the grass in the college courts is exclusive to Fellows of the college and their guests. Scholars do however have the right to walk on Scholar's Lawn, but only in full academic dress.

Legends

Many apocryphal stories have been told about the college's wealth. Trinity is sometimes suggested to be the second or third largest landowner in the UK (or in England) - after the Crown Estate and the Church of England. (A variant of this legend is repeated in the Tom Sharpe novel Porterhouse Blue.) Despite the legend's falsehood, it is frequently repeated by tour guides.

A second legend is that it is possible to walk from Cambridge to Oxford on land solely owned by Trinity. Several varieties of this legend exist - others refer to the combined land of Trinity College, Cambridge and Trinity College, Oxford, or of Trinity College, Cambridge and Christ Church, Oxford, or of St John's College, Cambridge and St John's College, Oxford. All are believed to be false.

Notable Alumni

See also: Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity Nobel Prize winners

Other notable alumni

College Officials

List of Masters

The head of Trinity College is the Master. The first Master was John Redman who was appointed in 1546. The role is a Royal appointment and in the past was sometimes made by the Monarch as a favour to an important person. Nowadays the Fellows of the College, and to a lesser extent the Government, choose the new Master and the Royal role is only nominal. A complete list of the Masters of Trinity is below.

List of Deans of Chapel

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