Owen's College
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a
university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
in
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal
Victoria University Victoria University may refer to: * Victoria University (Australia), a public research university in Melbourne, Australia * Victoria University, Toronto, a constituent college of the federal University of Toronto in Canada * Victoria University of ...
. After the demerger of the Victoria University, it gained an independent university charter in 1904 as the Victoria University of Manchester. On 1 October 2004, the Victoria University of Manchester merged with the
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for Research univer ...
(UMIST) to form a new, larger entity named the
University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
.


History


1851–1951

Owens College was founded in 1851, named after John Owens, a textile merchant, who left a bequest of £96,942 for the purpose. Its first accommodation was at Cobden House on
Quay Street Quay Street is a street in Manchester city centre in Greater Manchester, England. The street, designated the A34, continues Peter Street westwards towards the River Irwell and Salford. It is the northern boundary of Spinningfields, the cit ...
, Manchester, in a house which had been the residence of
Richard Cobden Richard Cobden (3 June 1804 – 2 April 1865) was an English Radicals (UK), Radical and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician, manufacturing, manufacturer, and a campaigner for free trade and peace. He was associated with the Anti–Corn Law L ...
. In 1859, Owens College was approved as a provincial examination centre for matriculation candidates of the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
. As the college progressed the premises became inadequate so a move to
Chorlton on Medlock Chorlton-on-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, Chorlton-on-Medlock is bordered to the north by the River Medlock, which runs immediately south of Manchester city centre. Its other borders roughly ...
was planned in 1871.
Alfred Waterhouse Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known for his designs ...
was the architect of the new college building, west of Oxford Road, which was opened in 1873. Owens College became the first affiliate college of the federal
Victoria University Victoria University may refer to: * Victoria University (Australia), a public research university in Melbourne, Australia * Victoria University, Toronto, a constituent college of the federal University of Toronto in Canada * Victoria University of ...
in 1880. In 1884,
University College Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University, it received Royal Charter by King Edward VII in 1903 attaining the decr ...
also joined the Victoria University, followed in 1887 by the
Yorkshire College The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...
in
Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
. In 1903, University College Liverpool left the Victoria University to become the independent
University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...
; Leeds followed in 1904 to become the
University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...
. The new Victoria University of Manchester was established by royal charter on 15 July 1903; the university and Owens College were merged by Act of Parliament on 24 June 1904. The
Manchester University Press Manchester University Press is the university press of the University of Manchester, England, and a publisher of academic books and journals. Manchester University Press has developed into an international publisher. It maintains its links with t ...
was founded by James Tait in 1904 (as the Publications Committee of the University), initially to publish academic research being undertaken at the Victoria University of Manchester. The office was accommodated in a house in Lime Grove. Distribution was then in the hands of Sherratt & Hughes of Manchester; from 1913 the distributors were Longmans, Green & Co. though this arrangement came to an end in the 1930s. The MUP offices moved several times to make way for other developments within the university. Since 1951 these have been Grove House, Oxford Road, then the former
University Dental Hospital of Manchester The University Dental Hospital of Manchester is a dental facility in Manchester, England. It is managed by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. History The Dental Hospital was established in association with the School of Medicine at Ow ...
(''illustrated'') and until the present time the
Manchester Medical School The School of Medical Sciences is the medical school of the University of Manchester, located in Manchester, England. It is the third oldest medical school in England and the largest medical school in the United Kingdom, with around 6,000 und ...
in Coupland Street.


1951–2004

In the mid-1960s the university and the city corporation commissioned Hugh Wilson and Lewis Womersley to produce a new plan for the campus. The final report was issued in 1966; it recommended removing traffic from Oxford Road to the adjacent main routes east and west, and building of the Precinct Centre – subsequently constructed in 1970–1972. The Precinct Centre building included the oldest part of the
Manchester Business School Alliance Manchester Business School (Alliance MBS) is the business school of the University of Manchester in Manchester, England. It is one of the oldest business schools in the UK, and provides education to undergraduates, postgraduates and e ...
, Devonshire House and Crawford House and St Peter's House, the University Chaplaincy. It stood on Booth Street East and Booth Street West and Oxford Road ran through it at ground level. The architects were Wilson & Womersley, in association with the university's planning officer, H. Thomas; for St Peter's House the architects were Cruickshank & Seward. The Precinct Centre was the largest public building completed in the campus redevelopment, containing office and shopping space, a pub, library and post office amongst other town centre facilities, designed to separate pedestrians from traffic. The Precinct Centre was demolished in August 2015 as part of Manchester University's £50m redevelopment of Manchester Business School. On 5 March 2003 it was announced that the university was to merge with
UMIST The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for Research univer ...
on 1 October 2004, to form the largest conventional university in the UK, the
University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
, following which the Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST would cease to exist. The new university was inaugurated on 1 October 2004. The university had more than 18,000 full-time students (including 2500 international students from more than 120 countries) by the time it merged with UMIST. It was regarded as one of the top universities in the country, frequently achieving top ratings for research.


Officers

:''See also :Vice-chancellors of the Victoria University of Manchester'' The chief officers of the university were the vice-chancellor, the registrar, the bursar and the
librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...
. In later years many administrative changes were made that increased the independence of the Director of Estates and Services, the Director of the Manchester Computing Centre, and eventually combined the offices of registrar and bursar as that of registrar and secretary, the last holder of this post was Eddie Newcomb (1995–2004).


Notable people

In the early decades of Owens College, a few outstanding faculty members set high standards for the new institution. These included statistician
Stanley Jevons William Stanley Jevons (; 1 September 1835 – 13 August 1882) was an English economist and logician. Irving Fisher described Jevons's book ''A General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy'' (1862) as the start of the mathematical method i ...
, jurist
James Bryce James Bryce may refer to: * James Bryce (geologist) (1806–1877), Irish naturalist and geologist * James Bryce (footballer) (1884–1916), Scottish footballer * James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce (1838–1922), British jurist, historian and politicia ...
, William Eyre Walker (Art Master) and particularly
Henry Enfield Roscoe Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe (7 January 1833 – 18 December 1915) was a British chemist. He is particularly noted for early work on vanadium, photochemical studies, and his assistance in creating Oxo, in its earlier liquid form. Life and work ...
Professor of Chemistry and Principal of the college. It also educated the young
J. J. Thomson Sir Joseph John Thomson (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) was an English physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906 "in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of ...
before he went to
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...
Since the later 1800s, many notable people have worked and studied at the Victoria University of Manchester as, for example,
Benedict Cumberbatch Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Benedict Cumberbatch, various accolades, including a BAFTA TV Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Laurenc ...
.


Motto and arms

The motto of the university was ''Arduus ad solem'', meaning "striving towards the sun". It is a metaphor for aspiring to
enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...
. It is quoted from
Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
's ''
Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
'', Book II, and the archives do not record the reasons for its choice.Thompson, Joseph (1886) ''The Owens College—its foundation and growth''. Manchester: J. E. Cornish The original verse refers to a serpent and the sun, both of which featured in the university
coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
. The serpent is traditionally associated with wisdom. The arms were granted in October 1871 to Owens College while the Victoria University had arms of its own which fell into abeyance from 1904 upon the merger of the college with the University. According to Norman Marlow (A. N. Marlow, Senior Lecturer in Latin, Department of Classics at the university in the 1960s), the motto ''Arduus ad solem'' – taken from Aeneid II – was a play on words, relating to Manchester's geographical situation. The Virgilian context referred to Pyrrhus, appearing in shining armour 'like a snake which has sloughed its skin, reaching upwards with an effort towards the sun'; the motto was chosen by the Professor of Latin at the time ( Augustus Wilkins) and the coat of arms was applied for – suggesting both the idea of the institution striving towards excellence, and the city (with its particularly high annual rainfall) 'reaching upwards with difficulty towards the sun'. The emblem of the university in use for a number of years (last used September 2004) was based on the archway into the quadrangle from Oxford Road, where there are two coats of arms, of the Victoria University and the Victoria University of Manchester, flanking the gates.


See also

*
Armorial of UK universities The armorial of British universities is the collection of coats of arms of universities in the United Kingdom. Modern arms of universities began appearing in England around the middle of the 15th century, with University of Oxford, Oxford's being ...
*
Victoria University Victoria University may refer to: * Victoria University (Australia), a public research university in Melbourne, Australia * Victoria University, Toronto, a constituent college of the federal University of Toronto in Canada * Victoria University of ...
*
The University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
*
List of modern universities in Europe (1801–1945) The list of modern universities in Europe (1801–1940) contains all University, universities that were founded in Europe after the French Revolution and before the end of World War II. Universities are regarded as comprising all institutions ...
* Listed buildings in Manchester-M13


Notes


References


Further reading

This is a list of books about the Victoria University of Manchester and its predecessor Owens College. *Charlton, H. B. (1951) ''
Portrait of a University A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better re ...
, 1851–1951: to commemorate the centenary of Manchester University''. Manchester: Manchester University Press *Fiddes, Edward (1937) ''Chapters in the History of Owens College and of Manchester University, 1851–1914''. Manchester: Manchester University Press (Fiddes was registrar of the university 1904-20 and Ward Professor of History 1926–31) * Hartog, P. J. (1900), editor ''The Owens College, Manchester: a brief history of the college and description of its various departments''. Manchester: J. E. Cornish *Pullan, Brian, with Michele Abendstern (2000) ''A History of the University of Manchester, 1951–73''. Manchester: Manchester University Press
Selected pages
*Pullan, Brian; with Abendstern, Michele (2004) ''A History of the University of Manchester, 1973-90''. Manchester: Manchester University Press. *Thompson, Joseph (1886) ''The Owens College its foundation and growth: and its connection with the Victoria University, Manchester''. Manchester: J. E. Cornish * Tout, T. F. & Tait, James (eds.) (1902) ''Historical Essays by the Members of Owens College, Manchester: published in commemoration of its Jubilee, 1851-1901''. London: Longmans, Green 1902 *Whitworth Art Gallery ''Treasures of the University of Manchester: an exhibition to celebrate the granting of the royal charter to the Victoria University in 1880; Whitworth Art Gallery, 26 April -- 28 June 1980''


External links


1874 – Owens College, Manchester, LancashireThe University of ManchesterOld website of The Victoria University of Manchester (closed Sep 2004)University of Manchester Archives
held by
the University of Manchester Library The University of Manchester Library is the library system and information service of the University of Manchester. The main library is on the Oxford Road campus of the university, with its entrance on Burlington Street. There are also ten other ...

Lists of students at Owens College
{{Authority control .Victoria
Victoria University of Manchester The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. A ...
Universities in Greater Manchester Universities and colleges established in 1851 Educational institutions disestablished in 2004 1851 establishments in England 2004 disestablishments in England History of Manchester Alfred Waterhouse buildings