ST GILES’ STREET

The coach turns into Keble Road and thence into St Giles’, from which point the tour is continued on foot. The great open space, known to undergraduates as the Giler, was once a market ground, lying outside the North Gate. It takes its name from the church of St Giles at its northern end. Near the church, where the war memorial cross now stands, was a large pond for the refreshment of the animals being sold in the market.

Along the west side of the street are several buildings of interest. Beyond St Giles’ Church, at the beginning of the Woodstock Road, is Somerville College for women, founded in 1879. The other two women’s colleges – Lady Margaret Hall, founded in 1878, and St Hugh’s, founded in 1886 – lie in the suburban streets farther north. A little distance to the south of Somerville are St Benet’s Hall, a house of studies for the monks of Ampleforth; Pusey House, a library for students for Anglican orders ; and the new Blackfriars,[1] a magnificent priory to which we shall return at the end of our pilgrimage. On the north corner of Beaumont Street is the Ashmolean Museum, with what is probably one of the finest archaeological collections in the country.

In the middle of the market, to the north of St Mary Magdalene’s, stood a small chantry dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. It was supported by the rents of eleven tenements mostly in St Giles’. The great memorial, in the form of a medieval cross, close to St Mary Magdalene’s Church, was erected in memory of the Protestant divines – Cranmer,[2] Ridley[3] and Latimer.[4] It was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, and was put up in protest against the Oxford Movement. It does not mark the site of the three bishops’ execution, which took place round the corner in Broad Street. (From Goulder, Pilgrimage Pamphlets: Oxford & Cambridge, 1963)

A little further North from Keble Road, St Margaret's Road, between the Woodstock and Banbury Roads, is one of the city's ancient places of execution, the 'Green Ditch'. Some rebels were hanged here in 1400; it continued in intermittent use until the late 18th Century. Burning continued to be used as the form of capital punishment indicated for certain cases, notably for female murders: one, Hannah (or Joanna) Mead was burned in the Green Ditch 17th May 1723, for murdering her husband.

The ‘Martyrs’ Memorial’, though Protestant in motivation, is Catholic in design, being based on Edward I’s memorial for his Queen, Eleanor, in Waltham, Essex.

St Benet’s Hall (Benedictine), like Blackfriars (Dominican, see below), Campion Hall (Jesuit, see below), and Greyfriars (Capuchin Franciscan, see above), are now Permanent Private Hall of the University.

All the women’s colleges mentioned here now admit men.

[1] The Blackfriars or Dominicans were founded by St Dominic (lived c. 1170­-1221) and received the approval of the council of the Lateran in 1215. The rule was founded on that of St Augustine. The tunic, scapular and capuce are white in the case of the priests, but the lay-brothers wear a black scapular and capuce. A black capuce and cloak are worn in choir and out of doors. The Dominicans possessed fifty-eight houses in England at the time of the suppression.
[2] of Canterbury 1533-1556. A faithful tool of Henry VIII even to the point of violating his own conscience. Deposed, condemned for heresy and burned at the stake under Mary (reigned 1553-1558).
[3] Intruded into the see of London which he held 1550-1554. Deprived, con­demned for heresy and burned at the stake in 1555.
[4] Bishop of Worcester 1535-1539. Resigned because he could not subscribe to Henry VIII's attempt to check the Protestant trend. Condemned for heresy and burned at the stake in 1555.