Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

Balliol College (Oxford)

Balliol College is one of the many colleges that together make up the world famous Oxford University.

It can be found in the angle between Broad Street and Magdalen Street.

Balliol College was founded by John de Balliol, father of the John Balliol who briefly became King of Scotland, in the 13th century. It is one of the colleges with a claim to being the oldest.

John Wycliffe was a Fellow of Balliol and became its Master in 1361. His forthright views led to him being forbidden to teach at Balliol in 1381, and he ended his days as Rector at Lutterworth, having first translated the Bible into English.

Others who studied at Balliol include Matthew Arnold; Hilaire Belloc; John Evelyn; L. P. Hartley; Aldous Huxley; Gerard Manley Hopkins; Francis Turner Palgrave; Adam Smith; Robert Southey; Algernon Swinburne and Arnold Toynbee.

Lord Peter Wimsey, the detective in the novels of Dorothy L. Sayers, was a Balliol man.

The present buildings are mostly 19th century, by Salvin and William Butterfield.

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