The New Murrey and Blue blog

On Wednesday, 23 October 2024 the Lord Mayor of Oxford will uphold the 645-year-old tradition of inspecting the city’s walls. The ceremony originally began on 30 June 1379 with a contract between Oxford and New College and Richard II, when the king was then only 12 years old.

The contract granted land “….for the founding of New College, on the condition the college maintains the city’s defensive walls….” The condition was that the Lord Mayor of Oxford should inspect the walls every three years. This year he and other city councillors will again make the ceremonial walk from Oxford Town Hall to New College. “….The procession will be led by the City Mace, and, following tradition, they will stop at New College’s gate on New College Lane….” There the Mace Bearer will knock three times and ask for permission for the Lord Mayor and his councillors to enter.

You can read more here https://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/news/24657047.lord-mayor-oxford-uphold-645-year-old-tradition/, and to see about the ceremony in 2017 go here https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/15607961.oxfords-city-walls-examined-historic-ceremony/. The photographs in this post (and more) can see seen in both links.

If you wish to learn more of New College itself, see here https://www.countrylife.co.uk/architecture/new-college-oxford-650-year-story-college-dreamt-palace-206657 a lot of pictures. But if more in-depth historical information about the college is your taste, then go here https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/oxon/pp84-91.

Update: The above ceremony took place and you can read about it here. https://cherwell.org/2024/10/24/lord-mayor-inspects-new-college-walls-following-650-year-tradition/.