Limited edition contemporary architectural prints
by Ian Fraser

New College was founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, and was known as the ‘St. Mary College of Winchester in Oxford’ Building was started on land just inside the north walls of the city in 1380. The college is a model for collegiate architecture as for the first time a college in Oxford was designed as a single group of buildings. The master mason William Wynford is credited as responsible for the design.
The garden was laid out formally in 1530. When the college was extended into the garden in 1682, the architect William Byrd decided to build on either side of an open courtyard instead of using his original plan for a three storeyed block which would have obscured the view of the garden. The proportions and detailing are mainly classical but battlements were added to the roof line in keeping with the older buildings. The wrought iron screen is a replica erected in 1894 to replace of the original one of 1711 by the blacksmith Thomas Robinson.