Even among the muggles, the city of Oxford is regarded as both beautiful and historic. Yet, alas, few wizards are aware that it also boasts a long and colourful magical history. It is far beyond the scope of this humble magazine editor to describe it in full (for that I recommend Bathilda Bagshot’s A Magical History of Britain chapters 14-16, 2 galleons 1 knut in Flourish and Blot’s). Nonetheless, in the following series of articles I shall endeavour to present some abbreviated highlights.
Oxford today may be world famous, but its beginnings were rather more humble. It was, at first, but a small collection of drab hamlets grouped around a cattle ford in an uninteresting stretch of the river Thames, which gave it the name "Oxnaforda”. Oxen not being known for their toilet training, it was something of a dump. As Merlin is said to have remarked, “For those with a nose in the know, Oxnaforda is a no go”. However, by the end of the 9th century the rising kings of Wessex ordered the building of a more fortified settlement, or “burg”, to defend against raids by the Danish Vikings and the Cotswald giants (what they did with all the cow poo is lost to history). |
Now, traditionally young magically gifted children were either taught by their parents, apprenticed to a local witch or wizard, or sent to Hogwarts, until they came of age and could be trusted not to accidently turn the family home into a teapot. Occasionally those who wanted a further education (or were a bit slow, or considered unable to cope in the real world) could do extra work as an assistant (“adiutor”) to a more experienced witch or wizard, but this was a highly informal and ad-hoc system.
However, after worries about “falling standards” (and the discovery that a certain Septimius Malfoy was only teaching his “assistants” how to de-gnome his estate) a number of prominent members of the British magical community began to argue for a more formal “Hogwarts-like” system for educating young adults, and “well, if the muggles can do this ‘university’ thing, then we can jolly well do it better!”.
So it was that on the 6th December 1269, the Wizards’ Council (forerunner of today’s Ministry of Magic) petitioned King Edward I for the right to establish “St Cuthbert’s college in Oxford for the Teaching of the Higher Magicks”. |