History

The Oxford English School was established in 1894. After the First World War, the English School grew dramatically as a result of a general resurgence of interest in English culture, and around this period a number of faculty members were involved in the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary (then known as the New English Dictionary).  The English Faculty Library was founded in 1914 under the Professorship of Walter Raleigh.  In the wake of the Second World War, the Faculty increased again, and by the 1950-60s English had secured its place as a major university subject.

We are proud to number many authors among our former students, including Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis, W.H. Auden, John Betjeman, Wendy Cope, Robert Crawford, James Fenton, John Fuller, William Golding, Robert Graves, Geoffrey Hill, Aldous Huxley, Philip Larkin, Frances Leviston, C.S. Lewis, Peter McDonald, Glyn Maxwell, Andrew Motion, Tom Paulin, Philip Pullman, Craig Raine, Helen Simpson, J.R.R. Tolkien, John Wain and Jeannette Winterson. You can see some of the colleges with which these and other literary names are affiliated on this map of 'Literary Oxford'.

More detail about the history and establishment of the Oxford English School can be found in this article (pdf) by Scarlett Baron, from which some of the above details have been taken.