Heritage
Museum
Our museum was founded by architect Augustus Welby Pugin in 1839. The collection tells the story of the college and of the Catholic Faith from medieval England to the current day.
We are not able to take enquiries about family history, but suggest you explore our records held at Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives. You may also find details in the list of old alumni, up to the closure of the school in 1889.
When the college chapel was nearing completion in early 1838, the liturgical revolution Pugin envisaged in music, church fittings and vestments, was reaching a critical moment. Pugin was anxious that Oscott – created to become the centre of the Catholic Revival in England – was also at the heart of the Gothic Revival of Architecture and Art.
For Pugin, the completion of this revival came with the creation of vestments in the fuller form. Pugin went to London for the making of this set and the fabric is reputed to have been woven in the famous silk-making area of London known as Spitalfields. The sets were made up in Covent Garden by Lonsdale and Tyler, the costume makers and embroiderers for the Royal Family.
The result is the creation of a vestment set which was unlike anything that had been seen in England since, and perhaps even before, the Reformation. This set is unique. It was the first of its kind to be cut to the old style of the full Gothic form for hundreds of years and is one of only a handful of the many Pugin designed which still exists in its complete, full grandeur.
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This monstrance was given to Oscott by Mrs Wheble in the 1850s. It had been spotted in a London jeweller’s window, with a timepiece displayed in the middle.
Constructed in two parts, the upper bears hallmarks for 1520, whilst the base and stem were a slightly later addition, and are inscribed with: Jan Walter Ter Salen En Goivaert Ke....n Kerckmeestere -/a / - m. Leo De Qvergy Curat In Dni 1547.
Its design emphasises the connection between Christ in the Eucharist and the human life of Jesus. The triangular base is decorated with images of the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, Christ appearing to Mary on Easter Sunday, and Pentecost.
On pillars supporting the upper portion are St Peter, St Paul, St James, and six angels bearing emblems of the Passion of the Lord. In the centre is a figure of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, with the sun on the reverse, while above God is depicted enthroned and crowned. The piece is topped with a pelican feeding its young with blood from its body, pierced at its breast.
The exchange of the ‘Peace’, has been an integral part of Church proceedings since at least the 2nd century. The earliest form of the Peace was the ‘Kiss of Peace’, and St Augustine of Hippo is recorded as saying in his sermon [227] “When the Sacrifice is finished … the ‘Peace be with you’ is said, and the Christians embrace one another with the Holy Kiss”. By the 13th Century, the Pax (pax-board, or pax-brede) had replaced actual kissing, apparently because of a range of concerns over the sexual, social and medical implications of actual kissing.
The form of the Pax was variable, but would normally include a flat surface to be kissed. Often the pax was held out on a long handle and was wiped with a cloth between each person. Most surviving paxes are ornate, such as this elaborate pax from the 15th century which shows the sacred monogram in the centre of the piece, applied on a blue enamel cinquefoil background, but the majority were probably very simple wood or brass pieces which include some image of either the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ.
By 1600 the Kiss of Peace was no longer regarded as a general ceremony of reconciliation. It ceased to be common practice until the 20th century when it was revived again by almost every Christian denomination.
In 1678, Edmund Berry Godfrey became involved with the schemes of Titus Oates, when Oates invented the Popish Plot and began an anti-Catholic campaign. Titus Oates and his co-conspirator, Israel Tonge, appeared before Godfrey and asked him to take their oath that the papers they presented as evidence were based on truth. Godfrey demanded first to know the contents of the papers, and when he had received a copy on 28th September, took their depositions.
On 12th October 1678, Godfrey did not return home. He was found five days later, dead in a ditch on Primrose Hill. He was lying face down and had been impaled with his sword.
Oates exploited the situation and encouraged the public perception that the murder was the work of Catholic plotters. Following Godfrey’s death, commemorative daggers, including the one from Oscott’s collection, a medal and several pamphlets were produced. The blade is inscribed on one side, 'Pro religione Protestantium', and on the other, 'Memento Godfrey Oct 12 1678'.
Like most travellers today, medieval pilgrims needed to bring home tangible evidence of their journeys, and pilgrims took to trying to take home pieces of shrines. However, such pilfering was condemned by the Franciscan custodians of the Holy Places and pilgrims were explicitly told, under threat of excommunication, not to prise pieces of stone from the Holy Sepulchre and other holy and historic monuments.
This inspired the mass production and sale of pilgrim badges. These badges brought income to the shrines, reduced the purloining of parts of the shrines, helped advertise the shrine, brought a livelihood to local traders and gave the pilgrim proof that they had indeed visited a holy site and were a true pilgrim. The pilgrim badge itself was considered a secondary relic, giving saintly protection to its owner.
This badge shows the bust of Thomas Becket within an architectural surround, either representing Canterbury Cathedral itself or the shrine to St Thomas which resides there. Murdered in Canterbury Cathedral, Becket was the most popular of the English saints and Canterbury became an international destination for pilgrimage.
A touch piece is a coin or medal believed to cure disease, bring good luck, influence people's behaviour or carry out a specific practical action.
What most touch pieces have in common is that they have to be touched or in close physical contact for the power concerned to be obtained and/or transferred. Once this is achieved, the power is permanently present in the coin, which effectively becomes an amulet.
Persons of royal blood were thought to have the ‘God-given’ power of healing, and sovereigns of England and France practised this power to cure sufferers of scrofula, commonly known as the ‘King's or Queen's Evil’ or ‘Morbus Regius’. All the Jacobite Stuarts produced special touch pieces, with a variety of designs and inscriptions. They are found in gold, silver and even lead.
During his time as professor of Ecclesiastical Antiquities at Oscott College, Pugin built up a sizeable collection of late Gothic Sculpture. Amongst the large collection of sculptures found at Oscott is a statue of St Ursula.
This statue is the work of an anonymous carver from the Limbourg area of the southern Netherlands, dubbed the Master of Oostham after a group of works in the church of Oostham, near Beringen. The statue has been attributed to an unknown church in Cologne, based on the saint's identification with the city, where she was murdered along with 11,000 virgins and where we know Pugin visited in 1838.
The style is very distinctive: the rather large head is immensely long with a high, domed forehead, the eyes relatively large and almond shaped, the neck long. The prominent breasts, strong left arm gripping the clark and left leg firmly outlined through the drapery show a robust approach to the human body, whilst the daringly-cut neckline, decorated collar and headdress show a characteristic preoccupation with fashion.
If you have any questions about our museum and want to make an enquiry, please contact our curator.
Containing over 40,000 catalogued physical items, this library is the main library of the college and is largely made up of texts covering the Church and general history, theology and philosophy.
Our rare books collection, The Library Special Collection, contains some 12,000 early printed books and pamphlets. It is available for scholarly use by academic researchers.