A short history of baking at Brookes

As Bake Off fever grips the nation once again, we take a look back at the history of baking at Brookes.

We have offered training in baking and cooking for over a century, since the days of the Oxford City Technical School. The 1911 prospectus gives the syllabus for day and evening cookery classes, detailing the dishes students were taught to master. They include a number of savoury bakes – bread rolls, cheese straws, sausage rolls, veal and ham pie – and a huge variety of sweet treats: iced coffee cake, shortbread, Yorkshire tea-cakes, orange sponge, chocolate biscuits, girdle scones, Madeira cake, cream buns, chocolate éclairs, Swiss roll, railway pudding, Christmas cake… and the list goes on. 

For decades, despite success in recruiting and training increasing numbers of students, the school struggled to secure appropriate premises. An inspector’s report of 1947 detailed the locations of classes at what was by then the Oxford Schools of Technology, Art and Commerce. At that point bakery classes were held at the Cadena café in Cornmarket. A restaurant and shop with on-site bakery, the Cadena was a much-loved Oxford venue until its closure in 1970. The Oxford Mail looked back at its heyday and the sadness at its eventual closure in this Memory Lane feature. 

Bakery and confectionery students held an annual exhibition showcasing their skills. In 1953, the year of the Coronation, they produced their own ‘showstoppers’ on a royal theme with a display of loaves in the shape of the coronation coach and fancy crowned cakes. 

A baking competition marking the opening of Singletree in 1954

The department had by then been relocated to Cowley Road, but in 1954 it moved again to new premises at Singletree in Rose Hill. Singletree had been the home of Lord and Lady Pakenham and had later been used as an infants’ school, a youth club and an old people’s home. Its official opening coincided with the department’s annual course assessments and a baking competition among the 15 part-time students. The Paul Hollywood of those days was England’s champion baker, a Mr W Newman who lived in nearby Brill. He is shown above discussing the competition entries with Mr R M Brierley, a representative of the Bakers’ Union. 

The new premises introduced the concept of a catering school run ‘like a hotel’, enabling students to practise their skills in a real life setting. In 1965 catering students were tested even further, with the preparation of a seven-course banquet to celebrate 100 years since the establishment of the Oxford School of Art. The event also marked the opening of the new catering block on the Headington campus.

In the last 50 years facilities have improved further, and since 1999 students have been able to train within the professional setting of Brookes Restaurant, which also has its own in-house cookery and wine school, including short courses in bread making. 

This historical round-up would not be quite complete without a baking inspired innuendo – this one from 1897. A piece of pudding, or ‘dick’ (as in ‘spotted dick’), was preserved by a Westminster College student who noticed it turned solid if left for a couple days. Can you guess the name he gave it? The answer is on our timeline. 

An international wave

Former Oxford Brookes students from around the world have been meeting for 150^th anniversary reunions to form an international ‘wave’.

This month the wave reaches China, Malaysia and Singapore, with receptions hosted by Vice-Chancellor Alistair Fitt, starting on 14 August in Beijing. This will be followed in September by an Australian reunion with Sue Holmes, Estates and Facilities Director, in Sydney. Each event is an opportunity for alumni to network, hear about the University’s latest developments and plans for the future, and of course join in anniversary celebrations.

China has the largest number of current students at Brookes (191 in 2014/15), followed by the USA (103) and Norway (95). Norwegian students have been coming to Brookes for a long time, with links to the School of Architecture going back to the 1950s. Gunnar Aaserud, who came from Norway to study architecture in the 1970s, shared his memories on our anniversary timeline. Norway had its alumni reunion in Oslo in July, and events have taken place in the USA, Hong Kong, France, Belgium and Turkey. You can browse photographs from each of these reunions in our online gallery. 

Overall 19% of Brookes students last year were from outside the UK, representing more than 130 countries. In addition to students travelling to Oxford to study, a partnership with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants has seen more than 20,000 students graduate in countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Malaysia, China and many African countries.

Students can also study abroad for part of their course at Brookes. There are exchange agreements with over 100 institutions in 33 countries including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Thailand, the United States, Uruguay and most of Europe. As far back as 1955, an Oxford Schools of Technology, Art and Commerce student used a £300 scholarship to travel to Scandinavia and study furniture-making techniques, and spoke to the local press on his return. 

International wave events in the UK have included a London HND Hotel and Catering 40th reunion and a Westminster College 50th reunion. This September we will also be welcoming alumni back on campus for two special anniversary events: a Commemorative Event on 11 September for former students of our predecessor institutions from the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and a Reminiscence Ball for all alumni on 26 September. 

You can find details of past and future international wave events on our interactive map. As the anniversary year progresses this will continue to be updated with new events and photographs.

International Poetry Competition

Calling all budding poets, whatever your first language!

The Poetry Centre has launched a new poetry competition on the occasion of Oxford Brookes’ 150th anniversary. Entries are invited from poets from all over the world, with a separate category for speakers of English as a second language.

You have until 31 August to submit your poems for a chance to win a £1,000 prize. Entries will be judged by Bernard O’Donoghue and Hannah Lowe, and the winners will be announced later this year.

Visit the Poetry Centre’s website for full terms and conditions and to enter.

 Hands-on poetry at Live Friday in March 2014

The Poetry Centre was founded in 1998 within the Department of English and Modern Languages. With high-calibre, prize-winning staff, it works to promote research and to engage the local community in reading, writing and performing poetry.

A popular initiative is their Weekly Poem, which since its launch in 2007 has circulated hundreds of poems to a growing international mailing list. Subscribe for your poetry fix and explore the archive on the Weekly Poem website.

This is just one of the Centre’s many projects. In 2007 ‘Poetry on the Bus’ saw poets perform on Brookes buses and passengers submit their own journey-inspired poems, and in 2008-9 Oxford poets worked with refugees and asylum seekers to produce ‘See How I Land’, an anthology of new poetry. The Oxford City Poet position, created in 2011, was a joint initiative of the Poetry Centre and Oxford City Council, leading to a range of school and community projects and the appointment of an Oxford Youth Ambassador for Poetry.

More recently the Poetry Centre was involved in Live Friday, the launch of our anniversary celebrations at the Ashmolean Museum. ‘Business Poetry’ showcased poems written by students and staff from the Faculty of Business and offered visitors the chance to write and share their own compositions.  

Oxford Brookes’ links with the literary world extend beyond poetry. The university has an ongoing involvement with the Oxford Literary Festival, houses the Booker Prize archive, and runs a successful MA in Creative Writing, with teaching fellows including Philip Pullman and Kate Clanchy.

Find out more
Visit The Poetry Centre's website
Follow the green links to our interactive timeline and start exploring Brookes' history.

Have you tasted our anniversary tea?

Alex Probyn of Blends for Friends specialises in creating tea blends as bespoke gifts, with unique recipes inspired by the tastes and personality of the recipient. Earlier this year this is exactly what he did for Oxford Brookes, and the resulting blends are available for everyone to purchase, in our shop and now online.

The two celebration teas were created to reflect the character of Oxford Brookes, as expressed in our guiding principles of confidence, connectedness, creative entrepreneurship and generosity of spirit. Following initial development, the final blends were chosen with the help of our resident tea experts at the Oxford Brookes Tea Society.

The teas are two classics with a Brookes twist. Brookes Breakfast is a blend of Assam, Ceylon Orange Pekoe, First Flush Darjeeling and Yunnan black tea. Brookes Grey contains Vanilla black and Rose Congou with rose petals, red cornflowers and lime leaves.   

These special tea blends were launched in the spring with a Mad Hatter’s tea party on our Headington campus:

The Brookes teas are just one of the anniversary products you can buy. The John Henry celebration ale, based on a 150-year-old recipe, is still in stock at the Colonnade shop, as is our full product range, which includes mugs, key rings, pin badges, memory sticks, notebooks and postcards, all available online.

These special products are not just a way to celebrate and commemorate our 150 years. All profits from sales go towards supporting our students.

Shop online