Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre was a Quaker college and conference facility in Selly Oak, Birmingham, England.
The only Quaker Study Centre in Europe,[1] it was founded by George Cadbury in 1903 and occupied one of his former properties on Bristol Road.[2] Woodbrooke's first Director of Studies was the biblical scholar J. Rendel Harris.[3] Other early staff included Horace Gundry Alexander[4] and Leyton Richards, a prominent pacifist who was appointed as Warden in 1916.[5]
The college was extended between 1907 and 1914 by the addition of a new wing, a new common room and Holland House, a men's hostel. By 1922 it was estimated that 1,250 British students and 400 foreign students had attended the college.[6]
It was federated with eight other nearby colleges, including Fircroft College, Prospect Hall, and Westhill College, known collectively as Selly Oak Colleges until the federation ended with the closure of Westhill in 2001.
In February 2023, facing budget pressures due to falling student and conference bookings together with increased costs in maintaining the building, Woodbrooke’s trustees announced that they would be giving up the site in Selly Oak;[7] in-person events at the college were gradually wound down following this announcement, and on 31 October 2023 the site closed to the public for the last time. The following day custodianship of the building transferred to the Bournville Village Trust.
The Woodbrooke organisation continues to provide short courses on personal spiritual growth, theology, creative arts, and training for Quaker roles through a model combining online learning with distributed in-person events in local Quaker meetings and other venues. Its Centre for Research in Quaker Studies offers postgraduate taught and research degrees through the Universities of Birmingham.[8]
Notable alumni
edit- Gertrud Luckner, Christian social worker involved in the German resistance to Nazism
- Alice Paul, American suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist
- Margaret Thorp, Australian feminist and peace activist
- Hélène Monastier, Swiss peace activist
- Araxia Jebejian, social worker killed during the Armenian Genocide
References
edit- ^ "Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre". www.quakersintheworld.org. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
- ^ "Elizabeth Mary Cadbury". www.quakersintheworld.org. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
- ^ Kennedy, Thomas C. (2001). "Woodbrooke". British Quakerism, 1860-1920. Oxford University Press. pp. 180–182. ISBN 0-19-827035-6. Retrieved 1 February 2009.
- ^ Carnall, Geoffrey (2006). "Gandhi's Interpreter: a life of Horace Alexander".
- ^ Parker, Stephen (2005). Faith on the Home Front: Aspects of Church Life and Popular Religion in Birmingham, 1939-1945. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-3-03910-252-5.
- ^ Stephens , W. B., ed. (1964). "Religious History: Protestant Nonconformity". The City of Birmingham. A History of the County of Warwick. University of London & History of Parliament Trust. pp. 411–434. Retrieved 1 February 2009.
- ^ "THE FUTURE OF THE WOODBROOKE CENTRE – TRUSTEE STATEMENT". Woodbrooke. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
- ^ "Postgraduate Study and Research". Woodbrooke. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
- A History of Woodbrooke College 1953 - 1978 by F Ralph Barlow
External links
edit52°25′52″N 1°56′53″W / 52.4311°N 1.9481°W
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