Trevelyan College, Durham Information

Trevelyan College (known colloquially as Trevs) is a college of Durham University, England. Founded in 1966, the college takes its name from social historian George Macaulay Trevelyan, Chancellor of the University from 1950 to 1957. Originally an all-female college (the last to open in England), the college became fully mixed in 1992.

Trevelyan is noted in Durham for its hexagon-featuring architecture and for the display of daffodils that surrounds it every spring. As a constituent college of Durham University, Trevelyan is listed as a higher education institution under the Education Reform Act 1988. It is owned and for the most part run by the university.

During the early 1960s, the British Government commissioned the Robbins Report to look into the future of higher education in the UK. When published, the report recommended the expansion of universities and the student population. This was accepted as government policy. In 1963, the University of Newcastle was officially established as a separate entity from the University of Durham, which meant that new colleges within Durham were required to meet the new university places that the Government wished to create. As a result, the university planned for three new colleges on Elvet Hill, these went on to become Collingwood, Trevelyan and Van Mildert.

Trevelyan was planned to become an all womens college, similar to St Marys and St Aidans, so as to increase the female population of the student body. The college was built on farmland south of St Marys off Elvet Hill Road, which was owned by a local family; the Carpenters. Originally, this land was designed to not only accommodate the new college, but also a 1,500 person capacity University Assembly Hall, however, the site was too small to accommodate both buildings.

After much delay the college was opened in October 1966 with 78 students. The official opening took place on 12 March 1968 by Lord Butler, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, who was invited in view of the connection G.M. Trevelyan also held with Trinity. During the opening, a serenade in three movements composed by Sir Malcolm Arnold (whose daughter was in the first intake of students), called "The Trevelyan Suite", was played. Other people at the opening include the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor, two Pro-Vice-Chancellors, the Bishops of Durham and of Ripon (whose wife, Mary Moorman was a relative of Trevelyan and also present) and the Mayor and Mayoress of Durham. Trevelyan was the last purpose-built all-female college to be built for a British university.

In 1973, a 300-person capacity hall, the Sir James Knott Hall, (known colloquially as the "JKH") was opened in the presence of the Duke of Northumberland. The purpose of the hall was to provide more facilities for Trevelyan students, such as a badminton court and extra music rooms, as well as to create a conference facility for the purpose of wealth creation for the college. In 1988 an extension to the hall, "The Dowrick Suite", was added, named after a professor of the law department, Frank Dowrick, who was a longtime member of the Senior Common Room. Inside the main college building is the Mowlam Room, a postgraduate common room that houses a bust of Mo Mowlam, a well-known Trevs alumna.

In 1981, the bar, which had previously been located within the small area now hosting the buttery was moved to its present location in the former cloisters of the college. In order to make this a practical bar environment the cloisters were roofed over. The area above this new roof is nicknamed "The Goldfish Bowl" by students, due to the proximity of the windows looking into other rooms.

In 1987 the Governing Body of the college voted to follow Hatfield and Castle in becoming mixed-sex, despite 68% of college members voting against such a change. In 1991 a new accommodation block was added to the main building. This block, the K block, is entirely ensuite and now reserved for final year and postgraduate students.

The college became fully mixed in 1992. In 1993, and again in 2010, the bar underwent refurbishment. In 2000, a tennis court was added to the grounds at the back of the college.

The internal construction of Trevelyan is unusual, comprising a string of hexagon-shaped blocks resulting in most rooms containing unusual angles.

At the opening of the college the architect, John Eastwick-Field, said of the design of the college:

The original blocks are labelled "A" to "J", though there is no I Block to be found and there is also a modern block of ensuite bedrooms, K Block, also called the Macaulay Suite, named after Lord Macaulay, G.M. Trevelyans great-uncle.

The layout features rooms based around staircases, landings and courtyards. The entrance hall is referred to as "the Cobbles", although said cobbles are no longer there having been removed during a recent modern refit. A third of the college was fully refurbished in 2005.

Approximately 320 fully catered students can be housed in the building, and around 790 are members of the college, making Trevelyan the third smallest of Durhams seventeen colleges, and the smallest of those maintained by the university council.

The buildings design has won it a Civic Design Award.

Trevs has its own comprehensive library, which is open 24 hours a day, music practice room, recording studio, cinema room, computer rooms, bar, buttery and fitness suite; it also possesses a chapel, the Barn, which is used for prayer, talks and musical and dramatic rehearsals.

The Undercroft, a relaxing seating area, links the bar with the rear of the college. The college also has a central quad, although it is actually an irregular icosagon, a setting for the colleges musical events and formal ball. To the rear of the college there are landscaped lawns and a tennis court.

The Sir James Knott Hall, catering for sports, theatrical and conference events is situated just across the college main entrance.

All members of college are members of a common room. Undergraduates are members of the Junior Common Room (JCR), although they may opt out of the common room if they wish, although if they do so they are not allowed to attend JCR events, such as the informal and formal ball, or Formal Hall. The JCR annually elects an Executive Committee consisting of eleven members as well as an impartial Chair. The Executive Committee ensures the successful running of the JCR, in conjunction with the College Officers. The rules of the JCR are stated in the constitution, which can only be amended by resolution of the JCR members during general meetings.

Postgraduate and some senior undergraduate students are members of the Middle Common Room (MCR), which hosts its own events and operates similarly to the JCR. The MCR has its own constitution and Executive Committee consisting of seven elected members.

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