[11] The college was associated with Lancashire and Cheshire, the county origins of its two founders – Sir Richard Sutton and the Bishop of Lincoln, William Smyth – a link which was maintained strongly until the latter half of the twentieth century.

[22] The mid-century Royal Commissions were navigated; although they were initially opposed, some recommendations were welcomed, including the election of fellows on merit rather than by their place of birth.

[21] The election of Charles Heberden as principal in 1889 led to a gradual improvement in Brasenose's academic fortunes, although its sporting performance suffered.

[23] As the first lay principal, Heberden presided over an increasingly secular college, which opened up the library to undergraduates, instituted an entrance exam for the first time and accepted Rhodes scholars.

[24] Brasenose lost 115 men in the First World War (including a quarter of the 1913 year), with its undergraduate numbers greatly reduced.

The inter-war period was defined by William Stallybrass, who as fellow and eventual principal (until 1948) dominated college life.

[28] After the war, sporting achievements waned (although there were notable exceptions) but academic success did not improve significantly, in what was now one of Oxford's largest colleges.

[33] Brasenose's finances were secured, and it thus entered the twenty-first century in a good position as regards financial, extracurricular and academic success.

The cloister was filled in to make two or three chambers in around 1807, used as student bedrooms or administrative offices until 1971, when the space was converted into the graduate common room.

In January 2015, archaeological investigations began as a prelude to a major building project that will restore the stone work and integrate the lower and upper reading rooms, greatly enhancing the college's library provision.

The nickname for the Chapel Quad is often thought to be a friendly jibe at Magdalen College which has a genuine deer park known as The Grove.

[38] In the 16th century the dining hall was heated by an open fire in the centre of the room, supplemented by movable braziers.

Another renovation phase in the mid-18th century included a new chimneypiece, a new ceiling to cover the original timber beams and two gilded chandeliers.

The chapel, a mix of Gothic and Baroque styles, features a hanging fan vault ceiling of wood and plaster, and was consecrated in 1666.

[39] In May 2018 author Philip Pullman opened the extensively renovated Greenland Library following a £4 million project to provide a better working space for students (architects - Lee/Fitzgerald).

The library works were funded by three college alumni, Duncan Greenland, James Del Favero and Gerald Smith.

The current site was completed in 1961 with new buildings, used largely for first year undergraduate accommodation, designed by the architects Powell and Moya.

[citation needed] The college has a large undergraduate annexe situated on St Michael's Street, developed from Frewin Hall in the 1940s.

[49] A recent building project at Frewin, aimed to increase the undergraduate bedroom provision and improve facilities, has unearthed some significant archeological finds including a 4,000-year-old prehistoric burial mound,[50] a limestone wall foundation, butchered animal bones, decorated floor tiles, a stone flagon, a bone comb and a medieval long cross silver penny[51] There is also a graduate annexe shared with St Cross College, which was completed in 1995.

A second graduate annexe, Hollybush Row, was opened in September 2008 and is located close to the railway station and Said Business School.

[53] Its blazon (description in formal heraldic terms) is: Tierced in pale: (1) Argent, a chevron sable between three roses gules seeded or, barbed vert (for Smyth); (2) or, an escutcheon of the arms of the See of Lincoln (gules, two lions of England in pale or, on a chief azure Our Lady crowned seated on a tombstone issuant from the chief, in her dexter arm the Infant Jesus, in her sinister arm a sceptre, all or) ensigned with a mitre proper; (3) quarterly, first and fourth argent, a chevron between three bugle-horns stringed sable; second and third argent, a chevron between three crosses crosslet sable (for Sutton).

[57] The following preprandial grace is read by the Bible Clerk at Formal Hall:[58] Oculi omnium spectant in te, Deus!

Agimus Tibi gratias, Pater caelestis, pro Gulielmo Smyth episcopo et Ricardo Sutton milite, Fundatoribus nostris; pro Alexandro Nowel, Jocosa Frankland, Gulielmo Hulme, Elizabetha Morley, Mauritio Platnauer, aliisque benefactoribus nostris; humiliter te precantes ut eorum numerum benignissime adaugeas.

We give thee thanks, heavenly Father, for William Smyth, Bishop, and Richard Sutton, Knight, our Founders; for Alexander Nowell, Joyce Frankland, William Hulme, Elizabeth Morley, Maurice Platnauer and for our other benefactors, humbly beseeching thee that thou wilt add to their number in goodness.

The choir regularly goes on tour, for instance to Paris in 2006, Lombardy in 2009, Rome in 2010 and Belgium in 2013, and sings at cathedrals near Oxford during term-time.

[68] In 2010 and 2011 the college ran the Wondrous Machine event, where local primary school children were invited to Brasenose for interactive sessions to learn about the pipe organ and the science behind the musical instrument.

[69] Brasenose students participate in a wide range of sports including football, netball, hockey, lacrosse, basketball, badminton, squash, pool, rugby, darts, boxing, dancesport and more.

Notably, Walter Woodgate, a Boat Race winner, eleven-time Henley champion and inventor of the coxless four, John (Con) Cherry who represented Great Britain at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin and Andrew Lindsay who won a gold medal in rowing at the 2000 Summer Olympics, and participated in the Boat Race in 1998 and 1999.

Among the best known living Brasenose alumni are former Prime Minister David Cameron, former Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull, actor/comedian Mark Williams, actor/comedian Michael Palin, and Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist, as well as Duncan Campbell, journalist and co-founder of the charity Stonewall, Dominic Barton, former managing director of McKinsey and the Canadian ambassador to China, author David Langford, J. Michael Kosterlitz, Nobel laureate in Physics in 2016, Kate Allen director of Amnesty International UK, and George Monbiot, environmental and political activist.

Earlier alumni include Henry Addington, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Elias Ashmole, founder of the Ashmolean Museum, John Buchan, author of The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Clavell, highwayman and author, Colin Cowdrey, English Test batsman, William Webb Ellis, often credited with the invention of Rugby football, John Foxe, author of Actes and Monuments popularly abridged as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, William Golding, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, John Gorton, Prime Minister of Australia, William Robert Grove, pioneer of fuel cells, Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, soldier, Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury, Bruce Kent, active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and Thomas Traherne, poet and theologian.