History
St Chad's was founded as an Anglican hall in 1904, chiefly, though never exclusively, to provide a university education for those considering ordination in the Church of England. For the first 70 years of its existence, a high proportion of students did their undergraduate degree (in any discipline) at St Chad's and then remained for postgraduate training for ordination. The college remains a Church of England foundation but it ceased formal ordination training in 1971. Its current students read for degrees across all departments of the University.
The college has its roots in the catholic wing of the Church of England, and those roots are still evident in services in the college chapel. Archbishop Michael Ramsey described the college thus, 'I have always loved Saint Chad's College and it has been a joy to see the college go from strength to strength.... My spiritual home in Durham since 1939, Saint Chad's College represents to me the wholeness of faith and practice so needed in the universities and in the nation'.
The beginnings of the college date back to 1902, when the Rev. F. S. Willoughby, Vicar of Hooton Pagnell, near Doncaster, opened a small hostel to prepare men of limited means to enter one of the established theological colleges. The financial support of Douglas Horsfall, a wealthy Liverpool businessman and devoted churchman (who also funded the building of several large Anglo-Catholic churches in his home city), made it possible in 1904 to establish St Chad's Hall in Durham City. Durham University had a provision in its statutes formally to recognise colleges beyond the University proper and it permitted students to matriculate through those institutions and then to sit for Durham exams.
St Chad's Hostel, Hooton Pagnell, was retained until 1916 as a preliminary place of study to prepare students to qualify for matriculation at Durham. In 1918, after the college had established a number of endowed fellowships, the University recognised St Chad's Hall as a College, thus making it Durham's second college (albeit an independent institution). A number of other halls subsequently styled themselves colleges as well.
St Chad's was among the last university colleges in the UK to admit women undergraduates: as a part of a co-ordinated step-change in the University, the final all-male year entered in September 1987.
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