Talk:St Alban Hall, Oxford

A fact from St Alban Hall, Oxford appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 12 December 2020 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the 13th-century foundation St Alban Hall, Oxford, closed in 1882 and was demolished?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2020/December. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/St Alban Hall, Oxford.

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Article name[edit]

@Moonraker thank you for creating the article, I will see if I can add anything in due course. I would like to move it to St Alban Hall, Oxford, leaving St Alban Hall as a redirect, do you agree? That would be consistent with Category:St Alban Hall, Oxford as well as with existing colleges and other medieval halls: New Inn Hall, Oxford, St Mary Hall, Oxford and Vine Hall, Oxford. TSventon (talk) 14:22, 30 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

That sounds like a good idea to me, TSventon. Strictly speaking, the page name is fine, but as you say it is out of synch with others of the same kidney. I started the article on the first redirect I found, before spotting that there were others. Moonraker (talk) 01:15, 1 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Moonraker, I have put in a technical move request. TSventon (talk) 10:41, 1 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Citation style[edit]

By the way, TSventon, please see Wikipedia:Citing sources#Citation style. It there is a consistent style on a page, it is best if editors can stick to it. Verb. sap. Moonraker (talk) 17:15, 1 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Moonraker, apologies, I am not an expert on citation styles, what style are you using, and please can you link me to an explanation of how it works? TSventon (talk) 19:52, 1 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. I have added two more references and tried to copy your style. TSventon (talk) 00:47, 2 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Article Structure[edit]

Moonraker I think the structure works better with a chronological structure, so I have put Robinson's recollections at the end and the buildings in their own section. Feel free to revert and discuss if you disagree. The pictures may need rearranging to fit round the infobox.

Before that I added some background on the university commissioners from Brockliss's history of the university. Where a reference covers two pages on Google books, should I put two urls?

I have found the "Statutes Made for the University of Oxford, and for the Colleges and Halls" by the commissioners on Google books, the link for Merton and St Alban Hall is https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GqwWAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA246. Each hall takeover had its own statute. TSventon (talk) 05:42, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, TSventon, I go along with this, but I have reverted everything by Robinson being taken to the end, exactly for the sake of chronology. He wrote his memories down in 1887, but that is not the date of them, so I have recast it all, to put the history back in order.

Yes, I like the idea of making a buildings section. I usually do that myself in articles on schools, it works just as well here. It was also a tidy idea to move most of the citations for the Principals up to a preamble. Moonraker (talk) 09:46, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The easy answer with Brockliss is to have one long citation and one short one, with the different page numbers. It’s rather clumsy otherwise, I have tidied that up. Moonraker (talk) 09:52, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Moonraker, no problem, I think the order is fine now.

I am only familiar with adding citations using templates like cite book, so I would be grateful if you could let me have a link to how the system you are using works. TSventon (talk) 14:18, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

TSventon it’s an old-fashioned humanities format that doesn’t have a template, I am thinking perhaps I should create one, except that when used that way it would have less flexibility. To my way of thinking Template:Cite book creates many problems, especially with older sources, quite apart from looking so awkward. Moonraker (talk) 23:06, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Moonraker, thanks for the explanation. Probably the only way to stop the inexperienced being confused by references would be to mandate a single style, which isn't how wikipedia works.

P.S. I have just written Academic halls of the University of Oxford, do take a look. TSventon (talk) 11:58, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, TSventon, looks like a good start. Over the weekend, I’ll see if I can add anything. One thought, on the money front, some halls were frugal and others nothing of the kind. No doubt that changed from time to time, as principals came and went. Another, you might like to work in somewhere a link to Hall house, a page I started but which has moved on since then. I guess all the hospitia were hall houses, which is where the name of hall came from. Moonraker (talk) 01:26, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Moonraker, I will reply at Talk:Academic halls of the University of Oxford