The Jesuits originally arrived in Oxford in 1793 when they opened a small chapel dedicated to St Ignatius in St Clements. They surrendered responsibility for the mission to the Diocese of Birmingham in 1859 but were asked to take it over again in 1871. This they duly did and built the Church of St Aloysius in the Woodstock Road between 1873 and 1875 on land given by Lord Bute. The architect was Joseph Aloysius Hansom and the mission continued until 1981 when the Jesuits withdrew. (Fr Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ, who had been an undergraduate at Balliol, was associated with the Mission in the 1870s.) After a period in the hands of diocesan clergy the Birmingham Oratorians took over the church in 1990, and hopefully it will now remain in their solicitous care until the end of time.