St Josephs Seminary Upholland

History

Briefly, the abandoned St Joseph’s College, Upholland is a former Roman Catholic seminary, situated at Walthew Park, Upholland, Lancashire, England. The foundation of the large building were laid in April 1880 and college was opened in 1883. The buildings have recently been deconsecrated following the announced closure of the College which saw the last students leave in 1992.

The seminary was founded in 1880 by Bishop Bernard O’Reilly to be the Seminary serving the North West of England. The college was formally opened in 1883 and was situated in Walthew Park, Upholland, the geographic centre of the Diocese of Liverpool.

In 1986 the total number of students was down to 82, of whom only 54 were Church students, and it was no longer viable to educate them on the premises. From 1987 the remaining students attended St. John Rigby College in nearby Orrell for their schooling, an arrangement that continued until the very last of these students left Upholland in 1992.

A more detailed history can be found in my initial report from June 2013 here.

Our Visit

Back for more at St Joes. After the last trip Donna informed me that she had missed the sinks 😮 and that provided enough of an excuse to re-visit and to grab a few model shots while we were at it. It’s hard to get bored of this place, the building is pretty huge with lots of nice distinctive and original features. This visit I didnt cover a lot of the areas which I had done on previous trips so if you want to see more of this place check out the numerous links at the bottom of this report. We hit the sinks, not literally, someone else did that a few weeks later with a sledge hammer 🙁 , then moved onto a hall downstairs before heading up to the library and then grabbed a couple of shots in the corridors and stufy hall, enjoy the photos:

More reports from here with hundreds more photos:

St Josephs Seminary Upholland, Lancashire, United Kingdom – April 2015 Revisit 5

St Josephs Seminary Upholland, Lancashire, United Kingdom – March 2014 (revisit 3 and 4) Part 2 of 2

St Josephs Seminary Upholland, Lancashire, United Kingdom – March 2014 (revisit 3 and 4) Part 1 of 2

St Josephs Seminary Upholland, Lancashire, United Kingdom – June 2013 Part 1 of 2

St Josephs Seminary Upholland, Lancashire, United Kingdom – June 2013 Part 2 of 2

St Josephs Seminary Upholland, Lancashire, United Kingdom – September 2013 (revisit) Part 1 of 2

St Josephs Seminary Upholland, Lancashire, United Kingdom – September 2013 (revisit) Part 2 of 2

If you’ve made it this far… thanks for reading / checking out the pictures. Leave me a comment below or hit the like button to let me know you’ve enjoyed the shots and to encourage me to keep posting more 🙂

Limited Edition prints and Canvases, as well as regular prints, are available for all of the images above on request and visit the store for more prints and products.

Urbex Prints

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