# St Joseph's Seminary, Wigan. May 2008



## Gibbo

St Joseph's Seminary, also known as Upholland College is one of the North West of England's finest sites.

The seminary was used for the training of Catholic Priests, was founded in 1880 and ran until the 1990's.

The site was a popular urbex location a year or two ago, but has been left in peace until recently. A tip off about the change of use from a deserted to a live site gave me a very brief opportunity to take a number of visits earlier this month.

The place is huge and you can easily lose five or six hours there. Although many areas will have been seen in earlier reports, I hope that some of these photos - covering the little seen ground floor, laundry, washrooms & showers and basements - are new to many of you.






























































































































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## rookinella

Lovely stuff! The library's looking a bit messy, I wonder if that's from filming.


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## Gibbo

It's actually got much worse recently. They aren't taking care of the place at all.


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## rookinella

What a shame When I went there in January, the only thing I noticed was a bit more rubbish but apart from that, it was pretty much the same.


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## BigLoada

Hell thats amazing. I am creaming myself over that triple manual organ, I want to give it a blast, its mint. But I must ask, what the devil is that in picture 2??
I cant handle dummies and it is freaking me out! Brilliant place mate, nice one


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## lilli

Always nice to see pics of St Jo's 

Looks like all the roof dorms have been set up, esp with the book at the end and the matching curtains... what are they filming?


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## Pincheck

very nice very nice indeed


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## Gibbo

lillimouse said:


> Always nice to see pics of St Jo's
> 
> Looks like all the roof dorms have been set up, esp with the book at the end and the matching curtains... what are they filming?



There are two productions; a horror film at the moment then a BBC supernatural drama called Apparaitions:

http://www.limepictures.com/content/ArchiveProjects/article_13_140.aspx


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## nursepayne

WTF is that person looking thing on the floor??
Good to see the inside of the chapel and alot of the ground floors, I never went down there because of the pirs but I so wish I had it looks awesome!
That dummy mannequin is priceless


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## Neosea

All those books reminds me of Fahrenheit 451. Cool explore, thanks for the foto's.


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## Gibbo

nursepayne said:


> WTF is that person looking thing on the floor??



It's just a bag of rubbish! I didn't notice it when I took the photo but when I got home and saw it, I had to go back and check. It's purely down to the angle I was at when I took the photo!


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## UrbanX

Amazing Report! That chapel looks immense!


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## tims

Good to see this place again.

Love the church and wash rooms, I didn't see them


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## dittohead

What an amazing place! Looks like a brilliant explore but that dummy is seriously freaky and wtf is with the sheep?!?


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## Foxylady

Always enjoyed seeing photos of the site...it's an amazing place. Sad to see all the books scattered around like that though. Great wine cellar. Is that a real sheep, btw?


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## Explorette

shit, the books on the floor!!! terrible.


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## snappel

Good work. That place just never disappoints. I'm sure even now there are some treasures yet to be discovered. It's a shame to see library books chucked about, etc, but then we all know this kind of thing is inevitable. The bathrooms look quite something - for masters or senior students, I'm guessing.


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## L_GLASS

>



that reminds me of UKWMO Gooshagh (preston)


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## GaryDave

A superb building, shame about the mess on the floor. How does that happen? Vandals just chucking stuff around, or did someone just have a major tiff?

Nice explore, and a good number of great photos too.


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## Cuban B.

Great looking place, I would've loved to have seen this place.


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## Gibbo

There's an excellent BBC documentary about the place and it's inhabitants here on BBC iPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/i...playercategories&start=1&version_pid=b00c149r


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## Leo'sgirl

Memories of my boarding school days at the Brigidene Convent, Beechworth, Australia in the 1950's came flooding back with the photo of that row of wash basins... I remember there were rows of them there too. Thanks for sharing your photos Gibbo - Ciao!


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## Mr Sam

jesus that second one WTF's that  and the sheep is it real or another prop


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## smileysal

Awesome pics Gibbo, Love all those statues, and the one of the virgin mary and child. excellent. Love the all the pics, can't say which i like the best, they're all awesome. 

I really do want to go here, even more now I've seen these,

Cheers,

 Sal


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## BigLoada

Whats going to happen to this place then? If it is being developed it would be criminal for those books and the frescoes to be just binned.


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## pindar

I was a student there as a boy so can add a few comments (BTW I was there at the same time as "Johnny Vegas" who spent 3 years there).

Pic 1: Main entrance: Surprised no-one has a photo of the wooden staircase that goes above the interior of the door, assuming of course it hasn't been stripped out. When you went through the door the downstairs corridors travelled left and down a flight of stairs to the Chapel, and right to Lower Line with the Senior Common Room in the corner. That would be worth taking a photo of.

To the left corridor (towards the chapel) there was a recess with a large statue of our Lady of Lourdes. Another good shot would have been the large wood panelled windows to the sacristy just past the Sanctuary Door to the Chapel.

Pic 3. Upstairs corridor (probably looking at it) West wing leading to Higher Line (the courtyard was on a stepped slope, Higher Line was the 3 story wing that was the first to be built with the clock tower in the centre, opposite it was the 4 story Lower Line that had the Observatory in the left tower above the Gradwell Library. The Entrance is on East Wing, the refectory (with the statues above it) formed part of West Wing that also extended into the rectory and the new Art and Science block extensions built in the early 70's). This was where the resident clergy lived in appartment rooms. 

Pics 4, 5, and 6 are the Gradwell Library

Pic 8 is the roof of the refectory. The refec'y had 2 large dining rooms with a riased platform at one end. We used to eat in there with the clergy on the raised platform dining table. 

Pic 9: That Dorm is over the East Wing. Each bedspace was divided by the panels with a curtain. You had a small wardrobe and chest in each space. Down the centre of the Dorm there were a number of large cabinet's where you each also had 2 drawers for your clothes and study tables for group study/homework. Each dorm also had a larger bedspace for the prefect.

Pics 1, 11, & 12. IIRC, these were taken in the side-chapels in the main Chapel. As you go into the Chapel you enter a large hall-like "Narthex" with the rood screeen to your right and in front of you the big blue and gold reredo of the Lady Altar and high above you on the right the stained glass Rose Window. There ware doors all around the Narthex that revealed tiny little mini-chapels with altars and frontal in them like those in these 3 pictures. In the days before the mass was said in English (and the building was awash with Clergy) they each used to say their private masses in these small Chapels. 

If you tep forward and turn to your left you then look down the choir stalls towards the Sanctuary (Pic 13). You go up 4 steps onto the wooden floor. Ahead of you is the green carpet of the Sanctuary. The reason it is so large is because part of the ceremony of ordination requires the candidate to lie prostrate infront of the altar, and it was build purposefully big to allow ordinations of many candidates. Behind the main altar is a series of 3 other small chapels/altars like the ones in the above photos.

Pic 16 is the frontal to the Lady Altar in the Chapel Narthex.

Pic 23 looks like the showers in the changing room in the Gym/Arts Theatre which shoots off behind the refectory.

Pic 24 are the washrooms in Higher Line (possibly also where the showers are above if not the Gym)


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## ThenewMendoza

Do you have any pictures from when it was still in use? I still need to see this, sadly, I don't think I ever will.

M


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## Gibbo

Welcome pindar (You're not living in Southport are you? If you are I think we may have a mutual friend!).

As for pic1 and the main entrance, yes the nice staircase is still there (and looking splendid may I add), but the offices by this staircase were in use by the film production team at the time of snapping, so I kept well clear when I went with the camera!

I have a good few hundred photos if you'd like me to put them onto a disc for you?


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## pindar

ThenewMendoza said:


> Do you have any pictures from when it was still in use? I still need to see this, sadly, I don't think I ever will.
> 
> M




Not electronically. The photos I have are all at my dad's place. If you Google the name then you'll find some old photos of the place on various historical websites that have B&Ws from the 1930s for comparison of the Gradwell and Chapel. Equally, there are other derelict bldgs sites like this one where photogrophers have taken shots between the site closing and this set. I fgound some great ones of the wood pannelled/painted rooof of the St Edward the Confessor Chapel on the corner of Higher Line and the north wing, the Study Hall on WW, and the gothic arches and (modern style) stained glass window of the Cursillo Chapel. Obviously I can't link them as they belong to other sites and the intellectual property of the photographers who took them and posted them there. 







I wrote a wikipedia page a couple of years ago that people have added to, and the photo above is on the entry and shows Higher Line taken from inside the Quad (judging by the boarded windows probably around the time it closed).

The smaller windows on the 3rd floor are to the dormintories, the windows below are the rooms that were usually occupied by the clergy/staff and the ground floor windows are classrooms. You'll notice that where the north wing joins Higher Line the flooors don't quite marry up. The middle floor was dominated by the large Study Hall and the St Edward chapel is in the corner where the 2 buildings joined.






There are some photos of the upper hall on some of the other derelict sites, this one was taken by Michael McKenna when it was still in use as a junior seminary. 






I've seen a recent photo of this corridor on the 28 days later site, again the above was taken by Michael McKenna. 






This is Lower Line taken from the playing field






And this is the entrance from over the lake.






This photo was taken in 1965 looking down the quad to Lower Line with the Observatory just visible on the corner tower of the north wing.

This LINK gives you a good bird's eye view of the college, and as it's a couple of years old it hadn't been wrecked when it was taken.






Another shot of the south wing entrance pre-closure.






Old (1920/30's) photo of the Chapel choir stalls taken from under the rood screen in the Narthex.

this link has some old photos fpor comparison as well.






Staircase above entrance






Entrance hall



It really was a great place. I have fond memories of early mornings and morning prayer in the chapel and running up and down the corridor with the Peackocks calling out to each other (I wonder what happened to them).


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## pindar

Gibbo said:


> Welcome pindar (You're not living in Southport are you? If you are I think we may have a mutual friend!).
> 
> As for pic1 and the main entrance, yes the nice staircase is still there (and looking splendid may I add), but the offices by this staircase were in use by the film production team at the time of snapping, so I kept well clear when I went with the camera!
> 
> I have a good few hundred photos if you'd like me to put them onto a disc for you?




Gibbo, live in Bucks now.

I found some great shots on someone's flickr site, but as he's a pro it won't let me link (left click on the red x and copy the url into your browser and have a look, if you can somehow work out how to post those images into the thread they'd look great!)


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## pindar

Gibbo said:


> There's an excellent BBC documentary about the place and it's inhabitants here on BBC iPlayer:
> 
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/i...playercategories&start=1&version_pid=b00c149r



That link came up dead. Was the programme cahced?

I remember the BBC NW did a documentary on the college when I was a student about 1984/5, it would be great to see it again.


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## dsankt

ThenewMendoza said:


> Do you have any pictures from when it was still in use? I still need to see this, sadly, I don't think I ever will.
> 
> M



Why not, you're a northern lad go bust it up.

McKenna's photos kick ass.


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## Foxylady

Excellent info and photos, Pindar. It really brings a place to life when there are accounts from someone who's been involved in it in someway. Cheers for that, and welcome to DP, btw.


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## Gibbo

pindar said:


> That link came up dead. Was the programme cahced?
> 
> I remember the BBC NW did a documentary on the college when I was a student about 1984/5, it would be great to see it again.



It was called "Fathers to Be" and was a mix of the documentary from 1984 and a follow up on a few of the pupils featured.

You'll probably be able to get it on that UKTVNOVA site.


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## krela

dsankt said:


> Why not, you're a northern lad go bust it up.



Presumably you mean go take a look around, rather than go take a sledgehammer to it


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## and7barton

Interesting to see the respect that the RCs give to their own holy books and icons.........


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## dsankt

krela said:


> Presumably you mean go take a look around, rather than go take a sledgehammer to it



I was there last month, no sledgehammer required cap'n.


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## Soul Doubt

Wow, great pictures.

I might visit sometime if I can


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## Flinders

What a stunning place - it is very Hogwarts!
Some excellent shots.


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