[sho.]

I'm yet to post a report on here. Poor show i know but i endeavour to be more commited in the future. I know this place is of a sensitive nature but im happy to share these photos with you.

Visited with Gone, Millhouse and Rookie

What can I say.. The experience definitely matched the hype. The culmination of some hard work and forward thinking eventually led us here after we had lustred after it for so long. A truly infamous place.

History

St Joseph's College, is a Former Roman Catholic seminary. It was founded 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 Candidates for the priesthood studied and were ordained at the college. Up until the second Vatican, Council boys as young as 11 years of age entered the Junior Seminary before progressing to the senior Seminary at 18. In later years and with declining numbers the Senior seminary moved to Ushaw. St Joseph's continued to offer boarding school education for boys considering a vocation until 1987. Since then it has been used as a retreat/conference centre and is now undergoing controversial plans to be converted into 92 apartments.

Visit

After meeting up on the night we ditched our initial plan for a dawn raid in favour of a Pro-hobo plan B and in the dead of night and in the rain we set about this epic challenge. Some time later and after navigating in total darkness we eventually settled in a room chuffed that we could now begin to dry off. Our sleep would be disturbed all night by all manor of haunting and bizarre sounds. The floor was we had chosen appeared to be some sort of oak boards, while a chimney provided us with some February air.

After making it through to dawn we awoke and discovered very quickly that we were not alone. Then it got even worse.. As we watched Wigan’s finest arrive in their hoards and it became apparent that we had chosen to visit on the same day that they train their dogs in and around the building. The following hours were seriously intense. Close calls were constant. At times we just felt trapped sitting holed up for hours waiting for what seemed like an inevitable ending, yet somehow miraculously we managed to get by without confrontation till we could eventually make our escape.

We were limited as to where we could go and unfortunately could not get to the main chapel but I’m not complaining. What we did see was pure beauty and it was great to be there. I guess I had envisaged beaming heavenly rays so had neglected to bring a tripod which turned out to be a bit of a fail as the weather was poor. Here’s what I got between scares.





















































Thanks for looking and thanks to those who came along. Sho

[Gone]

Sweet!

[Gibbo]

Marvellous stuff, arguably the finest gem the North West has to offer.

There's so much to see its hard to pick the best part - laundry, washrooms, medical room, basements, 1st year sleeping loft.

[boboil]

Brilliant report Sho, considering you had no tripod them shots are 1st class.

[tristanjay]

Good stuff this should be high on any urbexers list it really is a gem. Good stuff evading the fuzz but that place is a hiding place dream no-one would ever find you, its just too big and too many places to hide as Ive fond out in the past - no where near as dodgy as having the police training there though

[andym]

Superb, never did get to see this place alas :(

[georgie]

good stuff all involved

[Ozzie]

Haha... shame you didn't have a bag of sausages to scatter around to confuse the police doggies, that would've given you some entertainment.
Great report and superb pics, I gotta get me to this place!

[n-munky]

Nice pics, sounds quite an adventure. That spiral staircase is a beaut!

[The-Village-Idiot]

Some great pictures there, sounds like an adventure alright