Ever since I accidentally found out about St Joes, i've been itching to get inside and have a mooch.
It was pissing down, so I hoped today would be a good day to go...
I had already done a quick tour or the grounds a few weeks earlier and was aware of the security measures, entry was really easy, thanks to a Noob (I wont post details here).
Within minutes I had set the alarm off, im not sure how as the passive Sensor was quite a distance, but I did. It wasn't that loud though, (compared to later). I didn't get a lot of good photos, my hands were a bit shaky due to the adrenalin I think. Once the alarm had stopped we chilled out a bit and became more relaxed, took our time to appreciate what we were looking at....
Until I spotted Secca looking at us across the court yard on the same level as us. It was decided that now would be a good time to depart... we didnt run away, just casually going back on ourselves, while trying to avoid Secca, who was where we needed to be to get out... this involved 'logic,' by going below him. But turned out to be dumb idea as St Joesephs is huge and we got very lost. Eventually triggering an alarm (and it really is one of the loudest noises you will ever hear!)
We eventually reached a dead end, went back on ourselves and Jaws (as he is referred to on this forum) pops out and scared the life out of my mate.
I had read reports of contractors boarding up some doorways surrounding the spiral staircase, its true and the reason is because some of the roof as collapsed and it is getting unsafe on the upper levels.
To the noobs like me. If you bump into Mr Secca, dont run, he's a nice guy and while we were being escorted out he told us of a 40 year old man, who's leg fell threw the ceiling when he sprinted away. Mr Secca is only there to stop us from hurting ourselves and to take us off the site.
History (ripped from @Will Knot )
St Joseph's College 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, the geographic centre of the Diocese of Liverpool.
The first Junior Seminary of the Diocese was founded at St Edward's College in 1842 as a Catholic 'classical and commercial school' under the direction of the secular clergy and was established in Domingo House, a mansion in Everton. Its President for the next forty years was to be Monsignor Provost John Henry Fisher. When the junior seminarians moved to St Joseph's in 1920 the school was taken over by the Christian Brothers and continues to this day and now serves as the Liverpool Cathedral Choir School. In recognition of the heritage owed to St Edward's College one of the two chapels at Upholland was consecrated as the St Edward the Confessor Chapel.
St. Joseph’s was one of two main seminaries serving the north of England. St Jo's served the northwest, Ushaw College the northeast. For many years, each of these institutions housed both a junior and a senior seminary. The junior seminaries provided a secondary education in a semi-monastic environment to boys aged 11–18 who wished to pursue the priesthood, while the senior seminaries trained adult candidates (mostly aged between 18 and 24) in philosophy and theology as they prepared for the priesthood. A detailed account of daily life in the junior seminary at St Jo's during the 1960s was published in 2012. This account also explores the reasons why the Church's traditional form of seminary training may have predisposed certain priests to molest children, which was one of the key findings of a major investigation conducted on behalf of American bishops into the causes of the sexual abuse crisis within the US Catholic Church.
Although it flourished until the 1960s, the rapidly changing social climate in that decade led to a sharp drop in enrolment. In the early 1970s, the northern bishops decided to consolidate the activities of St Jo's and Ushaw; from 1972 all junior seminarians in the north attended St Jo's, and from 1975 all senior seminarians attended Ushaw. Even as the sole junior seminary for the north of England, however, St Jo's continued to suffer a decline in enrolment, and by the 1980s was no longer a traditional seminary but a "boarding school for boys considering a vocation". 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 St Jo's in 1992.
It was pissing down, so I hoped today would be a good day to go...
I had already done a quick tour or the grounds a few weeks earlier and was aware of the security measures, entry was really easy, thanks to a Noob (I wont post details here).
Within minutes I had set the alarm off, im not sure how as the passive Sensor was quite a distance, but I did. It wasn't that loud though, (compared to later). I didn't get a lot of good photos, my hands were a bit shaky due to the adrenalin I think. Once the alarm had stopped we chilled out a bit and became more relaxed, took our time to appreciate what we were looking at....
Until I spotted Secca looking at us across the court yard on the same level as us. It was decided that now would be a good time to depart... we didnt run away, just casually going back on ourselves, while trying to avoid Secca, who was where we needed to be to get out... this involved 'logic,' by going below him. But turned out to be dumb idea as St Joesephs is huge and we got very lost. Eventually triggering an alarm (and it really is one of the loudest noises you will ever hear!)
We eventually reached a dead end, went back on ourselves and Jaws (as he is referred to on this forum) pops out and scared the life out of my mate.
I had read reports of contractors boarding up some doorways surrounding the spiral staircase, its true and the reason is because some of the roof as collapsed and it is getting unsafe on the upper levels.
To the noobs like me. If you bump into Mr Secca, dont run, he's a nice guy and while we were being escorted out he told us of a 40 year old man, who's leg fell threw the ceiling when he sprinted away. Mr Secca is only there to stop us from hurting ourselves and to take us off the site.
History (ripped from @Will Knot )
St Joseph's College 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, the geographic centre of the Diocese of Liverpool.
The first Junior Seminary of the Diocese was founded at St Edward's College in 1842 as a Catholic 'classical and commercial school' under the direction of the secular clergy and was established in Domingo House, a mansion in Everton. Its President for the next forty years was to be Monsignor Provost John Henry Fisher. When the junior seminarians moved to St Joseph's in 1920 the school was taken over by the Christian Brothers and continues to this day and now serves as the Liverpool Cathedral Choir School. In recognition of the heritage owed to St Edward's College one of the two chapels at Upholland was consecrated as the St Edward the Confessor Chapel.
St. Joseph’s was one of two main seminaries serving the north of England. St Jo's served the northwest, Ushaw College the northeast. For many years, each of these institutions housed both a junior and a senior seminary. The junior seminaries provided a secondary education in a semi-monastic environment to boys aged 11–18 who wished to pursue the priesthood, while the senior seminaries trained adult candidates (mostly aged between 18 and 24) in philosophy and theology as they prepared for the priesthood. A detailed account of daily life in the junior seminary at St Jo's during the 1960s was published in 2012. This account also explores the reasons why the Church's traditional form of seminary training may have predisposed certain priests to molest children, which was one of the key findings of a major investigation conducted on behalf of American bishops into the causes of the sexual abuse crisis within the US Catholic Church.
Although it flourished until the 1960s, the rapidly changing social climate in that decade led to a sharp drop in enrolment. In the early 1970s, the northern bishops decided to consolidate the activities of St Jo's and Ushaw; from 1972 all junior seminarians in the north attended St Jo's, and from 1975 all senior seminarians attended Ushaw. Even as the sole junior seminary for the north of England, however, St Jo's continued to suffer a decline in enrolment, and by the 1980s was no longer a traditional seminary but a "boarding school for boys considering a vocation". 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 St Jo's in 1992.
Last edited:
a fun day out
