Report - St Josephs Seminary - Wigan 14/12/08

[Dempsey]

Finally i got the chance to visit this seminary last Sunday, however time was short, and we barely scratched the surface with a few hours, i cant wait to return, great site to loose your thoughts in.

We all know the site, most know how epic it is, but here is a few snippets of its History if you have forgotten...

• Roman Catholic college to train Priests.
• Opened in 1883.
• Closed as a college in 1987.
• Used as a Boarding school in the 70/80's.
• Plans to convert the Building into Apartments.

Shots with no borders are film hope i have captured the place well. Although loioking back at the pics scanned, i have lost quality through photobucket, or the scanner :S.

The imposing building upon entry, this is one of the faces, the main entrance out of picture to the right, entry to the courtyard in the center of the picture

Expanses of white corridor

Onto the chapel, big and chilly heh

Books, end cupboards

From here on we looked at some of the rooms on the ground floor, moving round to the kitchens and laundry etc.

Drinks room, few bottles and lots of glasses left.

Lonesome chair

The kitchen was filled with all of the gear, along with storerooms still containing tools.

Drying cupboards

Laundry sinks

From here it was up some floors to see some statues on a Balcony, along with some old accommodation rooms...

Don't slip

Heres a few more externals, beautiful building!! Loads of quality lost though. In the middle of the courtyard

A final look back leading to the main road, and gatehouse.

Also met Scott, rooks and dsankt in there

I think its best leaving it here for the time being until it dies down a bit, again.

TERAH FOR NOW

​

 

[Brick_Man]

OMG dempsey made a report!

See my cam is making you some nice shots

I like this one. what film did you use? proper B&W or that c41 stuff?

Is the digger at the front to do the gardening or demo ?
also you hear about the nuns at a seminary near worchester (?) that are leaving it (EMPTY) and moving to a breezeblock shed in northumberland? its in the news at the mo, daft IMO.

 

[Oxygen Thief]

...that's a great picture, I really like that. Saw that for all of two seconds last time I was there.

# Closed as a college in 1987.
# Used as a Boarding school in the 70/80's.

Didn't know that. Was it a religious boarding school?

 

[Dempsey]

Bricko, thats my canon 650e, although! I'm not gona use it anymore its got a problem with the winding mechanism, and i loose shots, very irregular, once it was a whole film with black lines where the frames were not lined up, and then it can be one out of a whole 36, madness, so I'm gona have to use your bloody 300 haha, i actually don't mind.

Thanks for the pointers OT and pincheck

As a boarding school, i really couldn't tell you, it was just 5 minute research i had on the tineterweb, but it seems logical that it would have being a catholic boarding school.

 

[Brick_Man]

meh, kids and religion, always a winning combination :S

ah forgot you had that thing.

Looks like you enjoyed it though, cant believe so much of it is so empty though, I mean its MASSIve! must still be some fairly well furnished rooms + store rooms?

 

[Dempsey]

Lots of the furishings donated by other religious Buildings, were all auctioned off, with no thought of the original contributers, apparently. Apart fromt hat its ok, obvious stuff has changed i reccon in 2 years, and some painting has gone on for the filming of hollyoaks and what not. But yeah, its the small rooms which contain the win, although expanses of the site are sparse , it has a feel where things where all bundled together rather left in situ, its like that with the majority of rooms.