St Joseph'S Roman Catholic College

St Joseph's Roman Catholic College

A Roman Catholic seminary, now theological institute, located in Up Holland. The original building was constructed between 1880 and 1883, designed by J O'Byrne for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Liverpool. The complex was greatly enlarged and a chapel was added between 1921 and 1928 by the architects Pugin and Pugin.

The buildings are constructed in coursed rock-faced sandstone with slate roofs. The original building, now forming the west wing, is built in yellow sandstone with red sandstone dressings, while all subsequent additions are in red sandstone.

The original building, now the west side of the quadrangle, stands three storeys high plus an attic to the centre, with a symmetrical arrangement of 1:6:3:6:1 bays. The design features a tall gabled centre with buttresses, a large central doorway with double doors and a 3-light overlight, coupled 4-pane sashed windows at ground floor, 1:2:1-light sashes at first floor, similar fenestration at second floor except where the centre windows are lancets, a large clock-face at attic level flanked by coupled lancets, and a louvred rectangular bellcote on the ridge with a swept pavilion roof. The flanking ranges have sashed windows on all floors (coupled at ground floor, single at first floor and coupled at second floor), and the end bays are gabled with coupled sashed windows on all floors.

The complex forms a large quadrangular plan created by additions to the east and south of the original building: the north wing was added in 1923, the east wing in 1925, and the south wing, its westward continuation and the chapel, all added in 1926–27. The buildings are executed in Gothic style.

The present entrance front is the south wing, which is three and four storeys over a basement, with a 3:7:3:7:3 window arrangement and symmetrical plan featuring a rectangular four-storey tower in the centre and square four-storey towers at the corners. The central tower incorporates a gabled two-storey three-bay porte-cochere with a segmental-pointed arcade at ground floor, cross-windows flanking a canopied niche at first floor, and a stepped parapet. Above this, the second floor has two 2-centred arched 2-light windows and the third floor has three cross-windows with arched upper lights, both with run-out hoodmoulds, from the upper of which slender shafts rise to a stepped and pierced parapet. The seven-bay side ranges feature mullion-and-transom windows at ground and first floors, including shallow canted bays in the centre and shallow oriels at first floor of the bays second from the centre; and mullioned windows with cusped lights at second floor. The three-bay corner towers have sashed windows to the main floors (differing slightly, and those at second floor with arched overlights), lancets to the top floor and parapets like that in the centre.

The east wing is arranged with 2:7:2:7:2 bays with buttresses, the centre breaking forwards slightly and finished with coupled gables, and is in simpler style. The basement forms a lower ground floor with coupled segmental-pointed archways in the centre and a segmental-pointed doorway at each end; pairs of single-light sashed windows are positioned to each of the upper floors (those of the end bays staggered for staircases, and the others diminishing in height). A slightly higher tower at the north end is surmounted by an observatory dome.

The courtyard facades of all three of the 1920s wings are buttressed and have stepped triple-light windows at ground floor with cusped lights. The south range has similar windows at first floor and windows with similar cusped lights at second floor. The sixteen-bay north range has mostly two windows per bay. All these ranges have three-light hipped dormer windows behind the parapets.

The chapel, linked to the west end of the south wing on a parallel axis, consists principally of a nine-bay choir and short three-bay nave in one vessel, with a north transept and an unfinished south tower to the latter, all with buttresses. The choir has 2-centred arched 3-light windows with tracery (all different). The two-stage tower has a 2-light arched window at ground floor, a pair of square-headed 2-light windows with cusped lights at first floor, and a pyramidal roof. The west end has triple gables, a three-bay porch and a wide 2-centred arched west window with circular tracery.

The interior of the choir features arcaded side walls, an impressive double-tiered hammerbeam roof, Gothic choir stalls, and a Gothic wooden screen.

Historically, the seminary became a theological institute known as Upholland Northern Institute in 1976, following the transfer of the seminary to St Cuthbert's, Ushaw. The complex represents a large and impressive group of buildings executed in a surprisingly conservative style for their dates.