Olton Friary (formerly Diocesan Seminary College of St Bernard)

Olton Friary

Olton Friary is a former theological college built in 1873 as the Birmingham Diocesan Seminary College of St Bernard, founded by Bishop Ullathorne and designed by Edward Joseph Hansom (1842-1900) of the architectural practice Dunn and Hansom. The seminary closed in 1889 and was taken over by the Capuchin Friars. Since 1981 the site has been occupied by the Society of the Sacred Heart of Betharram.

The building is constructed in Flemish-bond red brick with blue-brick and ashlar-stone detailing, finished with a slate roof and decorative brick chimney stacks. It forms an L-shaped plan consisting of north and east wings, with a former enclosed walkway attached to the west that links the seminary to the adjacent church.

The building rises two storeys with an attic storey. Stone ashlar detailing frames the windows, with stone drip moulds, bands of blue brick, and a brick stepped dentil course running around the whole building. The south garden elevation of the east wing displays seven bays. At the west end a projecting gable-end bay contains the former chapel and refectory. This gable features a two-storey box-bay window with a five-light window set within a recessed pointed arch on the ground floor, topped by a stone drip mould carved with an ecclesiastical shield. The first floor has an ashlar mullioned window with quatrefoil decoration and a balustrade above. Above the box bay are a pair of louvered openings and a foliate-carved roundel. To the right stands a stair turret with tracery windows and conical roof. The remainder of the wing comprises five bays divided by stepped buttresses, each containing a ground-floor two-light pointed-arched opening with two sashes, a square-headed two-light first-floor window, and a pointed dormer with barge-board decoration at attic level. The east elevation is relatively plain, featuring a central column of windows and a side entrance. Keyed bricks on this elevation evidence the proposed central tower and second wing design intended to extend eastward. The north elevation has five bays mirroring the garden elevation, except the ground floor has two-light trefoil-headed windows. The mansard roof over this wing includes a central and gable-end stack.

At the corner where the north and west wings meet stands a corner entrance: a pointed-arch door with stone hoodmould supported by corbels decorated with 'WBU', the initials of the founder. The north wing displays seven bays on its east elevation. The first five are separated by brick buttresses, each containing a ground-floor single-light trefoil-headed diamond-pane window, a single-light four-pane first-floor sash, and a small dormer window at attic level. The pitched roof over these bays includes three large brick ridge stacks with decorative hexagonal pots. The sixth bay projects forward and contains the service staircase, lit by single-light windows. The seventh bay has square-headed openings. The west elevation has two single-storey 20th-century extensions on the ground floor, with paired sashes at first-floor level and brick dormers in the attic. Brickwork on the north end bay shows evidence of the intended cloistral range.

Of the proposed cloister, only the southern walkway was built—a flat-roof single-storey structure. Its original south elevation faces the garden with a central entrance flanked by squared-head windows with stone mullions. The north elevation facing the car park results from 20th-century widening of that space.

Internally, the main stairwell is located at the apex of the south and east wings, a dog-leg staircase with carved balusters and reeded square-newel posts with moulded detailing. Ground-floor corridors are interrupted by pointed arches with varying moulded detailing, and the tile floor displays a geometric pattern. The east wing contains the former seminary common rooms, most with pointed-arch stone fireplaces featuring foliate carvings in the spandrels and carved-wooden ceiling beams. Adjacent to the main stairs on this level is the former refectory, now a day chapel, which retains decorative-timber ceiling beams on moulded stone corbels, wooden shutters, timber wainscoting, and an alcove at the south end. The north wing houses the original kitchen and service room, which have undergone considerable alteration including the rebuilding of part of the original kitchen fireplace. One room has been altered with a new reception entrance on the west side facing the car park. Within this wing is also an open-well service staircase with chamfered detailing. The former seminary chapel, now a library, occupies the first floor above the former refectory adjacent to the main stairs. Its door features an elaborately carved entablature. The chapel interior contains a coved-coffered ceiling with chamfer details and other moulded timber decoration, an alcove with decorative pilasters at the south end, and later bookshelves around the walls. The first and second floors contain two levels of bedrooms. Some first-floor rooms in the north wing have been combined to form a modern dining room and kitchen. Second-floor rooms within the attic level are heated by large exposed cast-iron pipes. Many original timber panel doors survive throughout all floors, as do several original fireplaces, though others have been blocked.

The interior corridor linking the friary to the adjacent Church of the Sacred Heart and Mary Immaculate has been heavily altered in the late 20th century when extended to the north and is not of special architectural or historic interest.