Ushaw College - History

History

Until 2011 Ushaw was the principal Roman Catholic seminary in the north of England for the training of Catholic priests; finally closing due to the shortage of vocations.

The English College, Douai was founded in 1568 but was forced to leave France in 1795 following the French Revolution. Part of the college settled temporarily at Crook Hall northwest of Durham. In 1804 Bishop William Gibson began to build at Ushaw Moor, four miles west of Durham. These buildings, designed by James Taylor, were opened as St Cuthbert's College in 1808. There was a steady expansion during the nineteenth century with new buildings put up to cater for the expanding number of clerical and secular students. The Junior House, designed by the distinguished architect, Peter Paul Pugin, was added in 1859. St Cuthbert’s Chapel, designed by Dunn and Hansom, was opened in 1884, replacing an earlier one by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, which the seminary had outgrown. The Refectory was designed and built by Pugin. The final development came in the early 1960s with the opening of a new East wing, providing additional classrooms and single bedrooms for 75 students. The main college buildings are grade II listed, however the College Chapel is grade II* and the Chapel of St Michael is grade I.

The College became a Licensed Hall of Residence of the University of Durham in 1968. It was independent of the University but offered courses validated by the University, and both Church and lay students studied at the college. The Junior House closed in 1972, its younger students being transferred to St Joseph's College, Upholland in Lancashire.

In 2002 the College rejected a report from the Roman Catholic hierarchy that it should merge with St Mary's College, Oscott, near Birmingham but in October 2010 it was announced that the college would close in 2011 due to the shortage of vocations in the Roman Catholic Church, and that the site might be sold. Following a detailed feasibility study by the college's Trustees and Durham University (and with the full support of Durham County Council and of English Heritage) in 2011 It was announced in January 2012 that Durham Business School would temporarily relocate to the College during rebuilding of the School’s buildings in Durham. This is seen as the first step in a long-term education-based vision for the site. The University have also agreed to catalogue and archive the Ushaw library and inventory the other collections to ensure their preservation and specialist conservation, with a view to creating a proposed Ushaw Centre for Catholic Scholarship and Heritage.