Stonyhurst | |
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Location within Lancashire | |
OS grid reference | SD684379 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | CLITHEROE |
Police | Lancashire |
Fire | Lancashire |
Ambulance | North West |
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Stonyhurst is the name of a 1,000-acre (4 km2) [1] rural estate owned by the Society of Jesus near Clitheroe in Lancashire, England. It is centred on Stonyhurst College, occupying the great house, its preparatory school Stonyhurst Saint Mary's Hall and the parish church, St Peter's. [2]
The grounds are bounded by the River Hodder, the village of Hurst Green and Longridge Fell. The Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty overlaps in places. [3]
The earliest deed for the estate dates back to 1200 A.D. when it was known as the "Stanihurst". [4] It passed through the Bayley family to their descendants, the Shireburns ("Sherburnes" etc), before passing into the hands of Thomas Weld (of Lulworth). Already possessing a large estate, he donated it to the Jesuits in 1794 as a new home for their school, of which he was an old boy when it was located at Liège. [5] A junior branch of the Sherburnes, who had earlier fled to Oxford to build and dwell in Beam Hall, subsequently emigrated to New England, where they contributed in various ways to the early history of the United States; [6] these descendants included Henry Sherburne and John Sherburne.
Stonyhurst College and Stonyhurst Saint Mary's Hall are Jesuit boarding schools with approximately 800 pupils in total, most of whom are boarders. The schools are connected by parallel footpaths through the woods, known as Brothers' Walk. The name derives from the fact that before the schools became co-educational, pupils from the college would take the route to visit their younger brothers at Saint Mary's Hall although the term could originate from when St Mary's Hall operated as a seminary for trainee Jesuits. They walked along the path reciting the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. A number of teachers and Jesuit priests work and live on the site. Adjacent to the school buildings are workshops employing masons and craftsmen working on the maintenance and restoration of the buildings. There is a large mill which was once a granary but is currently used as a sawmill. [ citation needed ]
The Church of St Peter is the parish church for the neighbouring village of Hurst Green. [7] The Stonyhurst Observatory began operations in 1838, transferring to a new building in 1866. The records of temperature taken there are the oldest continual daily records in the world. Today, the observatory is one of four used by the Met Office to provide temperature data for central England.
The estate contains the two hamlets of Stockbridge and Woodfields, both of which are inhabited by teachers from Stonyhurst College. Hodder Place, the former site of the preparatory school is now divided into residential flats which are privately owned; the grounds remain part of the estate. Richard Sherburne built an almshouse on Longridge Fell, the predecessor of the Sherburne Almshouse, which his son Sir Nicholas built in circa 1707. The latter was dismantled in 1946 and re-erected in Hurst Green. [4]
Religious monuments in the area are a reminder of the Jesuit presence and strength of Catholicism [8] in the locality. Most notably, the Lady Statue at the top of the Avenue connecting Stonyhurst College with Hurst Green. It was erected in 1882, and inscribed with the words "Ave Maria". [4] [9]
Cromwell's rock is situated at the top of the Avenue, near St Peter's church graveyard. According to tradition, Cromwell stood on this inconspicuous stone and described the mansion ahead of him as "the finest half-house in England" (the symmetry of the building was, at that time, incomplete). Four old crosses stand at disparate locations around the estate. Pupils from the school used to visit each cross in an annual pilgrimage to mark Palm Sunday. [10]
The Pinfold Cross is a memorial to a former servant at Stonyhurst College and fiddler, James Wells, who fell to his death in a quarry nearby on 12 February 1834. It was erected in 1834 at Stockbridge. On the front is inscribed the legend, ‘WATCH FOR YOU KNOW NOT THE DAY NOR HOUR.' Above this is written, ‘OFT EVENINGS GLAD MAKE MORNINGS SAD'. On the left is ‘PRAY FOR THE SOUL OF JAMES WELLS' and on the right, ‘DIED FEB. 12TH, 1834'. [10]
Saint Paulinus' Cross stands at Kemple End and is a listed monument believed to date from Anglo-Saxon times. It may well mark a spot at which Saint Paulinus of York, who converted King Edwin of Northumbria and founded the See of York, preached. [10]
Cross Gills Farm Cross is thought to have come from a church and has "1910" as graffiti on it. An old wives' tale records how a farmer replaced the cross when his cattle died after he threw the original into the river. Hague’s Cross stands above the River Hodder in the woods close to the former Jesuit novitiate and preparatory school, Hodder Place. This commemorates the death of William Hague who drowned in the Hodder here (the old Stonyhurst bathing huts are located in Hodder Wood), on the 5th of April, 1877. [10] The grounds of St Mary's Hall contain a Marian grotto and a statue of the Sacred Heart.
The estate is a tourist attraction. Many visitors come to view the grade one listed Stonyhurst College which is open for tours during the summer. [11] The gardens of the college are also open to visitors and include a small shop in the meteorological station. The area is also criss-crossed with public footpaths, in particular the Tolkien Trail, a walk around some of the areas thought to have inspired the author during his stay at the college in the late 1940s. [12]
Public events hosted on the estate include the Great British Food Festival and the Ribble Valley International Piano Week. Other visitors come to make use of the extensive sports facilities, including a golf course, swimming pool and astroturf hockey pitch.
The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells and formerly the Chase of Bowland, is an area of gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England, with a small part in North Yorkshire. It is a western outlier of the Pennines.
Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status within the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The total population of the non-metropolitan district at the 2011 Census was 57,132. Its council is based in Clitheroe. Other places include Whalley, Longridge and Ribchester. The area is so called due to the River Ribble which flows in its final stages towards its estuary near Preston. The area is popular with tourists who enjoy the area's natural unspoilt beauty, much of which lies within the Forest of Bowland.
Stonyhurst College is a co-educational Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Jesuit tradition, on the Stonyhurst Estate, Lancashire, England. It occupies a Grade I listed building. The school has been fully co-educational since 1999.
Dunsop Bridge is a village in the Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England, 9 miles (14 km) north-west of Clitheroe, 15 miles (24 km) south-east of Lancaster and 24.5 miles (39 km) west of Skipton. It is in the civil parish of Bowland Forest High. Historically, the village is part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, but was placed under the administration of Lancashire County Council on 1 April 1974.
Aighton, Bailey and Chaigley is a civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley in Lancashire, England, just west of Clitheroe. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,307, an increase from 1,249 in 2001.
The River Hodder is in Lancashire, England. It is a County Biological Heritage Site.
Chipping is a village and civil parish of the borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England, within the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 1,046, falling slightly to 1,043 at the 2011 Census. This Lancashire village has won several best-kept village competitions over the years. The village also won the village section of the Royal Horticultural Society Britain in Bloom competition in 2009 picking up RHS Tourism and Gold achievement awards in the process.
Hurst Green is a small village in the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England, connected in its history to the Jesuit school, Stonyhurst College. The village is 5 miles (8 km) from Longridge and 4 miles (6 km) from Clitheroe, and is close to the River Ribble, near its junction with the River Hodder.
Longridge Fell is the most southerly fell in England, near the town of Longridge, Lancashire. It lies at the southern end of the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. As its name suggests, it takes the form of a long ridge which rises in a north-easterly direction from within the town of Longridge to its summit 4.5 miles distant. As the ridge curves towards the east, it comes to a sudden end and drops into the Hodder Valley. The fell is a good example of a cuesta; the ridge has a sharp drop or escarpment on its northern side, and a gentler, more varying slope on its southern side. These features make it a popular takeoff for hang-gliders and paragliders on the relatively infrequent occurrences of a northerly wind.
Stonyhurst St Mary's Hall is the preparatory school to Stonyhurst College. It is an independent co-educational Catholic school, for ages 3–13, founded by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It is primarily a day school but has some boarders. As the lineal descendant of Hodder Place the school lays claim to be the oldest preparatory school in the country.
Stonyhurst College as a school dates back to 1593 when its antecedent, the Jesuit College at St Omer, was founded in Flanders to educate English Catholics. The history of the present school buildings dates as far back as 1200 AD.
Stonyhurst College is Roman Catholic and has had a significant place in English Catholic history for many centuries. In 1803 the Society of Jesus was re-established in Britain at Stonyhurst and the school became the headquarters of the English Province. Until the 1920s Jesuit priests were trained on site in what is today the preparatory school. The school continues to place Catholicism and Jesuit philosophy at its core. The present chaplain is Fr. Tim Curtis SJ.
This article describes some of the unique features of Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit school in Lancashire, England.
Stonyhurst College and Stonyhurst Saint Mary's Hall are both Catholic boarding schools in the Jesuit tradition in Lancashire, England, which aim at the creation of Men and Women for Others. Under this principle, a number of charities operate within the two schools. The schools are themselves registered charities, and as such are obliged to benefit the wider community under the terms of the Charities Act 2006.
Great Mitton is a village and a civil parish in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England. It is separated from the civil parish of Little Mitton by the River Ribble, both lie about three miles from the town of Clitheroe. The combined population of both civil parishes at the 2011 census was 266. In total, Great and Little Mitton cover less than 2000 acres of the Forest of Bowland, making it the smallest township in the Forest. Historically, the village is part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, but was transferred to Lancashire for administrative purposes on 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972.
Ignatius Scoles SJ was a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, architect and writer. He designed churches and civic buildings and was the son of Joseph John Scoles.
Aighton, Bailey and Chaigley is a civil parish in Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England. It contains 55 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, three are listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, five are at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The most important building in the parish is Stonyhurst College; many of the buildings comprising the college and associated with it are listed. The parish contains the village of Hurst Green, which also contains listed buildings, including houses, public houses, and almshouses. Outside these areas the listed buildings include other houses and associated structures, farmhouses and farm buildings, crosses, the ruins of a chapel, bridges, a mausoleum, a church, and a vicarage.
Thomas Bartholomew Weld (1750–1810), known as Thomas Weld of Lulworth Castle, was a member of the English Catholic gentry, landowner, philanthropist and bibliophile. He was connected to many of the leading Catholic families of the land, such as the Bodenhams, Cliffords, Erringtons, Petres and Stourtons. He proved to be a great benefactor of the Society of Jesus in England in their educational and pastoral endeavours, as timely donor of his Stonyhurst estate in 1794. He was also a benefactor to other Roman Catholic religious and clergy. He was a personal friend of King George III. His sister-in-law was Maria Fitzherbert. After the French Revolution he hosted refugee remnants of the French royal family at his castle. He was the builder, in 1786, of the first Roman Catholic place of worship in England after the Protestant reformation.
St Peter's Church is a Roman Catholic Parish Church in Stonyhurst. It is the parish church for Hurst Green, Lancashire and a chapel for Stonyhurst College. It was built from 1832 to 1835 and designed by Joseph John Scoles in the Gothic Revival style. It was founded by the Society of Jesus and has been served by Jesuit priests since. It is a Grade I listed building.
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