Exhibition: Stonyhurst - The Northern Connection

Source: Stonyhurst College

What links the Bash St Kids, Charlie Chaplin, the northern Catholic missionaries and martyrs, a Romantic Jesuit chronicler of the Lake District who inspired William Wordsworth, the first gaslit streets in England and Pugin's transformational Victorian Gothic Revival movement?

These questions will be addressed in an exciting collaborative year-long exhibition opening on Saturday, 31 October, in Stonyhurst College's award-winning museum.

Drawing on Stonyhurst's rich collections, libraries and archives, in conjunction with extraordinary historic loan collections from St Francis Xavier's, Liverpool (SFX), Wonersh Seminary, an important northern private loan collection, plus artefacts and images from Jesuit churches in Manchester and Preston, the Jesuit Province Archive in London and the Harris Museum in Preston, the exhibition will examine the many stories of the Jesuits' involvement in the North of England.

This involvement dates to the late 16th century, and spans nearly five centuries. The Jesuits have significant histories in Manchester, Preston, Liverpool and Clitheroe; at one point there were over fifty Jesuit parishes and works in the northwest alone. The story of recusancy and mission in the north will be told through historic vestments, paintings and relics relating to underground Catholic life in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The exhibition will examine the literary, spiritual, architectural, scientific and educational histories of Jesuit parishes, drawing on archival records relating to writers such as Gerard Manley Hopkins and Arthur Conan Doyle. The famous Gothic Revival vestments of SFX will be displayed beside 15th century examples from Stonyhurst's collections, providing a rich visual resource for parishes, historians, artists and scholars.

Archival resources, photographs and artefacts from Jesuit churches and missions in the north provide a full document the history of the rich network of Jesuit ministry, education and social work in this part of the world. The exhibition will focus on the extraordinary stories of the great Jesuit schools of the north. Preston Jesuit College educated the award-winning Leo Baxendale, creator of the Bash St Kids. SFX taught the young Charlie Chaplin, and, in later years, Elvis Costello - creative innovators who changed the 20th century world of cartoon, film and music.

An essential element of the exhibition involves an oral history project which will run throughout the exhibitions, capturing memories of parishioners from SFX , Clitheroe, Manchester and Preston, as well as further afield. The displays will be supported by educational resources and information packs for schools.

Stonyhurst: The Northern Connection - The story of the Jesuits in the north of England, 1600 to the present runs from 31st October 2026 - 30th October 2027