A CATHOLIC bishop says he is delighted at the progress of work to determine the long-term future of a 200-year-old former seminary.

Ushaw College, near Durham City, closed after more than 200 years of training would-be Catholic priests in the summer of 2011.

Some of its buildings are currently occupied by Durham Business School (DBS), while a £16.5m rebuilding project of DBS’s Mill Hill Lane base continues.

Durham University also wants to use some the facilities for its International Centre for Catholic Studies.

Terence Drainey, Bishop of Middlesbrough and acting chair of Ushaw College’s trustees, said he and his colleagues were delighted with progress and that his officers were working closely with the University on the “important project”.

Meanwhile, the College’s history is currently being explored in a series of public lectures.

The next will be delivered at Ushaw College by Professor Alec Ryrie, head of the University’s department of theology and religion, on Wednesday, May 1, at 6pm.

Prof Ryrie’s subject is: Devotion in a Polemical Age: Discovering Tolerance in Early Modern Britain.

Entry is free but places must be booked by calling Theresa Phillips on 0191-334-1656.