Where in the North East might we find a 400-year-old college with magnificent buildings; beautiful grounds, a cathedral-like chapel and a library modelled on Oxford and Cambridge?

Near Durham City is the answer, but if you thought we were talking about Durham University you would be wrong, since this college came to Durham more than 30 years before Durham University was established.

We are of course talking about Ushaw College, or the College of St Cuthbert to use its proper name. Located on a hilltop, a mile west of Bearpark, Ushaw College is a Roman Catholic seminary that is steeped in history and tradition. It even has a unique ball game all of its own.

Situated close to mining villages like Bearpark, Ushaw Moor, Langley Park and Esh Winning, it seems an incongruous feature of the landscape, but none of these villages even existed when the college opened on this site in 1808. But 1808 was by no means the beginning of the story and the college can trace its origins back to Elizabethan times.

When Elizabeth I became Queen in 1558 she enforced the suppression of Catholicism, which had been the primary religion of England until abolished by her father, Henry VIII. Despite the suppression, many continued to secretly practise Catholicism, particularly in the north of England. Of course this was only possible with properly trained priests who were now banned from working in England. Many priests had fled to France or the Low Countries to escape persecution.

It was in the ancient French University town of Douai, 20 miles south of Lille that a Lancashire born, Oxford educated priest called William Allen (later Cardinal Allen) established a college for training English priests in 1568. Allen hoped the college would provide priests ready for a time when Catholicism returned to England. However, this became increasingly unlikely and the college began to secretly send priests to work in England. Approximately 270 trained priests arrived in England from Douai in the period 1574 to 1585. Many were captured and executed.

Even when executions ceased, Douai's work continued. In the 1600s and early 1700s the lives of English Catholics were severely restricted. Catholic priests and schoolteachers faced life imprisonment, but as the years passed, Catholics gained greater freedom. In 1791 Catholic mass was legalised, but the foundation of Catholic academies or colleges remained illegal.

In 1790 William Gibson of Stonecroft near Hexham completed his term as President of Douai College and was succeeded by Edward Kithcin, Chaplain of Lartington Hall near Barnard Castle. Kitchin took control of Douai in a troublesome period, when revolution was taking hold in France. Douai would not escape the rioting that swept the nation. On two occasions mobs of drunken soldiers and townsmen invaded the college. On one particularly dangerous raid, three quick-thinking Douai students from northern England shouted "vive la nation" to get the crowd on their side. They were greeted with cheers and carried shoulder high through the streets of Douai.

Ill health forced Kitchin to return to England as French instability increased. In 1793 the French king was executed and England declared war on France. The English were ordered to leave Douai and Republicans occupied the college. Many students fled but 47 students and teachers remained and were imprisoned. Eleven escaped the following year and others released later. Douai College's history had come to an end.

English Catholics sought to establish the institution elsewhere, but Catholic colleges were illegal in England. Fortunately leading Catholics persuaded William Pitt, first Lord of the Treasury that an English-based college would keep money in the country.

The college location would have to be decided and William Gibson, now the most senior Catholic in Northern England wanted it to be in the North. In the meantime former Douai pupils were educated at Old Hall near Ware in Hertfordshire and in a school at Tudhoe, County Durham. Gibson eventually acquired Crook Hall near Leadgate (not the one in Durham City) for his school and housed pupils at Pontop Hall while the building was prepared.

It was initially agreed that Durham's college would serve all England, but southern factions favoured the Hertfordshire site. So it was decided that separate colleges should serve northern and southern England and Hertfordshire's Old Hall became St Edmund's College.

The northern college received a boost as the result of a peculiar argument between two teachers (a northerner and a southerner) at the Hertfordshire site. The argument concerned the relative strength of a cat and was to be settled by a bizarre tug of war contest. A terrified cat was tied to a rope on one side of a pond, while a teacher - the southerner - was tied to the other end of the rope. When college students insisted he turned his back to give the cat a chance, they pulled the teacher towards the pond. He angrily responded, calling the culprits "vulgar fellows and Lancashire Blackguards". This offended Hertfordshire's contingent of northern students and several departed to join Gibson in Durham. Some are said to have walked all the way to Durham carrying luggage in a wheelbarrow.

Other students later joined Gibson straight from Douai and all moved into Crook Hall in October 1794. However, it became increasingly apparent that a larger, grander establishment was needed. Many sites were considered including Gainford on Tees and Flass Hall in the Deerness Valley, a property belonging to the Catholic Smythe family. Smythe farmland at nearby Ushaw Row was eventually purchased in 1798 for the site of the college. Work began in 1804, and the college finally opened to students in 1808.

Our look at Ushaw College history continues next week.

If you have memories of Durham you would like to share with The Northern Echo, write to David Simpson, Durham Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF. Email David.Simpson@nne. co. uk or telephone (01325) 505098.

Published: 12/03/2004