EXCLUSIVE: stunning and never-before published pictures of the Wigan area's most wonderful and mysterious building

Surrounded by high trees and walls, St Joseph’s College at Roby Mill was something of an enigma to the public, even before it closed its doors for the final time on November 30 1999 due to a lack of funding. Since its founding in 1880, the seminary had trained countless Roman Catholic priests and educated many boys considering a vocation in the priesthood (unlikely novices including TV comics Kenny Everett and Johnny Vegas!) But over the last 24 years it has stood, frustratingly, empty with various plans to put the huge and imposing buildings to alternative use coming to nought. Intruders have done much to spoil the interiors during that time but we are today publishing images taken by reader Brian King not long after its closure, courtesy of a tour given to him by Monsignor John Devine.