Libraries and Collections of Stonyhurst College - Museums

Museums

The Long Room functioned as a museum of stuffed birds in Victorian display cabinets, the Waterton Collection, donated by old boy explorer Charles Waterton until they were transferred to the corridor linking the Old Infirmary with the school. It had been Waterton's wish for this record of his lifetime's work to be on display in his former school; the collection was lent to Wakefield Museum in the 1970s. Thankfully and due to the tireless work of the current curator Jan Graffius some of the collection has now returned to its home in the Long Room. The Long Room was used as a study room from the 1970s until 2003 when it was restored and once again used for a display of items from the College collections.

A lesser-known fact about the Long Room is that, above the bay, between its ceiling and the room above, exists one of the two remaining priest holes or hiding places, dating back to the house's time as a private residence in the period of Recusancy, when Jesuits and other Catholic priests were hunted by the authorities. The other hiding place is in the gatehouse, approached up a false chimney. Another was located in the Duchess' Rooms before they were pulled down to make way for the Arundell Library wing; it was hidden behind a bookcase, opened by a secret spring. A fourth was under a flagstone in the original washing place, and a further hidden behind a false beam nearby.

The Do Room, re-opened in 2000 following the replacement of the beams which support the Top Refectory above, features an exhibition of the School's history and items from the collections, including photographs, a Victorian chamber-pot complete with the College emblem, the desk used and engraved by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle during his time as a pupil and a door belonging to an earlier building on the site.