St Mary's College, Oscott

The college was founded in Oscott, in present-day Great Barr, in 1794 for both the training of priests and the education of lay pupils. It developed out of a small mission founded by Fr Andrew Bromwich around 1687.

St Mary's College, 1839

In 1838, the college moved to a new site, which came to be known as New Oscott (and the original site as "Old Oscott"). The Maryvale Institute remains on the original site. The new building was designed by Augustus Pugin and Joseph Potter at a cost of £40,000. It is grade II* listed. The college quickly became a symbol of the rebirth of the Catholic faith in England and played a prominent part in the life of the Church in the 19th century. In 1889, the college was closed, but reopened the following year as a seminary only.

After the closure of St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw, Durham, in 2011, many of the dioceses in the province of Liverpool sent their students to Oscott to complete their training. This gave a boost in numbers at the college at a time when vocations seemed to be scarce.[5]

Pope Benedict XVI visited on 19 September 2010 following the beatification, earlier that day in Birmingham's Cofton Park, of Cardinal Newman who stayed at the college in the late 1840s. During his visit to Oscott, Benedict met and had lunch with the Roman Catholic bishops of England, Scotland, and Wales. The Oscott visit was the last scheduled event during the four-day 2010 State Visit of Benedict to the UK. The Pope would later depart the UK from Birmingham Airport.

In 2023, the college hosted a seminar called "Rethink Abortion Day" led by prominent US-based activist groups. The seminar was based on building on the successes experienced by the Pro-Life movement in the United States and expanding their successes into the United Kingdom.[6]

• Francis Amherst (1819–1883), Bishop of Northampton.
• Tomás Bryan Livermore (1824–1902), Bishop of Cartagena
• Edward Bagshawe (1829–1915), Bishop of Nottingham.
• Terence Brain (1938–), Bishop of Salford.
• Kevin Dunn (1950–2008), Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle.
• William Lee (1875–1948), Bishop of Clifton.
• Leo McCartie (1925–2020), Bishop of Northampton.
• David McGough (1944-), Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham.
• James McGuinness (1925–2007), Bishop of Nottingham.
• Robert Willson (1794–1866), Bishop of Hobart.
• David Oakley (1955), Bishop of Northampton

• William Francis Barry (1849–1930), writer.
• Frederick Charles Husenbeth (1796–1872), writer.
• Henry Weedall (1788–1859), educator.
• William Purcell Witcutt (c.1910–c.1970), author.

• John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902).
• George Ashlin (1837–1921), architect.
• John Ball (1818–1889), Irish politician and naturalist.
• Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840–1922), poet.
• Thomas Henry Burke (1829–1882), Permanent Under Secretary at the Irish Office.
• John Cornwell (1940–), writer.
• Charles Kent (1823–1902), journalist and editor.
• Edmund Kirby (1838–1920), architect.
• Nicholas Lash (1934–2020), theologian.
• Ernest Law (1854–1930), historian and barrister.
• Edwin de Lisle MP (1852–1920), politician.
• St. George Jackson Mivart (1827–1900), biologist.
• George Moore (1852–1933), novelist.
• Francis Loraine Petre (1852–1925), civil servant and military historian.
• Thomas Nicholas Redington (1815–1862), Irish political administrator.
• Frederick Rolfe, also known as Baron Corvo (1860–1913), writer and artist.
• Joseph Stevenson (1806–1895), archivist and editor.
• Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland (1861–1940), Prime Minister of Malta.