‘HISTORICALLY invaluable’ artefacts and saintly relics which are under lock and key at Stonyhurst College are to form the centrepiece of a new museum.

The boarding school in the Ribble Valley, which was founded by Jesuits, is to put on public display items that were collected from all four corners of the earth by the missionaries for the first time since the Victorian age.

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Expected to open its doors in the spring to students, the public will be able to get their first taste of the collection in the summer holidays.

Among the items to be revealed is an Egyptian mummy, a thorn said to be from the crown Christ wore during the crucifixion and Mary Queen of Scots’ prayer book which she took to the gallows.

The collection, thought to be in the thousands, also includes a treasure-trove of Roman Catholic relics that were entrusted to the school during the Reformation for safe-keeping.

The new museum will be housed in a former common room and it will be the first time the college has opened up the full collection since Queen Victoria’s reign.

Public visitors have been able to see small sections of the collections previously during themed exhibitions such as on royalty or former student Arthur Conan Doyle.

A spokesman for the college said: “It’s a really exciting opportunity as we have such a wide range of items.

“We have not been able to show them all because there has not been the space before now.

“With us creating a new sixth form common room we can now convert the old one to house the museum.

“The Jesuits would bring back so many items from across the world for educational purposes and we want to use them again to benefit the students.

“You can’t put a monetary value on the items but certainly from a historical point of view they are invaluable.

“The list of items that we have is seemingly endless and will be of interest to so many people.”

It comes after the college’s Square Library was refurbished and reopened. In total the college houses 57,000 books.