He was also the warden and organist at St. John the Baptist Church in the nearby village of Armitage.

In 1885, Spode, and his niece, Helen Gulson converted to Catholicism at Stone, Staffordshire, where the English congregation of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Sienna had their motherhouse.

It was Spode's intention that Gulson should reside in the house and upon her death it should be donated to the Dominican order.

[3] Josiah's mother and his wife, Helen, are buried at St. John's; he and his niece are interred in a small chapel of the Priory Church.

[4] New conventual buildings were funded by Gulson and when the friars moved into the new priory, the Hall became a school.