In 1902 the vicar of Hooton Pagnell, Revd Frederick Samuel Willoughby, opened St Chad's Hostel in the village to prepare men of limited means to enter theological college.

In the first issue of the hostel's magazine, Willoughby wrote: It is a melancholy fact that many men have been lost to the Priesthood simply through lack of means to gain the necessary education.

No wonder that we hear almost every day of work at a standstill for lack of workers.In its early years, the hostel had a connection with Willoughby's alma mater, Lichfield Theological College.

[5] Shortly afterwards, with financial assistance from Douglas Horsfall, a wealthy Liverpool businessman and devoted churchman, St Chad's Hall was established in Durham as a sister institution to the hostel, with Moulsdale as its first principal.

[5] In February 1911, the Anglo-Catholic orientation of the hostel brought protestors to Hooton Pagnell, when a large number of participants in the "Kensit Crusade", a movement against ritualism in the Church of England, marched from South Elmsall to Hooton Pagnell to protest what they saw as young men being trained to become Roman Catholic priests in the Church of England, as well as against the ritualistic practices of various local clergy.

[6] The hostel briefly re-opened after the war, but the financial problems of running the hall across two sites led to it closing permanently in 1921.