Chapter Twelve
XII
THE SCHOOL
IN the modern Belmont, as in all the monasteries of the
English Congregation, the main centre of activity and
Sst apart from the sanctuary and choir is the school.
Teachmg has been a traditional occupation for Benedictine
monks from the days of St Benedict himself, and in England
since the religious revolution of the sixteenth century which
set up Protestantism and outlawed the Catholic religion, the
provision of a Catholic education for the young has been a
work of primary importance, and one to which the English
monks have given themselves with ardour and devotion. For,
besides being an invaluable form of apostolate, this is a type
of work which harmonises admirabl y with the monastic life
and which at the same time is sanctified and ennobled above
the level of mere secular school-mastering by the super-
natural motives of obedience, humility and charity though
which it is undertaken. For these reasons then, our English
monasteries have for centuries conducted schools and so it
was natural that when St Michael's became an independent
house on the disappearance of the common congregation
noviciate and house of studies, it too should turn to this
traditional form of occupation for its monks.
It may be recalled that when the monastery was built and
opened In 1859 it was the great desire of Bishop Brown of
Newport that, along with its other functions and uses
Belmont should serve as the Seminary of his diocese and
this was the original intention. But it was very often found
that in fact, for practical reasons, such as lack of space and
Ac difficulty of assimilating secular students into a house
full of young monks, it was not possible to put this into effect.
The best that could be done to meet the Bishop's wishes in
this respect was to accept a small number of young boys who
had the nominal intention or hope of ultimately becoming
secular priests, and to this Bishop Brown sadly agreed. And
so the desired seminary became in fact a very small pre-
paratory school. This, then, opened in 1860, and it lasted
for fourteen years, but it rarely consisted of more than
twelve boys. Of course the purpose for which the monastery
was built would have made it impossible to conduct an
ordinary school on the premises, even if the monks had so
desired, which they did not. But in any case such a school,
as has already been made clear in these pages, was expressly
prohibited by the Founder, Mr Wegg-Prosser, in the original
deeds, for he held extremely strong views of the undesirability
of having such a school in the monastery, and was determined
that there should never be a college for the education of boys
intended for the secular professions set up at Belmont.
Hence, then, the need to restrict this miniature school to
boys who hoped to become priests.
For most of the years that it existed this school was in the
charge of Dom Cuthbert Hedley, who was assisted by Dom
Ildephonsus Cummins, and inevitably its accommodation
was primitive in the extreme. The boys lived in the rooms
adjacent to St Raphael's chapel, and their lessons were of a
very elementary nature: the 'three Rs' and the beginnings of
Latin and French. Organised games were, of course, im-
possible, but in winter it was part of Fr Cummins' task to
entertain them in the evening with story-telling round the
fire. Perhaps the chief point of interest in connection with
this scholastic venture is the fact that one of its alumni was a
very small Francis Gasquet, subsequently the illustrious
Cardinal and historian, while another later became well-
known in the Congregation as Abbot Bede Cox. But before
many years had passed Bishop Brown, who had been deeply
disappointed by this travesty of his original plan for a
seminary, felt he could no longer in conscience support it
financially, and so in 1874 it came to an untimely end.
Forty-three years were to elapse before boys were again to
be seen at Belmont.
At the end of that comparatively lengthy period, i.e. in
1917 the position at St Michael's was radically different from
the state of affairs in 1874. By that time the Common House
of noviciate and studies had for all intents and purposes
ceased to exist, while the new Belmont Community with its
Prior now numbered fifteen, and had just been granted its
complete independence by General Chapter (August, 1917),
which was confirmed five months later by the Holy See. The
problem therefore arose of finding a means of occupation tor
the youthful community, and in these circumstances Prior
Aelred Kindersley decided to open an alumnate or school
for boys who seemed likely to have a monastic vocation. This
was accordingly opened on September 18, 1917, with Dom
Gregory Buisseret as its first headmaster. There were at first
ten boys, and the maximum reached during the existence of
this alumnate was just over twenty. Major Wegg-Prosser had
agreed that such a school, intended, as it was, for boys who
wished to be monks, did not contravene the wishes of his
father The old parish school-room (now the Library) was
used as both study hall and class room, and the former
noviciate over the refectory was cleared of the seven foot
high partitions which had divided it into eleven cubicles for
the novices, by whom they were traditionally known as
'horse-boxes'. The room thus became an open dormitory for
the boys of the new alumnate. All the boys wore Scout
uniform and were encouraged to attain proficiency in Scout
exercises, but in church they had their place in the choir and
wore the monastic tunic with a short scapular. They had
their meals in the refectory at the same time as the com-
munity and therefore had to maintain silence during meals,
except on 'talking days'. On the other hand, in those days all
first-class Feasts were automatically whole holidays for the
school None the less the life of these boys was much more
Spartan than that of their successors today. They had to
cross to the old school-house for their classes in all weathers,
and the heating over there was very primitive. They also
had to make their own beds and clean their own shoes, and
needless to say this was before the days of such amenities as
radio and television. Nor was there much opportunity for
playing games, as their numbers were too few. Their
horarium for a typical day will probably interest the boys of
today. They rose at 6, and Mass at 6.30 was followed by
breakfast at 7.15 (in silence, with the monks), after which
came bed-making and shoe-cleaning. Then they attended
the Conventual Sung Mass at 8. Glasses were from 9 till i,
sometimes also in the afternoon, and always after tea. They
came to Vespers in choir at 6 p.m., and supper at 7.15 was
followed by night prayers, with final preparation at 8.15.
It had been hoped that this little school would prove a
source of vocations to the monastery, and indeed it played
its part in this respect. It produced its first batch of postulants
for the Community in January, 1923, and though all did not
persevere, yet eventually during the nine years of this
alumnate's existence, seven boys in all persevered through
the noviciate and the juniorate and became solemnly
professed monks of Belmont.
But plainly there were great disadvantages in running so
small a school, and the steady post-war growth in the
numbers of the monks made it possible to contemplate
starting a school on an altogether larger scale. Such a school,
moreover, besides fulfilling the two purposes of the alumnate
(those of providing an occupation for the monks and proving
a source of vocations to the monastery), might also in due
course help the house financially. The first headmaster of
the alumnate, Dom Gregory Buisseret, had resigned in 1919,
and he had been succeeded by Dom Anselm Lightbound on
the latter's return from war service as an Army Chaplain;
but from 1920 the alumnate was conducted by Dom Cuthbert
Formby until in 1924 Fr Anselm again took over the head-
mastership, which he retained until 1938. And so it was to
him that fell the task of starting the larger secular school
when, in 1926, it was finally decided to abandon the
alumnate. It was in fact his initiative and driving power,
under the active encouragement of Abbot Kindersley, which
brought the venture into being and set it firmly on its course.
On March 8 of that year the plan was first tentatively
approved, and it was discussed for the first time by the
Community on April i5.1 There was naturally a part of the
Community which did not welcome the abandonment of
what had been a chief attraction to them of the life at
Belmont (the absence of a school), but at the Conventual
Chapter of July 13 a majority voted in favour of a school
open to all, and so the matter was settled. The consent of
the Archbishop of Cardiff was readily given, but there still
remained one major obstacle. For the intention of the
Founder had been quite clear, as had always been recognised
by the Community, that Belmont was never to have a school
for boys intended for the lay professions; and thus it was
plain that nothing could be done without obtaining the
consent of Major John Wegg-Prosser who had been recog-
nised since 1902 as co-founder of Belmont with his father.
He had in 1917 agreed that the alumnate did not conflict
with his father's wishes, for the boys were being trained to
become monks; but now the case was different. Abbot
Kindersley therefore put the matter before him, stressing
how necessary it was for Belmont to have a lay school, and
after a long discussion Major Wegg-Prosser fell in with the
new ideas, though the permission for the school which he
gave was only for ten years, and he stipulated that there
must not be more than fifty boys. It may here be added that
a few years later he increased this number to seventy, and
in 1936 to one hundred without any restriction of time.
The new school opened, then, in September 1926, and it
began with only eleven pupils, all of whom had been in the
old alumnate. There were, of course, no real school buildings,.
and the boys had therefore to continue to be accommodated
in the old village school, with one dormitory and one study
room in the monastery. Bur Fr Anselm had vision and
courage and he was already looking far ahead. For the next
twelve years he nursed the struggling school, and he it was.
who brought it from infancy to, if not manhood, at least
adolescence. He found it with practically no equipment or
premises, no traditions and little spirit; but when he left it in
1938 the numbers had more than trebled, the buildings,
though still inadequate, had much increased, and his
successor was able to say that it had been handed over to
him with all the essentials of a public school. Actually the
process of expansion began immediately, for before the end
of 1926 a temporary school building was begun in the open
space between the refectory and the then Library which
had hitherto been waste ground filled with a large clump of
laurel bushes, and by the end of January 1927 there stood
on that site an asbestos hall, seventy feet long by thirty fee
wide, which if singularly unsightly was, and still is at least
most useful. With the opening of this study hall which
could be divided by curtains into class-rooms, the old village
school was abandoned and passed through a variety of uses
in the next twenty-five years before blossoming out into the
Phillipps Library in 1954. Attention had also to be given to
the provision of playing fields. Hitherto the alumnate, and
sometimes the monks, played association football on a
triangular field that lay in the fork between the Aber-
gavenny and Peterchurch roads, the two fields immediately
adioining the monastery being unsuitable because they
unfortunately sloped upwards from east to west But now
Fr Anselm, with some stout-hearted helpers, set to work to
level part of them. They toiled with pick and shovel and
wheelbarrow, off and on, for ten years, and so produced a
central field of two and a half acres, which proved to be level
to within an inch when professionally surveyed ten years
^But it was quite clear that if the school were really to
expand to anything like the desired numbers there would have
to be considerable development as regards new buildings,
though no one could see whence the money for this was to
come and the slender capital of the monastery was already
strained to its utmost. The boys had very poor quarters as
compared with what was provided at other schools, and
parents could hardly be favourably impressed by what they
saw But for the moment the erection of buildings was out
of the question, and the best that could be done was to
encroach on the monastery itself. So, in 1928 the first of
such 'borrowings' took place with the transfer of the monks
lecture-room above the Library to the use of the school, and
it became a new dormitory. Five years later it was trans-
formed into a series of class-rooms (1933), and the row of
cells leading from it to the main gallery was also incorporated
in the school, while a staircase was at the same time built to.
connect them with the temporary study-hall below.
But half-way between these two events, i.e. in 1931, it was
found possible to set about building some new permanent
rooms. Abbot Kindersley wished to extend existing buildings
without disfiguring those already there by unsightly addi-
tions, or alternatively to erect a separate school away from
the monastery, e.g. in what was then the orchard and is
now part of the playing fields. But it was found that the latter
scheme, though desirable in itself, would be too costly in the
existing state of poverty, and on April 29 plans were approved.
which provided for an extension of the refectory wing which
would provide dormitories above and playrooms below, as
well as a masking wall between the new extension and the
Library, which would conceal and enclose the temporary
hall of 1927. The cost of these buildings was estimated at.
£5,000 but, as so often happens in these cases, new ideas
were incorporated as the work went on, and the final cost
was nearly £7,000. Building began on June 10, and on St
Michael's Day the foundation stone was laid in the east
wall by the Abbot with full ceremonial.
The structure is
built around a steel frame filled with brick, and the exterior
is of sand-covered bricks which harmonise well with the
stone of the older buildings. The new building was completed
in time for the opening of the term in September, 1932.
It was realised that these school extensions would make
necessary a greater water supply than was available from the
ram at Spring Grove which had served the house well for
fifty years. Some new source of supply had therefore to be
found. The possible solutions of this problem were: connec-
tion with the city system in Hereford, or the erection of a
pumping-house which would enable water to be piped from
the river, or thirdly the sinking of an artesian well in our own.
grounds. The matter was discussed at many meetings during:
the first half of 1931, and each view had keen advocates; but
in the end it was found that the Hereford authorities were
not very helpful, and that wayleaves could not be granted
from the river, and so on June 13 the boring began of an
artesian well into the Old Red Sandstone where water of the
finest quality is plentiful. This proved to be a prolonged
undertaking and gave much anxiety to the Abbot and Com-
munity, for months went by, during which costs were
mounting, and still no water had been found. The Abbot
asked for special prayers from all that the work might be
successful, but the point was reached when the decision had
to be made that unless water was found within a week the
work would have to be stopped. Before the end of that week,
to the vast relief of all, a copious supply of water was reached,
at a depth of 250 feet. The pumps were installed and at work
in December, six months after the boring had begun; and
the rights to the Spring Grove water were handed over to
Maryhill House.
At the time of the opening of the new buildings the school
was dedicated to Blessed John Kemble, the Herefordshire
martyr, and at that time (1931) the numbers m the school
had risen from eleven to forty. But the financial depression
which hit the whole country during the early 'thirties
checked its growth for a year or two, and although by 1937
there were over fifty boys, the number had fallen again to
thirty-seven in the following year. In that year, 1938, Fr
Anselm Lightbound's health broke down and he found it
necessary to relinquish charge of the school. In his fourteen
years as Headmaster he had accomplished very much. He
had laid the firm foundations, and had made the school a
solid fact with all that was essential for its permanence. And
during his time the need was recognised for the training of
the young monks for the work of teaching, so that under
Abbot Romuald Leonard (1934-1940) steps were taken to
provide as many of them as possible with a university
education. And the school itself had ceased to be a mere
collection of a few scattered rooms, for it now had its own
buildings (small though they still were), and it was firmly
established.
Fr Anselm was succeeded as Headmaster by Dom
Christopher McNulty who, though he was a young monk
only recently ordained, speedily showed that he was the
right man for the post. Perhaps he may best be described as
'dynamic'. Along with great initiative and enterprise he had
a remarkable gift for making friends of the most diverse
types of people, and as many of these friends held influential
positions in the outside world, he was enabled through them
to make Belmont more widely known than it had hitherto
been, and to acquire many useful contacts. And as it hap-
pened, his period as Headmaster came at a time which
enabled these contacts to be of the maximum use. For the
outbreak of the war in 1939 brought, largely through this
means, a great influx of boys, because the school was remote
from all the bombed areas. Thus it came about that the
thirty-eight boys of 1938 swelled to seventy-two in 1940,
and to ninety-two in 1942, while in the following year the
hundred mark was reached. But in spite of this expansion
the original policy of keeping the fees down, and at a sub-
stantially lower figure than those obtaining at the other
monastic schools, was still adhered to. In this way it was
hoped that many would be able to give their sons a 'Bene-
dictine' education who could not otherwise afford it.
Those were, needless to say, years of great difficulty owing
to wartime restrictions and shortages, but the school routine
continued peacefully and efficiently. Already (before he was
Headmaster) Fr Christopher had produced the first number
of the School magazine (1937)5 and in that Y6" ak0 he
produced the first outdoor play. In fact the introduction of
dramatic and artistic activities was one of the chief achieve-
ments of his rule in the school, and he introduced the teach-
ing of music and singing in 1939, while in that same year
physics and chemistry also began to be taught. But the
coming of the war meant that many of his plans were
checked, though it also hastened other changes. Thus, the
great increase in the number of the boys at that time led to
the setting up of the House System, the boys being organised
into two Houses, named Kemble and Cantilupe after the
Herefordshire martyr-patron of the school and the other
great local saint, St Thomas Cantilupe of Hereford. It also
necessitated the establishing of a Junior Department for the
very small boys, and their section of the school was called St
Ethelbert's, after the saint of that name whose shrine in
Hereford Cathedral was so widely honoured in medieval
timessome years after the war the 'Ethelberts' found a a ho-
of their own elsewhere, as will be related. All this active
and growth involved much reorganisation, both of the
avilable space and of the studies, and valuable experience
was gained in this respect. Mention must also be made of the
formation of the Air Defence Cadet Corps in 1939, which in
1942 became the Army Cadet Corps which still flourishes
and gives an outlet for martial ardour.
But that this feeling was not confined to the boys was
evidenced by the fact that Fr Christopher himself felt
impelled to offer himself for war service, and accordingly in
1941 he resigned the Headmastership, and received a com-
mission as a Chaplain to the Forces. He was a great loss
the School, but under the new Headmaster, Dom Alphege
Gleeson the number of boys continued to increase, and in
1943 had reached one hundred. It may here be mentioned
that fifteen Old Boys of the school gave their lives in the
armed forces during this war. Fr Alphege had to battle with
the worst of the wartime conditions, with their restrictions
and frustrations, and various emergency safety measures had
to be taken, such as the building of tiers of bunks for the boys
in what had been the monastic parlours. The problem
of accommodation also had to be faced in a more
acute form than ever, and so during these years various parts
of the monastery were abandoned by the monks for the use
of the boys. Thus the books were all moved out ot the
Library and were housed in the cloister while the former
Library became class-rooms; and the top floor of that same
wing which had hitherto been the noviciate, now became
another dormitory. In the same way it was necessary to find
rooms for a house-keeper, a matron, and a lay master, and
for this purpose the north end of the lower gallery was shut
off from the rest of the house. Eventually the whole of the
South block also, comprising the Abbot's room the chief
guest room and the lower infirmary, together with the two
large pariours on the ground floor, all became school territory
From this will be seen to what straits the growing school
THE SCHOOL 207
drove the monks; but all cheerfully acquiesced in these
deprivations which were recognised to be essential and
inevitable—at least for the time being. And it was some
reward for these sacrifices when in 1944 the school was
inspected by the Ministry of Education and, as a result, was
officially 'recognised', thus obtaining a definite standing.
With the end of the war it was found possible to build a
small but badly needed laboratory for the teaching of
chemistry and physics in 1946, and two years later the new
playing fields were completed, giving ample space for three
football pitches.1 On the election of Fr Anselm Light-
bound to be Abbot in 1948, Fr Alphege Gleeson became
Prior, and the Headmastership was taken over by Dom Hugh
Menken who held the office for two years. During this period
a new and courageous enterprise was undertaken: the
founding of a preparatory school. It was felt that this was
the best way of solving the problem of lack of accommodation
at Belmont, and so in 1949 efforts were made to find a
suitable property. Eventually an existing school that was in
the market was discovered, and this was purchased as a
going concern from its proprietor, Mr James. Alderwasley
Hall, near Matlock in Derbyshire, had originally been the
home of the Ferrars family in pre-reformation times, but
passed into the hands of the Duchy of Lancaster. In 1528,
however, it was given by Henry VIII to Sir Anthony Lowe,
and eventually passed by marriage into the possession of the
Hurt family in 1690, and remained their property until 1928.
The front portion of the present building dates from 1772,
and the remainder of the house from 1826. It stands high
on the moors in open country surrounded by a large estate,
and thus is in a bracing and healthy position. At the time
of the transfer there were twenty-six boys in the school
already, and to these were now added the twenty-seven
'Ethelberts' or small boys from Belmont, and also eleven new
boys, so that when the new school opened on September 22,
1949, there were sixty-four boys altogether, with four monks
to look after them, and the new undertaking thus took the
unusual form of the boys from two schools joining together
1 See p. 218, infra.
208 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
to make a third school. The first Headmaster was Dom
Alphege Gleeson, who relinquished the Priorship of Belmont
to take up this post for one year, after which he was suceeded
at Alderwasley as Headmaster by Dom Hugh Menken he
himself returning to Belmont to be Headmaster again ot the
school there. At the same time Dom Vincent Fogarty was
appointed to be the first Prior of Alderwasley, in which post
he was succeeded in 1953 by Dom Edmund Whinskey.
Back at Belmont the places left vacant by the departure
of the smaller boys in 1949 were soon filled up, and have so
remained, but further expansion now depends on the erection
of new buildings. Meanwhile further amenities have been
added for the boys. Back in 1938 a silent cinema had been
installed, but this soon gave way to the 'Talkies', and to this
has now been added television. The outstanding event of
these last few years was the celebration on March 28, 1951
of the Silver Jubilee of the school which was attended by a
large and distinguished gathering of visitors. Incidentally,
though the fact seems to have been overlooked at the time,
that same year marked a more important event: the Golden
Jubilee of the existence of the Belmont Community which,
It will be remembered, had been started by Prior Cummins
in 1901 But to complete the record of the school to date, it
remains but to mention that in 1953 the Headmaster, Dom
Alphege Gleeson, was elected Abbot, and soon afterwards
Fr Christopher McNulty again took charge of the school
until 1955, when he was succeeded by Dom Brendan
Minney, who has the distinction of being the first Old Boy
of the school to become its Headmaster. With the likelihood
of new school buildings being erected in the next few years,
there is every prospect that with the blessing of God the
school will soon considerably increase in numbers, thereby
not only becoming a better economic proposition, but also
bringing the blessing of a Catholic education to more boys
and increasing its own sphere of influence.
APPENDIX X209
APPENDIX X
HERE is the letter which was in a sense the genesis of Belmont
Abbey School. As such, it is not without historic interest.
From Abbot Aelred Kindersley to the Abbot-President
(Abbot Edmund Kelly of Douai)
Belmont Abbey,
15 June, 1926 HEREFORD.
Dear Father Abbot President,
May I ask you to put before the Assistant Abbots, when next
you meet them, the matter concerning which I am writing to you.
(1) The Community of St Michael's, Belmont, is now on
the increase, and hence I am obliged to look about to see what
can be done for them when they are ordained priests. In my
opinion it would not be wise to send them, after ordination, to
serve on parishes. The Community in the House must be
strengthened in numbers, and that can only be done by keeping
them in the Monastery, and at the same time giving them work.
Our present works outside the Monastery are the daily Mass we
have to give three convents, the serving of Weobley three times
a week, Bullingham daily, the Chapel of Ease at Gorsty every
Sunday, and the parish of Grosmont twice a month. Besides, we
are often asked to give a Supply to some Mission of the Arch-
diocese. But I feel we must have work to do in the House,
especially when the time of Ordinations comes round. Unless
work is provided, the Community will die of inanition.
(2) I have been thinking over this matter for some time, and
have sought outside advice. I have been strongly urged to start a
School—at any rate a Preparatory School to begin with. At
present we have in the Monastery an Alumnate of about a
dozen boys. These boys are difficult to get, especially those who
can pay a pension, which will bring some financial help to the-
Monastery. To increase the number of boys I must find those
who are not desirous of being priests, and to take such boys as
these, I have been obliged to ask for, and have obtained, the
consent of the Archbishop of Cardiff. He writes: 'I think the
idea of your starting a School a very good one, if you manage to
finance the affair at the start. Existing schools seem to be over-
full, and therefore there ought to be boys in the Market. You
certainly have my permission to open such a school, and I wish
you every success.'
(3) As to the prospects of obtaining boys: the Catenians, to
the number of thirty-one, from Bristol, Cardiff, Newport,
Swansea, Glamorgan, Leicester, Wolverhampton, quite recently
210 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
attended a week-end Retreat here, on the 30th April, and I
brought up the subject before them at a Meeting they were
holding, and asked them to help us by sending boys. They were
unanimous in their support, and spoke of the great advantage it
would be to Catenians and others, especially business men,
solicitors, doctors, etc., to have a School within their means run
by Benedictines. One of the Catenians said that a School with
the surroundings of Belmont would be a commercial under-
taking, with the elements of success. I think myself that the
difficulty is not to find the boys, but to keep the numbers down.
Men living about Cardiff, Bristol, Gloucester, or Shrewsbury,
would find such a School a convenience to them. As regards the
Pension, I think that for the present £20 a term should be asked
for: I believe £75 or £70 a year is the Pension, e.g. of Prior Park.
Such a Pension as I suggested the Catenians thought would be
reasonable, and within the reach of most business men. Their
Secretary has already issued a Notice to the different Circles in
this Catenian Province, to the effect that I am contemplating
such a School, and he is recommending the Brothers to assist as
much as possible in making the scheme known.
(4) As regards the numbers of boys, and age. I feel I must
limit the number at present to sixty or fifty boys. We have here
to-day an Alumnate of twelve boys, and I think I may say it is
certain that we shall have at least ten more before the end of the
year. Twenty-two or twenty-four boys to start the new School
would be very satisfactory, and under the present circumstances,
I can only take that number. If the numbers are to increase, I
shall have to find further accommodation, but of that I will speak
in No. 5. As regards age, for the present I will only take boys of
ten to fourteen, and make the School a preparatory one for the
time being, as it is easier to manage in every way.
(5) In order that the Monastery should be quite apart from
the boys I would be obliged to build, and build a self-contained
building, i.e. one which will have four classrooms, cloak-room,
dining-hall, kitchen and lavatories, on the ground floor, and,
above, dormitory, clothes-room, and bath-rooms etc. My idea is
that we should build in the Orchard, by the Garden, and in-
corporate, if possible, the old School-house, for a Matron and
Staff. The building would face South, and none of the windows
would face North, i.e. over our garden and grounds. There is
ample room in the Orchard, and a good fall to the ground for
drainage, and also a water-supply. I have asked Mr Bettington,
of Hereford, an architect who has had experience of school-
building, to give me some idea of the cost of such a building. He
tells me that he considers that it would cost approximately
£15,000.
APPENDIX X 211
(6) The money will have to be borrowed, and the interest
will have to be met. Ten or fifteen boys, paying a pension of
£60 per year would, I think, cover the interest required on the
money borrowed. Every other boy above that number would be
a source of income to the House, and as far as I can see, a School
is our only chance of bettering the financial position of the
Monastery.
(7) As you and the Assistant Abbots know the financial
condition of Belmont, I would not venture on such a scheme as
this, unless I could be sure that you all approved of it. I feel it is
a venture, and one which, at the same time, seems to have all the
elements of success, at any rate as a commercial undertaking. It
would, besides, give work to the rising Community, and give
them an interest in the House. I think that my many years at
Downside, both in the School and as Procurator, have given me
a knowledge of the details required in such a School as I have
proposed. May I ask you to consult the Assistant Abbots on the
matter, as I feel I must have your and their advice and approval,
before undertaking such a serious responsibility for Belmont?
I am, dear Father Abbot President,
Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
{Signed): G. AELRED KINDERSLEY, O.S.B.
Ab.