The following article was written for the Belmont Magazine in 1958. The Grange was moved plank by plank from the banks of the River Wye to the Playing fields by a band of strapping novices including Dom David Bird. As far as I know it is still there. Geoff Garvey recalls using it for House Feast celebrations in the 'forties.

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE GRANGE

A NOTABLE LANDMARK in Belmont history is marked out by the removal of the "Grange" from its site in Lady Coppice, some two miles up the river Wye, and its re-erection on the playing fields as a pavilion. For seventy years it has served as a place of recreation for the monks, and past generations of Juniors and Novices would rub their eyes in astonishment to see it in its new surroundings. In the very austere and poverty-stricken early days of the monastery the monks had few opportunities for relaxation, and means of recreation were hard to come by. It was in order to remedy this state of affairs that a most generous and constant benefactor of Belmont, Mrs. Helen Brymer, provided the funds for the erection and upkeep of a chalet to which the Community could resort on feast days and holidays, and which would provide a contrast to the daily routine of the cloister.
Known officially as St. Raphael's Grange, the building was designed and built by an employee of the Priory (as Belmont then was), a certain David Polly, who for some thirty years carried out all the carpentering and painting in the monastery. The result of his planning and labours appeared when, in the spring of 1887 (Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Year), the new house was set up for inspection on the lawns in front of the monastery, where it was doubtless much admired by all. 
Meanwhile, a very suitable site for it had been found by the renting of five acres of woodland on the banks of the Wye from the local squire and our great benefactor and Founder, Mr. F. R. Wegg-Prosser, and thither the " Grange" was moved piecemeal and duly re-erected on a high bluff commanding (at that time) wonderful views of the river. Made of wood, with a tiled roof, it was set up on oaken piles, and provided with a verandah in front; and though originally it was only 30 feet long, the place at once became so useful and so popular that within a year it was lengthened by another
20 feet to the east, and a separate building was put up behind it to serve as a kitchen.

The heyday of the Grange might be said to have lasted some thirty years : from 1887 to about 1915 ; and to understand the great popularity it then enjoyed, it has to be realised that in those days talking at meals was almost unknown in the monastery, as was also smoking; but at the Grange indulgence in both these forms of recreation was permitted. Hence for these reasons and for others (bathing in the river, boating, and a specially good dinner), Grange days were looked forward to with eagerness. The Grange, in fact, brought the monks together in social intercourse in a way that, in those days, nothing else could do.
But 1914 brought the " First War," and 1915 brought Prior Kindersley; and the first of these meant the end of the Grange as it had hitherto been. For the funds that had been used for its upkeep (and that of the boats) had been invested in Austrian securities, and these were, of course, irrevocably lost through the war, which also brought about various restrictions and changes of customs. The new Prior also never cared for the Grange. It had not existed in his own noviciate days at Belmont, and there was nothing similar to it at Downside ; and so it meant little or nothing to him, and he did not attend the dinners there. As a result, the Grange gradually lost all its glory, and by the end of the war it was merely a place to which the novices were occasionally allowed to go for an afternoon's outing and a primitive " picnic " meal. And as the years passed by, even such visits became less and less frequent, and the material condition of the building steadily deteriorated, so that it seemed that it was fated within a few years to collapse altogether : as, indeed, the kitchen quarters did just before the " Second War."
In these circumstances the next step was obvious, if it should prove practicable: to transport the whole building, lock, stock, and barrel, to Belmont, where there was a crying need for a cricket and football pavilion. For the size and fittings of the Grange made it, with a little adaptation, eminently suitable for such a purpose. And, in fact, expert examination showed that such a plan was feasible, and that most of the building was in a better state of repair than had been supposed.
And so it came about that, under the skilled supervision of Father Wulstan and with the help of sundry Juniors and Novices, the work of pulling it down was accomplished within the short space of twelve days : much to the inconvenience and indignation of a large colony of bats who had long had luxurious quarters in the eaves, not to mention some owls and multitudinous spiders. Thereupon the component parts were loaded on to lorries, and we witnessed the return of the Grange after seventy years to the scene of its original construction.
As we write, it is already rising, phoenix-like, if not from its ashes, at least from its ruins, and is new and very useful part in the affairs of Belmont. Long may it flourish !

DOM BASIL WHELAN. 1958