Gloucester Citizen Newspaper

There was a sad report recently in the above newspaper of the conviction of a Salesian Priest which reflected badly on the Salesian work at Blaisdon Hall.

The Editor kindly accepted and printed an article to balance the reporting and showing how much the Past Pupils of Blaisdon benefited from the work of the Salesians at Blaisdon Hall.

Below is a copy of that article:

Boys of Blaisdon Hall have happy memories
Saturday, October 04, 2008, 08:00

THE boys of Blaisdon Hall in the Forest of Dean say the case of a paedophile priest should not tarnish the many happy memories they have of their Salesian school.

Father Peter Carr was sentenced to one year imprisonment last week after he admitted to molesting seven girls while he worked as a priest and teacher at the school, 30 years ago.

But, the ex-pupils of Blaisdon Hall say that they hold many happy memories of their time at their "second home".

Former pupil and national vice president of the Salesian Past Pupils Federation, John Ward said: Many of the boys came from orphanages, as I did, but went on to become good Christians and Honest Citizens.

We are so grateful to the Salesians for all that they did for us, who mostly started out with no family before being welcomed into the great Salesian Family."

The past pupils of Blaisdon Hall have written a book A Tribute to the Salesians of Great Britain using individual recollections of some of the boys who were beneficiaries of the work from the Salesian Priests and Lay Brothers at the school from 1935 to 1993, when it closed.
One former teacher said "The magic of Blaisdon will always be tied up in the different boys who have left their mark - one way or another!

"Even though many people come and go from Blaisdon it will always be 'home' to so many, and a place of treasured, loving thoughts for most."

In those days, many of the pupils had chores to do and had to help on the Farm in the school grounds.

Terry O'Neill said: "One day three of us had arrived and emptied our rakes at the same time, no words were spoken but we started to race each other across the field to see who could get a load and back to the pit first.

"I was going great guns, I reached the far side first, as I reversed with the buck-rake down, one of the others drove in front of the prongs of my rake, there was a hissing sound as one of my prongs pierced the big tyre of his tractor.

"On the way back to the farm we were trying to make up excuses of how it happened. Father Dan had seen the whole episode from the kitchen window, and although he was very angry at our stupidity, after a telling off, no more was said about it."

The book has made more than £800, which was sent to the National Mission project, in support of the Salesian Mission, for the year, which was the saving of the lives of children and babies from Malaria in Liberia.

Nationally more than 30,000 children have been helped by the Salesian Mission from the supply of the new anti-malaria drug.

For more interesting tales of Blaisdon Hall or to purchase the book visit www.blaisdonbrotherhood.info.

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