In the early 1950s Mass for the Roman Catholics of Newent was celebrated on Sunday mornings in a house on the Land Settlement, by a priest from Blaisdon Hall. The venue for the celebration of Mass was later moved to the Old Market House. As a young priest at Blaisdon Hall, I celebrated Mass many times in the Old Market House. One had always to remember to bring 14 pennies for the gas meter. This provided heating for about 40 minutes, so there was no time for a long sermon!

When the numbers of those attending Mass in the Old Market House increased, the suggestion was made that we should attempt to build our own church. A meeting was held and I was asked to approach Bishop Alexander, the Bishop of the Diocese, for permission to build a church. The Bishop gave this permission but told us that he could give us no financial help, and that we would have to find the money ourselves. Another meeting was held and we decided to go it alone.

A fund-raising committee was set up. The first approach was to the bank for a loan. The bank asked for a number of guarantors. The following agreed to be guarantors: Richard Ovington, Dr. Maurice Robinson, Jim Smith, John Clapham, and Charles Williams. Of these only Richard Ovington was a Roman Catholic, and this was the beginning of the help, encouragement and support we received from the non-Catholic people of Newent. Without their help the Church of our Lady of Lourdes could not have been built.

With money in the bank, we started to look for a site on which to build. Through Mrs. Chris Robinson the site on Ross Road was bought for 475 pounds. On the site were two old sheds. One shed was used, by a Mr. Andrew Ford, for storing cider.  The other shed was made from old doors and beams from the old Workhouse. The doors had metal peepholes and a Dr. Tomlinson believed that these dated back to the last century and probably came from the old jailhouse. During the building of the Church Andrew Ford continued to use the shed, and he became a very good friend who gave us a great deal of support.

On one occasion during the building of the church, Andrew came round, as he often did, to see how we were getting on. We were fitting door frames for the two side doors in the church porch. Andrew watched for a while and then he said, “I don’t think you will be able to get a coffin through either of those doors; they are too narrow.” He then went round to the local undertaker to find out the size of the biggest coffin used, he then went back to his workshop and made up a hardboard copy. We tried to get this through the doors, but Andrew had been right and the doors had to be modified.

Many an afternoon, while working on the church, Andrew or Mrs. Ford would bring me a pot of tea and some home baked scones, such was their kindness. Neither Andrew nor Mrs. Ford was a Catholic.

When planning permission was granted, the first job was to clear the site. This clearing work was done by Bro. Joe Carter, with his farm tractor digger. Bro. Joe Carter was a member of the Blaisdon Hall Community. The surveying was carried out free of charge by a Gloucester surveyor, and the footings were dug by a wandering tramp or ‘gentleman of the road’ who used to visit Mrs. Chris Robinson from time to time to do some gardening work.

With the site cleared we were ready to start building. While the original idea was to do the building ourselves, we knew our limitations.  Much of the brickwork was done by a former pupil of Blaisdon, Billy Udell.  Since Billy was still an apprentice bricklayer; his work was checked every few days by Mr. Mooney, who was a parishioner who lived at Staunton and who was clerk of works with a Cheltenham firm of builders. When the work became too difficult for Billy Udell, a local building contractor, Mr. Winston Wildsmith, lent us one of his own experienced bricklayers, Mr. Marcovecchio, to finish the work.

When the brickwork was finished, two local builders, Reg. Davis and Bill Meeks offered to help with the roofing. They made and erected all the roof trusses, and showed us how to lay the cedar wood roof tiles. The young people then took over and scrambled all over the roof, fitting and fastening the roof tiles. Neither Reg nor Bill would accept payment for their services.

The lighting and heating had now to be installed. This work was done by a local electrician, Grahame Ford, a nephew of Andrew Ford; who did the work during his annual holiday. He would accept no payment for his work.

Much of the rest of the work we were able to do ourselves. We had a whole army of helpers who would turn up in the evenings. We had a lot of fun. The men would get on with the work and the ladies would keep us supplied with tea and sandwiches. When the evenings were cold, Jeremy O’Keefe would go over the road to the pub for a small bottle of whisky, ‘just to liven up the tea’, he used to say.