Mgr. Youens Lays Foundation

Stone of. First
SLOUGH'S GREAT EFFORT TO COST 440,000
On Tuesday last, May 2, Mgr. Youens, Bishop of Northampton, laid the foundation stone of a new junior school in Farnham Royal, Slough.
The new school has been made necessary by the enormous growth of the Trading Estate in Slough since the rearmament programme began.
Mgr. Youens revealed that there were 1,300 children in Slough whose needs had to be catered for. In all, three schools are being built at a total cost of £40,000.
By a C.I1. Reporter A biting, blustering cold wind could not damp the spirits of the crowd that gathered on the site in the Slough Trading Estate in the Farnham Road, Slough, when Mgr. Laurence Youens, Bishop of Northampton, laid the foundation stone of one of the three new schools which are being built by the Catholics of Slough.
The builder's office had been turned into a temporary vestry, and when the Bishop and thb twelve assisting priests had vested, the
procession wended its way through the sticky Buckinghamshire clay, worked to a pulp by the rain and tramping of workmen digging the foundations.
"SOMETHING FOR OUR CHILDREN"
Arrived at the shelter rigged up over the block and tackle, Mgr. Youens intoned the " Veni Creator," which again was taken up and sung by choir and congregation.
In a short address Mgr. Youens revealed that there were 1,900 children
in Slough. Something," he said. " must be done for these little ones."
Mgr. Youens' love for children is well known; before his elevation to the Episcopate he was in charge of the boys orphanage at Shefford.
It was, he declared, a great consolation to him in his great and heavy responsibilities to be able to perform these ceremonies that would be of such benefit to his children. He hoped that the children of Slough would always remember their generous benefactors, and that the people would stand by their priests.
A PROFESSION OF FAITH After the stone had been placed in position and blessed the congregation sang Faith of Our Fathers, an eloquent witness to the heroic courage of the parish in undertaking this huge school building programme.
An unwelcome and horrible reminder was provided by a flight of giant bombing planes droning overhead during this ceremony of peace.
DIRECT LABOUR ONLY
Mr T. T. Scully, of Slough, the architect, explained to me afterwards that the school is being built by direct labour, no contractor being employed. It will have accommodation for three hundred children and will cost f12,000. As a junior elementary school it will serve the needs of the Moss Park and the Trading Estate housing scheme.
Built of a pleasing red brick, it will be constructed on very modern lines— modern both as to its architecture and to its general lay-out and fittings. It will have a flat roof, and its interior planning includes a well-equipped gymnasium and school hall combined.
SLOUGH'S SCHOOLS SCHEME
As reported recently in the CATHOLIC HERALD, this school forms only a third of the reconstruction programme that Slough Catholics have undertaken.
The full programme includes also the entire reconstruction and modernising of St. Etheldreda's school and the building of an entirely new school in Upton Lea.
The whole scheme will cost something in the neighbourhood of f40,000, of which the Catholic community will have to provide f20,000. as two schools are junior schools, and as such not entitled to a grant.
Among the clergy present were the Rev. H. W. Gray, parish priest of Slough, Mgr. Canon Smith, C.B.E., D.S.O., and the Rev. D. P. Brennan, of Beaconsfield, Fr. Peter Thomas, O.D.C., of Gerrards Cross, representative of the Canons Regular at Datchet, the Rev. Leon Oosterlaan, of Park Springs, Iver, and Mgr. Canon Marshall, of Cambridge.