Page 15 - The Gonzaga Record 1985
P. 15
was no time to save anything except one's life. One young priest, Fr James
Johnson, SJ, perished in the flames. Two students were very seriously injured in
jumping from top windows to safety. Considering the speed with which the fire
took hold of the building it is remarkable that the casualties were so low.
But thirty-two living rooms were lost, and of course, all their furniture, clothes,
books, notes, etc. Hard decisions had now to be taken about the housing of the
students who had lost their rooms. There were really only two practical
alternatives.
The first was to take over the Retreat House and discontinue the week-end
retreats until such time as a new wing had been built for the students. One was
talking in terms of two or three years. To break the magnificent tradition ofweek-
end retreats for such a long time was a painful prospect. And traditions, once set
aside, are not so easily re-established again.
The other alternative was to move the students into the new, big concrete
library, and let them live amongst the book stacks as best they might. It was a grim
prospect, and during the winter months even grimmer. But that was the decision
that was taken. Some might see something apposite in the idea of theology students
literally living amongst the books. The reality of this life style was not pleasant.
And the prospects were that it would go on for several years.
So when it became known that the Bewley estate was up for sale, the Jesuits of
Milltown Park looked over their wall with very great interest! It seemed too
providential to be true. There were two large houses standing in about fifteen acres
of park-land. Here was the solution to two problems at one stroke. One of the
houses and its grounds could be used for the new school. The other house could be
used to accommodate the unfortunate students living amongst the book-stacks.
So let us turn our attention to the Bewley estate and examine something of its
history.
Bewley Origins
The Bewley family is by dim ancestry French. Ancient records show that the de
Beaulieu clan lived in a village of that name near present-day Le Havre in northern
France. Some of the de Beaulieu family took part in the expedition that placed
Edward Ill on the throne of England. They were rewarded with a grant of land in
the north Yorkshire village of Knaresborough in 13 31. Some of the family
migrated to Cumberland and Westmoreland in the North West of England. The
original French name was not retained for long; the 'de' vanished and the
'Beaulieu' became corrupted to Bewley. A Richard Bewley was appointed Burgess
for Carlisle in the Parliament of 1459.
The Bewleys continued as landowners in that beautiful part of England later to
be known as Wordsworth country. Little happened to disturb their lives as farming
folk until George Fox began his career of itinerant preaching in 1648. Fox was the
founder of The Society of Friends, popularly known as Quakers. He seems to have
made a complete conquest of the Bewleys of Cumberland. The family soon came
into head-on conflict with the established order, primarily because they refused to
take the oath. This refusal barred the Quakers from the professions, so they turned
to business with remarkable success, despite constant imprisonment over the oath
is~ue.
7
Johnson, SJ, perished in the flames. Two students were very seriously injured in
jumping from top windows to safety. Considering the speed with which the fire
took hold of the building it is remarkable that the casualties were so low.
But thirty-two living rooms were lost, and of course, all their furniture, clothes,
books, notes, etc. Hard decisions had now to be taken about the housing of the
students who had lost their rooms. There were really only two practical
alternatives.
The first was to take over the Retreat House and discontinue the week-end
retreats until such time as a new wing had been built for the students. One was
talking in terms of two or three years. To break the magnificent tradition ofweek-
end retreats for such a long time was a painful prospect. And traditions, once set
aside, are not so easily re-established again.
The other alternative was to move the students into the new, big concrete
library, and let them live amongst the book stacks as best they might. It was a grim
prospect, and during the winter months even grimmer. But that was the decision
that was taken. Some might see something apposite in the idea of theology students
literally living amongst the books. The reality of this life style was not pleasant.
And the prospects were that it would go on for several years.
So when it became known that the Bewley estate was up for sale, the Jesuits of
Milltown Park looked over their wall with very great interest! It seemed too
providential to be true. There were two large houses standing in about fifteen acres
of park-land. Here was the solution to two problems at one stroke. One of the
houses and its grounds could be used for the new school. The other house could be
used to accommodate the unfortunate students living amongst the book-stacks.
So let us turn our attention to the Bewley estate and examine something of its
history.
Bewley Origins
The Bewley family is by dim ancestry French. Ancient records show that the de
Beaulieu clan lived in a village of that name near present-day Le Havre in northern
France. Some of the de Beaulieu family took part in the expedition that placed
Edward Ill on the throne of England. They were rewarded with a grant of land in
the north Yorkshire village of Knaresborough in 13 31. Some of the family
migrated to Cumberland and Westmoreland in the North West of England. The
original French name was not retained for long; the 'de' vanished and the
'Beaulieu' became corrupted to Bewley. A Richard Bewley was appointed Burgess
for Carlisle in the Parliament of 1459.
The Bewleys continued as landowners in that beautiful part of England later to
be known as Wordsworth country. Little happened to disturb their lives as farming
folk until George Fox began his career of itinerant preaching in 1648. Fox was the
founder of The Society of Friends, popularly known as Quakers. He seems to have
made a complete conquest of the Bewleys of Cumberland. The family soon came
into head-on conflict with the established order, primarily because they refused to
take the oath. This refusal barred the Quakers from the professions, so they turned
to business with remarkable success, despite constant imprisonment over the oath
is~ue.
7
