Former Gyde children demand apology (From Stroud News and Journal)

Former Gyde children demand apology

FURIOUS former residents and staff of a former children's home have hit back at claims of abuse and suicides which were alleged to have taken place during their childhood.

Many of them were deeply shocked by a story which appeared in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday and have demanded an apology.

And they are outraged by comments which were made to the newspaper by developer Wainhomes suggesting that life at the children's home was far from happy. "It's scandalous," said Fred Semark, who lived at Gyde House in the 20s and 30s and co-wrote a short history of it.

"They have offended hundreds of children and they have rubbished the staff." The house was taken over in the 1970s TV actress Coral Atkins and a film was later made about her and the home.

As the News & Journal reported earlier this year, Wainhomes is transforming the home into 18 luxury apartments, with the proceeds of the sale of the property going to the Gyde Trust which will contribute to childrens' charities.

Telegraph writer Jon Stock wrote that the home had an "ugly past" and Wainhomes' site manager Ron Mann was quoted as saying he thought children were abused in the shower blocks and that faith healer Dena Bryant-Duncan was called in to exorcise their ghosts.

She also suggested that three children may have committed suicide. Although the article did also mention how Gyde House was "a happy, if regimented place" it went on to say how Mr Mann and his team threw away diaries found under the floorboards because the children who wrote them were unhappy.

For hundreds of children who passed through the home from the 1920s until 1985, Gyde House stabilised their lives. Most have very happy memories of it. In March the News & Journal spoke to sisters Kim and Karen Williamson about their time there in the 1950s and 60s. For them Gyde House was a sanctuary.

For more see this weeks SNJ