Housey Trivia

Post by **jtaylor** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:08 pm

One I heard was of a rumour of a boy in full housey, white from head to foot, walking across big-side.
And of course the old Roman Army marching across big side, but only from the knees up - apparantly there was a Roman road, but it's a few feet down, hence they're walking on it where it used to be.

Leigh Hunt top dorm. was most definitely "atmospheric", if not actually haunted. It always felt different to the bottom dorm. I was up there once when the lights flashed and both lav-end doors slammed at the same time....

J

Eruresto · Post by **Eruresto** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:12 pm

How does the Full Housey - all in white - work?

All good stuff I can use for the second form next term!

And, for the book (looks from side to side suspiciously)

sejintenej · Post by **sejintenej** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:29 pm

Eruresto wrote:Eh? Sounds interesting - who would these people be and were any of them a Pe A 20?

Not unless your predecessor in the late fifties shared a surname with a well known TV journalist and sounded like the slang for an American soldier. OK so there were plenty of stories but no evidence and no names - not even his.

as for the young ladies, my lips are sealed, but like Amy (whose price might be long thin things called pencils) I have a price

Goatherd · Post by **Goatherd** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:05 pm

I think Harry's Alley was definiteky named after Harry Spurrier, but I thought he lived in the house on the right as you headed up the road. It was unusual as he was Housemaster of Mid.B at the time, but didn't live in the House itself. I remember going to watch the early rounds of the 1966 World Cup there in the days before TV's in the Houses. I had to leave at half-time though!

DavebytheSea · Post by **DavebytheSea** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:42 pm

J.R. wrote:I suggest you start with something like

'Squits two teeth out'.....

which was prevalent in the Prep houses in the late 50's !

... and late 40s

kerrensimmonds · Post by **kerrensimmonds** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 9:40 pm

Hello Josh/Emperor
I have not thoroughly read this thread, but if you are going to be charting mythology from generation to generation, you should know about 'Susannah' from Hertford. There are two 'Susannah's'. The first is the real live 18C girl painted by a Royal Academician (twice). One portrait hangs in the upper rank in Dining Hall, the other in the Counting House (or maybe Museum now). The other 'Susannah' was much more capricious. For instance, if you slept in the bed nearest the fire place in a dormitory at Herford you were in for a treat. I gather that the mythology from Hertford went down to Horsham 20 or more years ago. I wonder where she is now?!
Kerren

adlop · Post by **adlop** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 10:09 pm

The bocker ghost in the tube was around in my day, there are loads of ghost stories, some in the sicker, some on big side, in the quad, in the chapel, in various houses but i can't remember the details of any.

Harry's alley was known in my time with regards to Harry Spurrier too

I seem to remember something about a Blue sierra man rather than a blue nun. So called because he drove a blue sierra and was allegedly a paedophile who was in the billingshurst area and we were warned about him in the early 80's. No idea if it was true.

cj · Post by cj » Wed Jun 27, 2007 10:37 pm

kerrensimmonds wrote:The other 'Susannah' was much more capricious. For instance, if you slept in the bed nearest the fire place in a dormitory at Herford you were in for a treat. I gather that the mythology from Hertford went down to Horsham 20 or more years ago. I wonder where she is now?!
Kerren

It was an initiation rite in 1s when I was on my second form (1983). On the appointed night, Susannah Holmes would walk down the dormitory, a ghastly ghostly vision, stop at the end of the bed (I can't remember which one it was) to look at the occupant, and then on down the dorm, apparently through the fire escape to her tragic doom. I don't think we were supposed to look at her, or something bad would happen. I think I had a little peek and was quite taken in by it for a short while, probably until breakfast the next morning. Helen Crooks (who was in Barnes B after the merger) was our 'ghost'. I have a feeling that a torch covered with green paper was used to create a suitably spectral visage. Maybe she was laid to rest when we moved to Horsham.

Angela Woodford · Post by **Angela Woodford** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 5:47 am

Whilst I was admiring the small Susannah portrait in the Museum, Tristan - one of our guides - was able to confirm that the ghost of Susannah has in fact moved to Horsham! I should like to know what she's up to these days.

Munch

Vonny · Post by **Vonny** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 2:07 pm

cj wrote:Helen Crooks (who was in Barnes B after the merger) was our 'ghost'.

She was the year below me & as you say, in BaB. We went on an STA trip on the Malcolm Miller together in 1987.

eloisec · Post by **eloisec** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 2:33 pm

cj wrote:Maybe she was laid to rest when we moved to Horsham.

I remember being told this when I started, and it being repeated for a few years after, so it was still around for a while at Horsham.

midget · Post by **midget** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:08 pm

I don't think Susannah would have dared to walk in 3s. Miss Norris wwould soon have had her tidying her locker or something.

kerrensimmonds · Post by **kerrensimmonds** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:40 pm

One of my OB friends (left Hertford 1966) had a daughter who went to Horsham. She (my contemporary) was amazed to learn from her daughter all those many years later that all the mythology about 'Susannah' (and it's not Susannah Holmes, who was a Real Person in the 18C. see the portraits!) did move from Hertford to Horsham.
DRW's little booklet, 'The Spirit of Susannah' starts with a child being admitted to the London school in 1552 or 1553 (so three hundred years before Susannah Holmes!) - this booklet was updated two or three years ago by said OB friend (and another), to bring 'Susannah' into the 20/21C and the school at Horsham.
It looks as if the mythology lives on.....

Newman · Post by **Newman** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:48 pm

"I seem to remember something about a Blue sierra man rather than a blue nun. So called because he drove a blue sierra and was allegedly a paedophile who was in the billingshurst area and we were warned about him in the early 80's. No idea if it was true."

That survived into the 90s as well.

wurzel · Post by **wurzel** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 2:04 pm

I remembered it as a red sierra and also there was "the mirror man" who was meant to have a mirror on a stick he put over/under toilet doors.

Remeber in those days until about a year after the girls arrived only the bottom row of changing room windows was frosted and as we all had to shower naked with no cubicles i can't see why any perv would need to go to the toilets.

The art school car park toilets were always really creepy before they chopped the trees down