Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Bizarrely I’d never really given the move from Hertford to Horsham much thought before, but thinking about it now I am curious about so many aspects of it. I didn’t know any Hertford girls, the Grecians the year I joined were the first cohort to have been all the way through at Horsham, but from reading posts on here it seems Hertford was much stricter than Horsham.

For the boys there during the transition I imagine it was really strange, did the culture shift hugely? There must have been teachers at the school who had never taught a girl before. And how did the school make room for the girls, did they run down pupil numbers at Horsham beforehand?

Apologies for the rambling musings, I’d love to hear the thoughts of anyone at CH during that time.

I was at Hertford long before the merger, I had a brother at Horsham. Hertford was on a small site in a town centre, we just did not have the space to roam as it appears you could at Horsham. Around the school there were high walls with broken glass on the top, we were never sure whether to keep us in or others out!

As I understood it numbers from both schools were run down before the move, which of course was unfair on the girls as there were never more than 300 of us compared to 800+ boys.

There are some posts on here from people who made the move, as my niece did. Horsham was a revelation to her, quite quite different!

The girls came to Horsham for the Tercentenary in 1953. One, part of a group being shepherded around by Grecians, on passing the pillar box outside the Common Room, asked 'Are you allowed to post things in that?'

There seem to be at least a couple of threads on this topic lurking in the vaults. Hope this helps.

So What Was It Actually Like When The School Went Mixed http://chforum.info/php/viewtopic.php?f ... went+mixed

When The Girls Arrived http://chforum.info/php/viewtopic.php?f ... ls+arrived

I will check those out, thank you.

Although I understand it’s quite different now, it always amazed me that there was nothing really keeping us in, or others out at Horsham.

DazedandConfused wrote: ↑Fri Jul 20, 2018 9:50 am I will check those out, thank you.

Although I understand it’s quite different now, it always amazed me that there was nothing really keeping us in, or others out at Horsham.

Presumably the site is still relatively easy to get into/out of? The Ring Fence was never really a barrier just a marker wasn't it? (Though it appears that the issue wasn't about keeping potential offenders out, rather one of not recruiting them (or identifying them and stopping them from working with chikdren)..... both of which are big things in safeguarding now.)