Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Someone on another thread mentioned "leave weekends" -- a non-concept in my day. So here in concise chronological sequence is a winter weekend c. 1957. Most of the below will be non-concepts nowadays, I imagine.

Sat: breakfast - chapel practice* - 4 lessons - ldinner - compulsorily spectating 1st XV match - tuck shop - lock-up - tea - "Release" (strictly juniors only!) - bedtime - storytime**

Sun: "Continental" breakfast*** - div. prep. - morning chapel - dinner - HOOB - letter-writing - tea (with piece of cake) - evening chapel - bed

* run by director of music, in my day successively Cochrane ("Corks"), Jack FRust, Malcolm McKelvey
** one of us read to the others; I remember one of the books (in 1956) was Lord of the Rings. It wasn't v. popular, so discontinued after two or three weeks. I liked it and borrowed it from the owner. Must have been a 1st ed. Worth a great deal now.
*** with a liquid described as coffee, very English baps, and two items of fruit. I have never experienced a breakfast remotely resembling this on the continent.

Oh, what memories, Michael !

Hertford, in my time:
Sat am - Rising bell 7 am. No duties on Saturdays. Breakfast in dining hall 8 am. Prep 9am - ??12.00?? Lunch 1.15pm Afternoon free, or inter-school sports. Tea in house 5.20pm, Bedtime as per weekdays, 7.30 1st years up to 9.30 UVI. Much like weekdays except no chapel, prep instead of lessons, and free afternoons. Unless it was Long Sat or another visiting day, in which case we were allowed out 10.00-7.00 (Long Sat - no prep) or 12.00-7.00 (other visiting - ie after prep). Oh yes, tuck in the afternoons, and "home jams", which were our choice of jams/marmite etc brought from home, and also locked up in the tuck cupboard and rationed.

Sun - Early communion if appropriate (??7.15??), normal rising 8.15, breakfast in house - featuring rice krispies and horrible dry sliced ham. Eventually replaced by muesli and spam ). Chapel c10.00ish (or hiding under bed in cubey listening to radio and reading Fab208, strictly illegal of course). Lunch I think 1.15pm as usual in the dining hall. pm walks - staff-led crocodiles for juniors, seniors allowed out on their own. Free time in house, letter writing, Evensong, tea in house (sausage rolls, bread and cheese and nasty fruit cake or madeira cake), then normal bedtimes. I might have got some of the Sunday activities the wrong way round - maybe walks were between chapel and lunch. I think we were allowed tuck and home jams on Sundays too.

It all seems so quaint to look back on

I'm sure you had "dinner", not "lunch", Jo.

Saturday:

Get up at the same time as a weekday...breakfast...5 lessons (ha!)...marching, lunch...compulsory sports active for the first 5 years, whether in team or not / no active for Deps & Grecians not in a team...free afternoon...later roll-call than weekdays (8pm I think)...free evening and later bedtime (always great on a nice summer evening when we could walk up Sharpenhurst or somewhere nice like that).

Sunday:

In my juniors: up at 8:15...breakfast...prep for an hour in the dayroom...morning chapel (if applicable)...lunch soon after...free afternoon...tea then evening chapel (if applicable)

In my seniors: up whenever you like (10am for me if it was morning chapel / later if it was evening chapel)...lunch (or brunch if evening chapel - ran constantly from 9am till 1pm - a new innovation in roughly 2002-ish)...free afternoon (usually played football on Peele pitches with friends just for fun)...tea (then evening chapel if applicable)...prep for 45 mins in your room after evening chapel but it was always relaxed and never enforced

Jo, no chapel or lessons on Saturday? You were spoiled!

No chapel or lessons but we did have obligatory prep in our classrooms 9-12.15.

And then Classrooms in UVa at 12.15 for those unfortunate few...

When did Saturday lessons end then? I thought we had them all the time I was there.

Separate to Michael's time table there was one for Senior Scouts (as they were in those days) on alternate weekends

Saturday up to 1.30 generally as he wrote
Collect grub from the kitchen
Change into uniform, load up bicycles and go to Scout Hut where extra gear is loaded
Thence to Stone Farm, out of uniform and set up camp
A couple of hours bouldering before supper

Sunday; bouldering until lunch time, strike camp ansd aim to get back to house at 4pm in tiome to get out of uniform and wash before letter writing at 4.30pm

Bouldering - a term denoting rock climbing on low boulders or cliffs - in thios case loose sandstone

The other alternate weekends Sunday from chapel until 4pm - out to see the gf (totally forbidden in those days).
Got into trouble one Sunday - foot slipped on pedal (shoe was covered in earth from the field .....) and left most of the skin from my face and hands on the road somewhere round Billingshurst. I was already late (the gf's fault of course) so Kit was not pleased when I got back 1 minute before letter writing started!!!!
Megan was most understanding in the sicker! I wonder if she or her husband (on OB) is reading this!

michael scuffil wrote:Someone on another thread mentioned "leave weekends" -- a non-concept in my day. So here in concise chronological sequence is a winter weekend c. 1957. Most of the below will be non-concepts nowadays, I imagine.

Sat: breakfast - chapel practice* - 4 lessons - ldinner - compulsorily spectating 1st XV match - tuck shop - lock-up - tea - "Release" (strictly juniors only!) - bedtime - storytime**

Sun: "Continental" breakfast*** - div. prep. - morning chapel - dinner - HOOB - letter-writing - tea (with piece of cake) - evening chapel - bed

* run by director of music, in my day successively Cochrane ("Corks"), Jack FRust, Malcolm McKelvey
** one of us read to the others; I remember one of the books (in 1956) was Lord of the Rings. It wasn't v. popular, so discontinued after two or three weeks. I liked it and borrowed it from the owner. Must have been a 1st ed. Worth a great deal now.
*** with a liquid described as coffee, very English baps, and two items of fruit. I have never experienced a breakfast remotely resembling this on the continent.

Way too much chapel in there, thank god (!) most of that had gone in the 80's. ditto compulsory 1st XV match. I'm intrigued by what Lock up, release and HOOB were though....

For us in the 80's, weekends as a 2nd/3rd former revovled around actually being able to watch TV and from the LE onwards seemed to revolve around getting booze, drinking booze and reminscing about booze fueled antics

adlop wrote:

michael scuffil wrote:Someone on another thread mentioned "leave weekends" -- a non-concept in my day. So here in concise chronological sequence is a winter weekend c. 1957. Most of the below will be non-concepts nowadays, I imagine.

Sat: breakfast - chapel practice* - 4 lessons - ldinner - compulsorily spectating 1st XV match - tuck shop - lock-up - tea - "Release" (strictly juniors only!) - bedtime - storytime**

Sun: "Continental" breakfast*** - div. prep. - morning chapel - dinner - HOOB - letter-writing - tea (with piece of cake) - evening chapel - bed

* run by director of music, in my day successively Cochrane ("Corks"), Jack FRust, Malcolm McKelvey
** one of us read to the others; I remember one of the books (in 1956) was Lord of the Rings. It wasn't v. popular, so discontinued after two or three weeks. I liked it and borrowed it from the owner. Must have been a 1st ed. Worth a great deal now.
*** with a liquid described as coffee, very English baps, and two items of fruit. I have never experienced a breakfast remotely (resembling this on the continent.

Way too much chapel in there, thank god (!) most of that had gone in the 80's. ditto compulsory 1st XV match. I'm intrigued by what Lock up, release and HOOB were though....

For us in the 80's, weekends as a 2nd/3rd former revovled around actually being able to watch TV and from the LE onwards seemed to revolve around getting booze, drinking booze and reminscing about booze fueled antics

A couple of those are probably Thorn B slang but:

Lock up; in principle the doors are locked and nobody can enter or depart. In Col A you could get housemaster's permission but had to use the centre door between Col A and Col B. In practice to get to the downstairs bogs** you had to go outdoors anyway so the back door was (so far as I know) never locked.
** as in loos)
HOOB - House out of bounds. You had to go out for a walk, fishing or other more nefarious, not to be disclosed, activity. A few of us used to use the patrol room in the Scout Hut for homework, revision and coffee (no milk available!) especially in winter.
You were not forced out if it was raining or snowing hard but cold was no excuse.
Release: I think he means free time (ie with no organised activity). This actually happened occasionally - 30 minutes before Prep for most (but not those doing house cleaning trades and Saturday evening and Sunday after evening service.

adlop wrote:Way too much chapel in there, thank god (!)

Thorn B seems to have been relatively heathen; in Col A we had evening prayers every day except Sunday at about 7.15 pm with housemaster in attendance to ensure it wasn't foreshortened.

I would add: Sat evening after supper and in place of "release" compulsory cinema in Big School once every every month. Rubbish fillums which has put me off films for life - I got punished for walking out in disgust one evening; I had no authority to criticise the choice made by one of my elders and betters.

We still used the term lock-up when I was at CH in the 90's...

sejintenej wrote:compulsory cinema in Big School once every every month. Rubbish fillums which has put me off films for life - I got punished for walking out in disgust one evening; I had no authority to criticise the choice made by one of my elders and betters.

Put you off films for life, David? What a shame!

There was a whole thread devoted to these "Films in Big School" a while back which was most interesting.

I think we were quite lucky in that opposite the Chapel was the "Hertford Fleapit" and, on Saturday afternoons we went from time to time to see a film proposed by a Senior and OK'd by DR. This meant that they were current release movies.

I shall never forget "Far from the Madding Crowd" with Terence Stamp and Julie Christie. The most romantic thing I'd ever seen - I wandered in a daze for days - Sergeant Troy!

There was also the splendid bonus that there might first be a trailer for something X-rated.

Angela Woodford wrote:

sejintenej wrote:compulsory cinema in Big School once every every month. Rubbish fillums which has put me off films for life - I got punished for walking out in disgust one evening; I had no authority to criticise the choice made by one of my elders and betters.

Put you off films for life, David? What a shame!

ISTR actually seeing about five fillums:
Dambusters at CH - thanks to Barnes Wallis, and on TV several time since
White Christmas on TV - good the first time but after 100 showings no thanks
Sink the Bismark - I have referred elsewhere to my mother's employer (the Boss) who was involved in the intelligence side of that operation and wanted to see the filmed version and took me
there was one I saw about 3 years about shenanigans prior to Xmas with a mass of soppy endings, everyone getting off with everyone else
a current one about the last months of a couple of terminally ill cancer sufferers - very well made despite the (abridged) plot

I don't think I have missed too much