Miss Morrison

Share your memories and stories from the Hertford Christ's Hospital School, which closed in 1985, when the two schools integrated to the Horsham site....

Moderator: Moderators

MaryB
GE (Great Erasmus)
Posts: 161
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:35 am
Real Name: Mary Bowden (Gaskell)

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by MaryB »

Fjgrogan wrote: lack of self-esteem, inability to express emotions - it is only in the last few years that I have started to overcome some of them,
Yes, absolutely. It may not be all Hertford in my case - my parents were determined that I should never believe I was clever (so being rubbish at maths completely overshadowed being really rather good at English) - but of course once I got to Hertford there were lots of clever people who were good at everything - including sport and music - so there was no risk of developing any self esteem at all. Sadly, my sons (17 and 22) now say that I've always been their harshest judge, although they also say that when I do praise them they know I mean it... I do really try to be positive but early conditioning is hard to shake. Three years of counselling before I was ordained did help me at least get the problems out into the open.

Rereading this, its clear that CH very successfully reinforced a tendency that was already there, so is not completely to blame. But it was a pretty sterile atmosphere as far as emotional development was concerned, and no preparation at all for life outside, as I discovered within 24 hours of arriving in Oxford.
Mary Bowden (Gaskell)
5.10, 3.6: 64-71
fra828
Grecian
Posts: 547
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:54 pm
Location: Bournemouth

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by fra828 »

To be fair, I think I had low-esteem myself also, even before I went to Hertford, can't blame it all on the school. Was it me or did other people find the teachers mostly uninspiring? I didn't have those more popular ones that others mention eg: Miss Mercer, Mrs Betterton. But Mrs Thomas, she was lovely, and the only teacher with which I got a reasonable exam mark in Maths! If she had stayed a couple more years, I might have even scraped Maths Olevel-never did pass it! :?
MaryB
GE (Great Erasmus)
Posts: 161
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:35 am
Real Name: Mary Bowden (Gaskell)

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by MaryB »

I had Mrs Thomas too - I don't remember her being a brilliant teacher (she had serious problems keeping order in a rather unmotivated maths set), but she was so normal it was lovely, and a real relief.
Mary Bowden (Gaskell)
5.10, 3.6: 64-71
old Codger
2nd Former
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:49 pm
Real Name: Libby Allen (nee Jeremy)

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by old Codger »

Re the lack of esteem etc.. After over 8 years of institutionalisation, I went to one of the most permissive and progressive colleges in the country. Altho' I'd got an unconditional entry, the only reason they were reluctant to admit me was becos of the years I'd spent at CH.. In fact, such was the enormous shock to me - I couldn't believe talking to a guy was the same as talking to a gal!! - I ran away twice, and ended up with glandular fever, a stress illness. Maybe I was a slow developer (!), but after the 2 years were over, I'd finally 'got' it, and could've done with starting all over again.
User avatar
Jo
Button Grecian
Posts: 2221
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:36 pm
Real Name: Jo Sidebottom
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by Jo »

Welcome, Old Codger......goodness, I've just checked your profile and I am very humbled :oops: :oops: You were in the UVI when I started (or possibly LVI, it was all another world to me as a 10 year old) and I remember you had a glorious voice and were an excellent actress. Rumour had it you went on to drama college after CH, don't know if that was true?

And yes, I know exactly what you mean. I was let loose straight into university in London after CH and life was very different :shock: It was only after I'd been there a while that I realised my hall of residence was actually quite strict compared to the others - it seemed incredibly permissive to me at the time.
Jo
5.7, 1967-75
MaryB
GE (Great Erasmus)
Posts: 161
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:35 am
Real Name: Mary Bowden (Gaskell)

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by MaryB »

Yes, I remember you too OC - you were a few years above me and you had such style....

It's shocking how unprepared we were for life "outside" - with hindsight it's nothing short of a miracle that I didn't come to serious grief in my first year at university. And apart from more major risks, I had very little idea of things like how to decide what to wear every day (every day for heaven's sake, not just for a few weeks at a time....!) or indeed, how to talk to men.
I had known that CH was slightly odd, but it wasn't until I met people who had been to other boarding schools that I realised just how odd it was - they never had a horror story that I couldn't top quite effortlessly.

I think that I'm at risk of appearing entirely negative about those seven years, and that would be wrong, although they certainly shaped my life far more firmly and in much clearer ways than I think most other schools did. But one can never know, of course, how it would have been anywhere else....
Mary Bowden (Gaskell)
5.10, 3.6: 64-71
User avatar
englishangel
Forum Moderator
Posts: 6956
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:22 pm
Real Name: Mary Faulkner (Vincett)
Location: Amersham, Buckinghamshire

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by englishangel »

I think I must have been very lucky as my best friend from primary school never let me down, I lived at 44 and she lived at 66 in the same road and the minute I was home she was on my doorstep. Next door to her lived two more friends who were a little older than us so they had boyfriends before we did and the mystique was never there. I think that therefore I had a pretty normal life when In was at home.

I must admit that going to an engineering university was an eye-opener, I developed a taste for beer and was the women's yard-of-ale champion all three years I was there. NOT something I had learned before going, either at school OR at home.
"If a man speaks, and there isn't a woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"
User avatar
icomefromalanddownunder
Button Grecian
Posts: 1228
Joined: Thu Jun 29, 2006 6:13 am
Real Name: Caroline Payne (nee Barrett)
Location: Adelaide, South Australia

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by icomefromalanddownunder »

old Codger wrote: I ran away twice, and ended up with glandular fever, a stress illness.
I've always known it as the kissing disease :) . Pretty debilitating (resulted in me fainting at an Elton John concert that I was probably too ill to attend, but had no intention of missing), but much more fun to catch than, say, Ross River Fever (transmitted by mosquitoes) or Q Fever (the result of being peed on by cattle).

xx
Angela Woodford
Button Grecian
Posts: 2880
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:55 am
Real Name: Angela Marsh
Location: Exiled Londoner, now in Staffordshire.

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by Angela Woodford »

gillieg wrote:one of my neighbours here also has an auctioneer's business in Hertford...(yes there is a link). Outside her farmhouse she has an old wooden bench. Chalked underneath are the words "Property of Miss Morrison"- sold when Miss Morrison died. I just can't walk past that bench with my hands in my pockets.
I need a bench for my new garden! How I wish I could beg, steal or even purchase this bench, the best bench, the "Property of Miss Morrison" bench!

Oh sigh... :cry: :cry: :cry:
"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple, and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing "Cunning plans are here again.""
chaosriddenyears
Deputy Grecian
Posts: 366
Joined: Sat May 02, 2009 9:06 pm
Real Name: Lynn Ammerer-Ford
Location: Austria

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by chaosriddenyears »

It's heartening to know that we experienced some of these teachers in a positive way. For me it was Mrs. Dawson - Jenny and I got on very well with her and she was someone who was really human, which the others didn't seem to be most of the time. We spent alot of time chatting to her and she was really very funny. One time we came into the art school to find her gazing wraptly at the ceiling - we talked to her and all the time she went on looking upwards (like Agnes) so of course we did as well. She suddenly realised and said calmly, oh I am only looking at a piece of clay stuck to the ceiling - it's one of the 2nd Formers, she does it again and again.

One time when we were painting and chatting she told us how she had run over and killed her daughter - she had gone to pick her up from school and the child had run out from between two parked cars. I seem to remember that it was close to the date when it had happened, which was why it came out probably. It says much for the good relationship we had to her that we weren't at all embarassed and afterwards she seemed to like us even more than before.
fra828
Grecian
Posts: 547
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:54 pm
Location: Bournemouth

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by fra828 »

chaosriddenyears wrote:It's heartening to know that we experienced some of these teachers in a positive way. For me it was Mrs. Dawson - Jenny and I got on very well with her and she was someone who was really human, which the others didn't seem to be most of the time. We spent alot of time chatting to her and she was really very funny. One time we came into the art school to find her gazing wraptly at the ceiling - we talked to her and all the time she went on looking upwards (like Agnes) so of course we did as well. She suddenly realised and said calmly, oh I am only looking at a piece of clay stuck to the ceiling - it's one of the 2nd Formers, she does it again and again.

One time when we were painting and chatting she told us how she had run over and killed her daughter - she had gone to pick her up from school and the child had run out from between two parked cars. I seem to remember that it was close to the date when it had happened, which was why it came out probably. It says much for the good relationship we had to her that we weren't at all embarassed and afterwards she seemed to like us even more than before.
I liked Mrs Dawson too, even tho I was rubbish at art. .... I was so shocked when I read last paragraph of the above post. How unbelievably tragic , and what a total credit to her to come back and teach after something as devastating as that.
Kim2s70-77
Grecian
Posts: 659
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 1:02 pm
Real Name: Kim Elizabeth Roe (nee Langdon)

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by Kim2s70-77 »

Thanks to Jo Sidebottom, I have just discovered this site and I cannot tell you the flood of memories that some of these threads have brought back! I have so many mixed feelings about my time at CH!! Fatty M. left SO many impressions in particular. I swear I can quote MANY of her lessons - even the examples she used for things. Do you remember the way she would waggle her head from side to side and conclude statements with "D.V.W.P" (Deus volente; weather permitting).

I am thrilled to recognize some names too from 2s. Amazing how we don't realize we remember - I also found that I could in fact come up with most of the verses of the Carmen, even though I haven't thought of it for more than 30 years!!
Fjgrogan
Button Grecian
Posts: 1427
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 7:56 pm
Real Name: Frances Grogan (nee Haley)
Location: Surbiton, Surrey

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by Fjgrogan »

I believe another of her expressions was 'You can, but may you?' - not that she was there in my time, but my daughter Maria frequently quotes her.
Frances Grogan (Haley) 6's 1956 - 62

'A clean house is a sign of a broken computer.'
User avatar
mvgrogan
Deputy Grecian
Posts: 412
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:26 pm
Real Name: Maria Vatanen (nee Grogan)
Location: Turku, Finland

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by mvgrogan »

...she also frequently call me "fuzzy wuzzy"...presumably referrring to my hair, rather than my brain! :lol:

However, I do have a rather nice picture of her with me & my sister at a garden party at Horsham - that's how I prefer to remember her!
Maria Vatanen nee Grogan 6's (6:12) 81-85 BaB (BaB48) 85-87
Fjgrogan
Button Grecian
Posts: 1427
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 7:56 pm
Real Name: Frances Grogan (nee Haley)
Location: Surbiton, Surrey

Re: Miss Morrison

Post by Fjgrogan »

I have a picture taken at a Hertford Reunion of Miss Morrison, Miss West and Miss Tucker - tempting to sub-title it Macbeth's Witches!
Frances Grogan (Haley) 6's 1956 - 62

'A clean house is a sign of a broken computer.'
Post Reply