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....

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gillieg
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Miss Morrison

Post by gillieg »

I notice there is an official teachers section but I wanted to place this on Hertford memories !

I live in Rhossili on the Gower and 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. CH follows you everywhere doesn't it...I just can't walk past that bench with my hands in my pockets.
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The Bench

Post by Angela Woodford »

That's so amazing!

Would you very kindly sit on the Property Of bench for a moment and say "thank you BJM" for me?

Oh no! (Gropes for a Kleenex).

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gillieg
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Post by gillieg »

I certainly will - I wonder what she used it for. It has that wonderful waxy grain that all wood at CH seemed to have. Years of polish. This is a wonderful sebsite - wish I'd found it before!
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Post by englishangel »

When I found it I emailed all the 'girls' on Friends Reunited, and invited them on and a lot joined around that time, I have tried to keep up with new members on FRU but work 11 days a fortnight so it's difficult.
"If a man speaks, and there isn't a woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"
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gillieg
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FRU

Post by gillieg »

I rarely get time like this - day off as daughter's 15th birthday. Am quickly getting addicted. There's a lot of catching up to do...

Re. Friends Reunited Have lost contact with almost all my peers - although I left in 5th form and did A'levels at a day school (never recovered from homesickness! although there were a few days when I didn't cry!!!) I think many preferred to leave it all behind. Although I hitchhiked around Scandanavia with Sara T a couple of years after leaving.
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Re: Miss Morrison

Post by fra828 »

Wanted to say something about Miss Morrison tho going off subject of previous post on this thread. I had her for English right through school and I found her not an especially encouraging teacher, but saw a kind side to her on several occasions. In the late 60s, a girl who jumped off the science block( sustained injuries, but could have been a lot worse) came back to school the next term.,very brave of her I thought. I can clearly remember the hostility of Miss Jukes and Wilson, but BJM was very sympathetic to this girl in class. Another time was when a minor folk or was it a rock band(?) played at the school-very unusual! BJM sat at the back of the hall smiling, seemingly enjoying it nearly as much as us! AND she guided us, a B form, to nearly all getting A in English Lit Olevel. She chose the set books most of us really enjoyed: Macbeth, Jane Eyre and poems of Thomas Hardye, Coleridge and Robert Burns. There was a girl from Glasgow in the class at the time; BJM got her to read Burns poems to us in an 'authentic' Scottish accent!
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gillieg
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Re: Miss Morrison

Post by gillieg »

Oh that kind side of Miss Morrison was the real side I'm sure. Its interesting reflecting on the behaviours of staff from an adult perspective- we only knew them as children - plus remembering the educational/social context of the 60's and 70's. Child centred policy was a long way ahead and child protection laws light years away. I wonder what happened to the girl who jumped - I hope she is ok now.
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Re: Miss Morrison

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Gillieg, the girl who jumped died several years after this incident, I read it in the old CHOGA mag- I don't know the circumstances; it's very sad.
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Re: Miss Morrison

Post by Angela Woodford »

Yes, I can imagine Miss Morrison being kind to somebody in despair, and, I'm afraid to say I can also imagine the typical reactions of the Misses Jukes and Wilson. Hmm.

An awful thing is - I don't remember this incident! If it were at the end of the 60's that was in my time - I left in '71 - I do hope it wasn't anyone with whom I was in contact and might have said something tactless at the wrong moment - oh, I do hope not. I'm worried now.
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Re: Miss Morrison

Post by MaryB »

I suspect it would have been hushed up - was it in 1s or 2s...? I don't really remember either.
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Re: Miss Morrison

Post by fra828 »

The girl was in 2's ; it was about 1969 when I was 13, and the incident must have been hushed up, but we wondered why she suddenly wasn't in class and I suppose word got around then. It really scared me, I would wake in the early hours of the morning, bright summer mornings, and be terrified the same thing would happen again. It really affected me like that for the rest of that summer term, and I never told anyone, even close friends, that I felt like this.
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Re: Miss Morrison

Post by MaryB »

It was a determining characteristic of the Hertford training that we weren't supposed to feel things, or to express them if we did. And it sticks. My much loved cat died last week and I am still fighting the tendency to apologise to everyone I talk to about it for being so emotional...
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Re: Miss Morrison

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MaryB wrote:It was a determining characteristic of the Hertford training that we weren't supposed to feel things, or to express them if we did. And it sticks. My much loved cat died last week and I am still fighting the tendency to apologise to everyone I talk to about it for being so emotional...
. Sorry to hear about your cat, one of our 2 cats is 18years old, came to us when our daughter was 3years old, we will all be devastated when he goes, so much part of the family. I really agree with your comments and I too feel guilty if I get upset over things like this; and find it hard to show any emotional feelings . I can't imagine it's like this now at Horsham-all seems so much more open.
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Re: Miss Morrison

Post by Angela Woodford »

The Hertford unemotional conditioning had absolutely no effect on me whatever!

I always did and still do express my feelings - probably too much - too demonstrative?

But Hertford left me left with a depressive tendency and the lack of self esteem that evolved with all those punishments and my failure to thrive in that System.

Miss Morrison was the only mistress who enabled me to feel that I wasn't a total failure... :roll:
"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.""
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Re: Miss Morrison

Post by Fjgrogan »

Angela, it all sounds horribly familiar - depression, 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, and then only on a 'good' day! For most of it I blame my housemistress, Miss Jenkins, who has been written about elsewhere in this forum.
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