Welcome to the unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum - for discussing everything CH/Old Blue related. All pupils, parents, families, staff, Old Blues and anyone else related to CH are welcome to browse the boards, register and contribute.
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....
DBTS, that wretched tune has been going round my head for days.
Do you know any more words for Sir Eglamore?
It has been driving me crazy!
Thinking of Miss Cordery and Aural Training takes me to the old Sanitorium, which was unused when I was first at Hertford. Then it was converted to a Music School, and painted inside in the most hideous colours. Miss Nutto von Stettin (German Mistress, a very sad-looking woman) had a flat on the ground floor. How ever did she cope with the sound of girls practising?
I wonder why the Sanitorium was an unused building and the Infirmary became our sick place. What was the Infirmary before it was the Infirmary? Does anyone know?
The Music School never lost its smell of paint. The ground floor was a weird mixture of pinks, first floor weird mixture of blues. I could never believe that anyone had chosen these colours!
Angela Woodford wrote:I wonder why the Sanitorium was an unused building and the Infirmary became our sick place. What was the Infirmary before it was the Infirmary? Does anyone know?
As I understood it, the Sanitorium was for isolation cases, Infirmary for more general ones. Midget might know. The wing with four (?) individual rooms was completed in my early years at the school, can't remember quite when.
Angela Woodford wrote:I wonder why the Sanitorium was an unused building and the Infirmary became our sick place. What was the Infirmary before it was the Infirmary? Does anyone know?
As I understood it, the Sanitorium was for isolation cases, Infirmary for more general ones. Midget might know. The wing with four (?) individual rooms was completed in my early years at the school, can't remember quite when.
She knows a bit about it, having resided in both. I don't know when they were built, but the san. was not in use during and just after the war, probably because of fuel shortages. When we had a bad flu epidemic in the spring of '46 or '47, once the inf. was full they used 8's for the overflow. Later on the san. was used for a mumps epidemic (mostly girls from8's with a few odd bods like yours truly. We all liked being in the san, it was sunnier than the inf and better yet, Sister only visited once a day, and we were looked after by 2 lovely temp nurses, twins known as a.m. and p.m.
Thou shalt not sit with statisticians nor commit a social science.
Whilst having a bit of a reminiscing session with Deirdre Hobbs recently, we were remembering the ghastliness of being forced to participate in the game we were put down for (Nellie Norman's immaculate lists in the cloisters).
OK, 40ish years later, I reveal that if you were looking for Deirdre, Judith Pook or Carola Curwen during All Out, they had a hide-out in in inner Bio Lab, and were never found.
Generally, I'd turn up for tennis, or Tennis Team Practice. I loved the game and it would be warm. But if bitterly cold, or it was hockey, I had a concealing place in Nines, with the book I would rather be reading. Plus, if the terrors of being behind with needlework got too bad, by the side of my bed in Upper Dorm stitching away would do - Pot would patrol around, but not too thoroughly!
I have never forgotten how cold All Out could be! And we weren't allowed to play in sweaters!
Angela Woodford wrote:I have never forgotten how cold All Out could be! And we weren't allowed to play in sweaters!
Munch
My daughter came home early from school the other day saying that football had been cancelled because there had been some precipitation in the air. Bearing in mind that they wear tracksuits and hoodies, and anything else they can get their hands on (sou'westers and gaiters, slaves to hold umbrellas over them etc), I couldn't see what the problem was. So I went on to inform her about us playing hockey in the snow in an aertex shirt and games skirt. Her reply was something along the lines of, "Harrumph, what do you know." Are they being pampered nowadays? Or were we exploited? There's a thought!
Catherine Standing (Cooper) Canteen Cath 1.12 (1983-85) & Col A 20 (1985-90) Any idiot can deal with a crisis. It takes a genius to cope with everyday life.
It's worse in Oz - I was involved with junior sailing when my kids were junior sailors. Now, in England we were so grateful at being able to go sailing that we took the boats out even when it was snowing - clad in warmish clothing, and maybe a pair of wet socks. Er, that's socks made of neoprene, not wet cotton or wool
Here, the little darlings won't go out in summer if the sun isn't shining, because 'it's too cold'.
ISTR, we only had one sweater - a navy pullover with lighter blue bands round the cuffs and V-neck. (V1 Form had a navy cardigan).
But even if we put on the sweater over aertex blouse and tunic, Nellie Norman would have us take it off before setting foot on netball court or hockey pitch! "You'll soon warm up, Angela Marsh" "Yes Miss Norman."
When you think how many garments we had, it's surprising that those tunics did for winter uniform and games!
Of course the really keen sporty netballers and hockey players woulc be thundering about instantly, breath visible in the frosty air, pink armed and
cheeked, heedless of the clods of muddy earth flying about, responsive to the urgent "peep" of Nellie's whistle.
They didn't seem to notice the cold much. Brrr!
And back in for tea or a lesson after this, with no chance to wash. Dodgy hygiene practice!
My favourite memories of Ashbourne relate to cricket - particularly sitting in the old pavilion, linseed-oiling cricket bats. And who can forget Ashbourne hats?
kerrensimmonds wrote:My favourite memories of Ashbourne relate to cricket - particularly sitting in the old pavilion, linseed-oiling cricket bats. And who can forget Ashbourne hats?
One year we decided to have tapes that could reach the ground - somewhere I have a photo of Anne-Marie wearing hers like that.
kerrensimmonds wrote:My favourite memories of Ashbourne relate to cricket - particularly sitting in the old pavilion, linseed-oiling cricket bats. And who can forget Ashbourne hats?
One year we decided to have tapes that could reach the ground - somewhere I have a photo of Anne-Marie wearing hers like that.
I think there is a picture somewhere of that look.
"If a man speaks, and there isn't a woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"
