Nice view - for some of us

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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J.R.
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Post by J.R. »

Angela:

Blanco is the army term/name for the khaki product used to clean webbing, ie, belt/gaiters etc.

I would imagine if one was serving in the Military Police, there would be a white product, similar to gym-shoe cleaner previously referred to.
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A Mystery

Post by Angela Woodford »

Thanks, JR, I thought "Blanco" might have been an Army expression! I note that you have a very important birthday very soon! :D :D :D

Whilst we are looking out over the Field, it occurs to me that The Pavilion must have been looked after/tidied/cleaned by somebody...

Who was organised by Nellie to help with The Pav?

There was quite a lot of stuff stored there - cricket padding and bats, tennis racquets, hockey sticks and balls, all of which was in frequent use. It also became very quickly full of dead leaves and mud.

Does anyone remember?

Munch
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Post by englishangel »

I think Jude mentioned that she was a 'Pav' girl so perhaps 5s did it.

2's did the chapel. Me in Lower Sixth which was why we often had the wrong 'colours'.
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Post by Katharine »

We have said this before, Mary, that I think things changed over time. In my time, all Senior Houses shared doing Chapel duties on a rota. I think the Games Mistress chose people to do duties in the Pav, I know I did the Physics Lab for years first with someone from 2s can't remember who I trained for it.
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Post by Angela Woodford »

I can remember having to do Chapel Cleaning!

But never the Pav, or a lab or the Library or any other heavy duty area. Neither do I remember seeing any domestic staff beavering away.

Which is strange. Think of all the muddy feet pounding up and down the stairs and in and out of the form rooms in the School Block and Science block! Who did that cleaning?

There were "little men" in brown coats who transported stuff about and who adjusted the clocks.

But I remember domestic staff only in the Houses.

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Post by midget »

There must have been cleaners for the teaching blocks, Angela, although I never saw them either. It would have been a late night or early morning job surely. The "sticking and licking" end of term cleanup came as a bit of light relief, except for siphoning out the drain traps in the biology lab!

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Post by Katharine »

Angela Woodford wrote:There were "little men" in brown coats who transported stuff about and who adjusted the clocks.
I'm glad that you remember the clocks being adjusted - but I don't think it was the little men who did it. I think someone came in from outside and wound the clocks every week and came to change them when the clocks changed. We always disputed which time we should go to bed that night!

I only ever saw the dayroom clocks being wound as it was Saturday evening when he came - did we have clocks in all the classrooms would he have had to go round everywhere? (carrying his ladder too!)
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Post by icomefromalanddownunder »

midget wrote:There must have been cleaners for the teaching blocks, Angela, although I never saw them either. It would have been a late night or early morning job surely. The "sticking and licking" end of term cleanup came as a bit of light relief, except for siphoning out the drain traps in the biology lab!

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I can't visualise anyone doing any cleaning, but did have a flashback to being chided by Mum for referring to 'Skivvies'. These days, skivvies are what I once called vests, but back then I believe I was referring to Ladies What Do. Since neither we nor any of our neighbours employed household staff, I can only think that I began using the term to refer to school staff.

Strange that none of us are able to remember the floors being mopped or polished ..........
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Post by midget »

We had to be very wary of the cleaners in 3s- they seemed to be more aware of school rules and cusroms than we were, and any attempted entry into the dayroom if they were still there at break time would be reported. Miserable lot.

Skivvies were the lowest of the low--not as highly placed as Ladies Wot Do. They would be kitchen maids, pot boys etc, at the beck and call of more senior staff.

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Mysterious Admin -

Post by Angela Woodford »

Katharine wrote:
Angela Woodford wrote:There were "little men" in brown coats who transported stuff about and who adjusted the clocks.
I'm glad that you remember the clocks being adjusted - but I don't think it was the little men who did it. I think someone came in from outside and wound the clocks every week and came to change them when the clocks changed. We always disputed which time we should go to bed that night!

I only ever saw the dayroom clocks being wound as it was Saturday evening when he came - did we have clocks in all the classrooms would he have had to go round everywhere? (carrying his ladder too!)
It comes back to me now - it was a different little man who did the clocks. I now remember seeing him in 6s Dayroom up a ladder making his skilled adjustments! We had the same model clock all over the school - I used to watch that clockface all through every Maths and Latin 40 min lesson, willing it to go a bit faster. So the clock adjusting man must have had a 24hr job, because we never saw him anywhere else! Intriguing!

Admin staff also rarely seen. I believe the woman in charge of food was Miss Milton - thanks for that rice pudding Miss M! But not for the cabbage! And there was a Stewardly woman with a dog called Piper.

Our "chars" Mrs Scroggie and Mrs Palsey held court in 6s kitchen at break. How consoling it was, when I spoke bitterly of my many cleaning punishments, that they should also complain bitterly of the time it took them to clean the Study of my tormentors! I have one of my letters home in which I have recorded that they found that Study an unspeakable mess, through which it took them ages to battle! Thanks ladies.

Mrs Scroggie and Mrs Palsey were the only faces of cleaning that I really remember. But there must have been loads of maintainance staff never seen or appreciated.

Munch
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Post by J.R. »

I think you'll find the little old man was eventually sacked.................................















He was caught.................













CLOCK-WATCHING !
:oops:
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Re: Mysterious Admin -

Post by Katharine »

Angela Woodford wrote:Admin staff also rarely seen. I believe the woman in charge of food was Miss Milton - thanks for that rice pudding Miss M! But not for the cabbage! And there was a Stewardly woman with a dog called Piper.
I spent 6 months working with Miss Milton every Sunday for my DofE. I was the first from 6s to go to Gold level so did not realise that you had to get in quickly to get one of the favoured positions for 'Service to Community'. I got the short straw, instead of going out of school to help at one of a number of institutions like nurseries or old folks homes I was allocated the school kitchens. I can't even remember who was working with me.

Believe me you did not want to see the school mincer or to prepare the mince for the following day's lunch.

Can't remember who you mean by the Stewardly woman with the dog. There had been a male Steward who left the term before I started. He had lived in what became The Flat.
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Questions -

Post by Angela Woodford »

When was the Flat created?

I must say that I thought this was terribly unfair.

Why give a very few girls the right to privacy and privilege? I resented this very much. Also, great friend Carolynn (Head Girl) was even more removed in a sort of separate world. It really hurt.

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Post by Katharine »

I cannot remember whether the Flat was in existence in my first year or not, it did not impinge on me.

I think it became unfair, as you say, when people stopped staying on for the whole of the third year sixth. In my first years that did happen, and not just the Head Girl. My year was the only time, while I was at CH, that a Head Girl left at Christmas meaning that there would be a Head Girl from the Upper Sixth.

When I was in the Flat, there were six of us in the Senior Sixth and six places in the Flat - so all the rest of our year group had left school but we hadn't. I did not feel that it was unfair to anyone else that we were there.

I cannot defend the creation of the Flat, but I did enjoy it while I was there - but still felt I was a member of 6s. By the way, there were so many of us in my year that I was still sleeping in a dormitory of 16 while I was in the Upper Sixth, that I did resent. It hadn't happened to any other Sixth Formers in my time!
Last edited by Katharine on Sun Jun 10, 2007 9:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by midget »

Katharine wrote:I cannot defend the creation of the Flat, but I did enjoy it while I was there - but still felt I was a member of 6s. By the way, there were so many of us in my year that I was still sleeping in a dormitory of 16 while I was in the Lower Sixth, that I did resent. It hadn't happened to any other Sixth Formers in my time!
Standard practice in my day! We had 2 dorms of 16, 1 single room and 1 room for 3. By the way which of you young ladies was expelled for bringing in champagne for her 18th birthday?

Maggie
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