The School Rules

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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icomefromalanddownunder
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Re: The School Rules

Post by icomefromalanddownunder »

Kim2s70-77 wrote:
There was an annexe in the Infirmary - with ground floor sick rooms that were great for illegally 'visiting' people "Up t'Inf". I think we were steered away from the back of the Annexe, because it was easy to knock on the windows and pass unseen and unsupervised notes and illicit goodies during "Rest". I loved being up t'inf! A luxurious day or two of reading without interruption (even if it was old Reader's Digests) or doing puzzles of Scottish castles and lochs (?Eileen Donan? castle was one, I believe!)
My enduring memory of my annual visits to the infirmary (which I now realise were due to nothing more than hay fever) is of listening to one of the pirate radio stations - Caroline? or maybe London. Anyway, they seemingly had a very limited supply of discs, er singles, so would play the same twenty or so tunes over and over in the same order. One year the theme to The Good, The Bad & The Ugly was part of the playlist - quite creepy when all alone.

Oh, another memory - the offer of Milo instead of ghastly, tannic, over stewed, over milked tea in melamine mugs that tasted of who knows what. ' Please don't stir it Nurse. I like to eat the Milo off the top of the milk' then tip the milk down the loo.
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Re: The School Rules

Post by englishangel »

I had a sudden thought this morning, MIss Cordery's dog was a Pyrenean Mountain dog, not a Bernaese.

http://www.google.co.uk/images?rlz=1C1C ... 24&bih=651
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Re: The School Rules

Post by Angela Woodford »

I had a sudden thought this morning too! (Steady...) :roll:

Didn't Miss Cordery and Bobby look alike? Large - and shaggy - and really pleasant and well meaning?

Amongst my preserved seven years of letters-home-from-Hertford is an account of a crocodile walk taken by Miss Cordery, on which she had allowed me to take Bobby's lead. I had really enjoyed that! I'd never taken a dog for a walk before. What a really nice woman she was!
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Re: The School Rules

Post by englishangel »

She was delightful, but even her pleasantness could not get me to play the piano. After a year of trying (having had two years of tuition before I went to CH, she told me to stop wasting her and my time. Fortunately my parents were of a similar mind and my sister had started taking lessons (aged 4) and was already better than I was.

We bumped into her (and a Bobby lookalike) when living in Fairlight for a short while at the beginning of 1994, and she invited us home to tea.
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Re: The School Rules

Post by J.R. »

.................all this talk of Mistresses and their dogs looking alike..................

I'm not sure exactly where this could be leading !! :oops:
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Re: The School Rules

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Kim2s70-77 wrote:Isn't "out of bounds" a magnificent expression. So Joyce Grenfell-ian! Wasn't any of the perimeter area 'out of bounds' - ie, behind the Infirmary, the Art school or the Music school etc?? Basically - anywhere near the wall, or escape routes!

While on the subject - why did the barbed wire and broken-glass-studded wall tops slope INWARDS??? That always made me feel like we were being kept in - rather than intruders being kept out! No wonder the Hertford townies thought we were a juveile detention center/ prison etc

Btw, :offtopic: I have just landed the part of Sister Aloysius in "Doubt". I think DR will be an influence in my interpretation of the role!! :backtotopic:
We moaned about having to walk there, (how far was it??) but does anyone else remember the stunning views at Ashbourne? I often daydreamed about running away over those fields...After the barbed wire at the school, it seemed like a kind of utopia, if only we could have been up there WITHOUT actually having to do sports! It was like stepping back in time when you went into the pavilions to change- the 1920's team photos on the walls, the whole atmosphere was stuck in that era. In fact I always think of the place as 'The Far Pavilions'... :lol:
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Re: The School Rules

Post by Angela Pratt 56-63 »

The walk to Ashbourne was mainly uphill, I seem to remember. I also recall that our "croc" trailed up a narrow path just as some boys from a local(Grammar?) school were coming down on their bikes. They made fun of us, especially our white brimmed sun-hats in summer, and used to race down, tipping hats off as they passed...The members of staff used to say "ignore them", but on one occasion several girls just happened to "accidently wave" cricket bat, tennis-raquet or rounders handles against/through the wheel spikes of their bikes. Such unladylike behaviour, but it did mean more of the embarassing horrible sun-hats stayed on after that. Not that they stayed on or were much use when actually playing sports!
Yes it was a beautiful place, I had forgotten all those old photos on the pavilion walls. with all the girls' hair in plaits, so 20's and 30's I suppose.
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Re: The School Rules

Post by Vonny »

I remember the walk to Ashbourne being mainly uphill too. It just surprised me that we were allowed to walk up there on our own but were not allowed out into Hertford alone. I guess Ashbourne has been built on by now :? I remember taking a detour on my way to Ashbourne once with another girl and we ended up walking through a housing estate and across a bridge (?) but to get to where we needed to go we had to pass a huge gang of local school kids - we ended up being chased up the hill until they were obviously knackered as they gave up and we managed to escape them!
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Re: The School Rules

Post by Mid A 15 »

fra828 wrote:
Kim2s70-77 wrote:Isn't "out of bounds" a magnificent expression. So Joyce Grenfell-ian! Wasn't any of the perimeter area 'out of bounds' - ie, behind the Infirmary, the Art school or the Music school etc?? Basically - anywhere near the wall, or escape routes!

While on the subject - why did the barbed wire and broken-glass-studded wall tops slope INWARDS??? That always made me feel like we were being kept in - rather than intruders being kept out! No wonder the Hertford townies thought we were a juveile detention center/ prison etc

Btw, :offtopic: I have just landed the part of Sister Aloysius in "Doubt". I think DR will be an influence in my interpretation of the role!! :backtotopic:
We moaned about having to walk there, (how far was it??) but does anyone else remember the stunning views at Ashbourne? I often daydreamed about running away over those fields...After the barbed wire at the school, it seemed like a kind of utopia, if only we could have been up there WITHOUT actually having to do sports! It was like stepping back in time when you went into the pavilions to change- the 1920's team photos on the walls, the whole atmosphere was stuck in that era. In fact I always think of the place as 'The Far Pavilions'... :lol:
The Far Pavilions is presently the Radio 4 serial coincidentally although it is now into the second week. it can be heard at either 7:45 pm (which is when I normally listen) or 10:45 am (I think) during Womans Hour both Monday to Friday.
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Re: The School Rules

Post by Liz Jay »

Hi All

Miss Corderoy's dog was quite definitely a Samoyed bitch called Zoe

Liz (with an obsessive interest in dogs and their breeds since childhood!)
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Re: The School Rules

Post by Angela Woodford »

Bobby!
"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: The School Rules

Post by englishangel »

Liz, you were there after Munch and me so Zoe may have been Bobby's successor. I think Miss Cordery probably had a penchant for big hairy white dogs because when I was there she definitely had a mountain dog of some variety.
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Re: The School Rules

Post by Angela Woodford »

To settle this agonising question, Miss Taverner must be tracked down and interrogated! Woof! :lol:
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Re: The School Rules

Post by Liz60 »

"Hair must clear the collar." In one jump?
"Girls must not slide downstairs on tin trays." Melamine ones ok?
"Pot plants on lockers must be placed on saucers." I remember the rule but I can't recall anyone actually having the temerity to try introducing a pot plant to the dormitory...
There was one, too, about not going into a post office; I remember, as a timid and law-abiding 3rd former, visiting an aunt in Pinner one Long Sat and insisting I stayed outside while she went into her post office...

When Miss Tucker arrived, I remember being summoned - as a prefect - to a meeting with her and the Misses Jukes, Wilson & Morrison (smart move, Miss T!) to "look at the rule book". It was summarily consigned to the bin and we were exhorted to "exercise common sense"!!
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Re: The School Rules

Post by Angela Woodford »

How interesting, Liz!

For several years, I have been wondering about changes that Miss Tucker would have made on arrival. This is by far the most amazing thing! Binning the School Rules! :shock: What a moment that must have been.

Come on, Liz, more memories! Tell... what happened next?
"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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