Hertford Memories - The Book

[englishangel]

I think I must put my hand up for the 'nobblyknees' thing. My Dad came up with it, when I got in.

[icomefromalanddownunder]

they are pretty foolproof.

In a temperate climate, perhaps. Not here, where they have to contend with warm, wet, westerly winds in winter and hot, dry, sunny summers: not to mention marauding roos, rabbits, DianaMoo, Winstonalpaca, and Guy (horse), who can undo gate fastenings and always positions himself in the middle of the vege patch, for maximum impact, when he hears someone coming. He then calmly walks back to where he should be: it's very much a case of reminding us of just how smart he is, and how he only stays because he likes us: not because he has to .

xx

[anniexf]

[icomefromalanddownunder"
warm, wet, westerly winds in winter and hot, dry, sunny summers:[/quote]

That phrase is classic Miss Wilson - it has stayed in my memory for more than 50 years! Mediterranean climate, wasn't it?

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Mediterranean climate, wasn't it?

Send that girl straight to the top of the class

I started scanning some items to send to Munch for possible use in writing THE BOOK. Well, to be honest, I didn't even finish scanning the Mercury article, (also for myself, as the original is starting to fall apart), and have been having, not quite nightmares, but not particularly pleasant dreams about Hertford.

I found a booklet that describes the various admission options too, but either need to upgrade my RAM, buy a legal copy of Photoshop, or stop trying to keep multiple large files open at the same time before I continue the process.

[Angela Woodford]

The Mercury article!

I was thinking of this yesterday! It may have the only known (?) photo of SWSNBN. It's a picture of Miss Richards at her desk with a few girls lined up on each side, and a coy caption

"Today, girls, we will do sew-and-sew."

Cringeworthy. Caroline, this is amazing that you kept the article.

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Cringeworthy. Caroline, this is amazing that you kept the article.

Sorry Munch: different article. (I definitely would have had nightmares if SWSNBN were loitering on my scanner).

This is the one that I scanned a few years ago and posted jpgs to the CHA site: Diana, Liz, Bun, Mary, Susan, Valerie in the Bio Lab. Bare headed sixth formers walking past the bus stop, and 5s housemistress demonstrating infirmary corner folding.

xx

[MaryB]

Noooo... they aren't all 6th formers: two of them are Linda Gamlin, then UVth, and me. I'm sure it's on here somewhere but I can't find it. I do have an original cut out of the paper somewhere, and its in Photos from CH vol 2 (or so I said in February on another thread).
Having just moved, not being able to find things is the sum of my existence at present, but it shouldn't really extend into virtual reality....

[Angela Woodford]

Lizzy, I would love an advisory chat with you!

Would it be possible to ring you next week?

I need to pick your brain!

[Angela Woodford]

Some wonderful thoughts for the Book from Clorinda in Bad Things You Didn't Get Caught Doing, if I have permission to quote her? DR's expectations. Being prepared for the real world.

I am beginning to use to myself a working title of Go and Throw Yourself Out Of the Window as I comb through material.

I vaguely remember whispers that one girl did go and throw, landing in the little pond at the back of the Science Block. This is so terrible that DR must have hushed it up frantically.

[anniexf]

A girl from 8s did, in about 1957. Threw herself out of the boxroom window, landing on the path. It's referred to in DR's Half to Remember, in a somewhat offhand & dismissive manner. It had been my turn to lead prayers at 7.15 the following morning & I was gobsmacked to see DR in Mrs. Coveney's place. There hadn't been enough time between the rising bell & prayers for the facts to emerge, just hurriedly whispered rumours. I remember DR asking who was to read the prayers, & I put my hand up. Afterwards when we rose to our feet she said "Thank you, Ann". That too left me gobsmacked. I must have unknowingly hit upon the right kind of prayer!
I know who the girl was, and roughly why she did it. She broke some bones but survived, I gather because a passing doctor saw the incident, raised the alarm and tended to her. The girl came back several months later.

[Angela Woodford]

Thanks, Annie.

The box room window? The room we in 6's called the Maid's Room?

It's at the top of the House!

Actually, I'm choking here at the keyboard thinking of the mental torment of that poor poor girl. It seems astonishing that she broke only some bones, falling from such a height. And to come back to school again....

I wonder if DR did anything to help her. Advice to pull herself together, I suppose. Oh it makes me so sad and angry.

[Angela Woodford]

Does anyone remember a Sunday radio programme we did, late Sixties? We sang the hymns in School Hall because the accoustics were better.

There was a "well-known" radio presenter who did it with us. I remember the uninterested way in which he reeled off his script in between the hymns. "Girls... neat and cool in their summer dresses" he read, without looking at any of us! He seemed totally bored and quickly pushed off once the recording had been made.

I can't remember his name, or the name of the programme. "Sunday Half Hour"? Something like that?

[Fjgrogan]

I don't remember that one, but I do have a videotape of Harry Secombe doing Songs of Praise from Horsham.

[MKM]

I remember the recording session in the school hall, but not the presenter. Miss Taverner told us to sing "Klorious things of thee are spoken" instead of "Glorious" because it would sound better in the recording. Was there nothing she did not know about music!

[Angela Woodford]

Mary, could it have been "Godfrey Winn"?