Desks

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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dinahcat
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Re: Desks

Post by dinahcat »

Queenie seemed to me, even at the time, as bitter and unfeeling.She seemed to enjoy the show of herself more than encouraging children from diverse backgrounds to experience something they would otherwise never have had the chance to enjoy. My eldest is keen to study Classics at university but I can't see her sitting through one of Queenie's lessons without standing up for herself or mocking her as an anachronism.Thank goodness it is no longer necessary to behave like a scary dinosuar ( can't spell the V word !) to teach Latin well and to foster a love of latin poetry but learn all the grammar assiduously as well. I suppose she was a product of her own time and circumstances. She is fascinating however and I would love to know her background. I see a project coming on.. was her name really Queenie? Does anyone know anything about her such as when she was born or when she first went to CH?
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Re: Desks

Post by Fjgrogan »

Interesting thought - should we start a QMB strand? I think after CH she retired to the Isle of Wight to look after her elderly father - I shall hunt through my archive box, before I put it back into the loft; somewhere in there will be the CHOGA newsletter with obituaries etc.
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Re: Desks

Post by Angela Woodford »

Check out the thread "A Question of Queenie" Frances! :)

There she is!

I've always wondered if anyone kept her obituary amongst their treasures.
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Re: Desks

Post by Jo »

Dinahcat, I'm not defending Queenie's style, but I think you would only have known her for a year or so before she retired. You would still have been at the age when she was trying to whittle her class down to her desired O level candidates by scaring off those who showed no aptitute for Latin. Once she had done that, she was much easier to get on with and I did enjoy her lessons.

As I said, I'm not defending that approach - she would have been more laudable as a teacher had she tried to encourage those who clearly found Latin difficult. The only reason I mention it is that I believe her formidableness (is that a word?) was a conscious strategy rather than her being a bitter and twisted person at heart.

I've also added more on the "Question of Queenie" thread.
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Re: Desks

Post by Angela Woodford »

Whilst lingering over a Paperchase display of lovely fountain pens, I was reminded of topping up the inkwells in the 111rd Form - I took this responsibility very seriously! :roll: There was a bottle with a spout.

Then I seemed to remember that there were dipping-in-the-ink pens provided for the juniors. Did I once have to scrub ink from my right index finger. Ink that overlay the ever-present staining of Bluebell?

Does anyone else remember dippy-pens with scratchy nibs?
"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: Desks

Post by anniexf »

Angela Woodford wrote:
Does anyone else remember dippy-pens with scratchy nibs?
I do, Angela; they were the norm until half-way through my sentence, when parents received a letter advising that girls might henceforth wear wristwatches and use fountain pens. Must have been c.1957/8.
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Re: Desks

Post by Kim2s70-77 »

We still used 'dipping pens' and inkpots in 1970 - with pink blotting paper too! A couple of years later, we could use ink cartridge pens - but never biros!
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Re: Desks

Post by Katharine »

I thought we got to use biros in the VI form? I seem to remember that fountain pens had to be engraved with your name. Did you have to pass a writing test to progress from the dip pen to a fountain pen?
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Re: Desks

Post by michael scuffil »

Ah, but did Hertford have a dedicated "ink room" like we had at Horsham?
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Re: Desks

Post by Angela Woodford »

Kim2s70-77 wrote:We still used 'dipping pens' and inkpots in 1970 - with pink blotting paper too! A couple of years later, we could use ink cartridge pens - but never biros!
Goodness! I thought I might be mistaken there with the dipping pens - thank you girls! I also now remember calling the pink blotting paper "blotch"! It has come back to me.

But a writing test to be able to use a fountain pen... no! :?: I would think it would be more difficult to write legibly with the splodge effect of the dipping pen. I know we all remember the huge weird handwriting of Miss Champion. Strange!

When I think of many of my former classmates, I can also remember their handwriting. My friend Frances Holmes had been taught a very attractive script called "Marianne Richardson". Whatever she wrote, it looked good!
"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: Desks

Post by Fjgrogan »

Marianne Richardson certainly rings a bell - was it a form of italic? I remember dipping pens, and the smell of the ink, and the writing cards that we had to copy various passages from (sorry pedants, I mean from which we had to copy!). I also remember that once watches and fountain pens were allowed they had to be engraved but I don't think it happened during my time at school. I certainly still have in my box pens engraved with the names of both of my daughters, but none with my own name (Cue for another filial lecture on the merits of decluttering?). Going back even further to my days in junior school I remember that biros were not allowed, but I used to argue that this should not include the 'liquid lead' pencil that I owned, which was in reality simply a black biro, but not marketed as such!
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Re: Desks

Post by englishangel »

Marion Richardson is the loopy cursive script we were all taught. You can download it as a font. It certainly isn't italic. I was taught italic (with a dippy pen) at primary school and then of course had to switch at CH. I can still do italic, though my handwriting now is very Marion Richardson.
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Re: Desks

Post by michael scuffil »

englishangel wrote:Marion Richardson is the loopy cursive script we were all taught. You can download it as a font. It certainly isn't italic. I was taught italic (with a dippy pen) at primary school and then of course had to switch at CH. I can still do italic, though my handwriting now is very Marion Richardson.
For me it was exactly the reverse. I had to do "copperplate" at primary school, then at CH found I could write how I liked, so I changed to italic, which was the flavour of the month, and also what you were taught if you were sent to "writing classes". These were run by the inimitable Nell Todd. Italic was hated by several members of the staff (notably MacNutt), but clearly they had been told that this was not their province.
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Re: Desks

Post by jhopgood »

michael scuffil wrote:
englishangel wrote:Marion Richardson is the loopy cursive script we were all taught. You can download it as a font. It certainly isn't italic. I was taught italic (with a dippy pen) at primary school and then of course had to switch at CH. I can still do italic, though my handwriting now is very Marion Richardson.
For me it was exactly the reverse. I had to do "copperplate" at primary school, then at CH found I could write how I liked, so I changed to italic, which was the flavour of the month, and also what you were taught if you were sent to "writing classes". These were run by the inimitable Nell Todd. Italic was hated by several members of the staff (notably MacNutt), but clearly they had been told that this was not their province.
Were you in the Golden Pen competition?
Geoff Neuss won it in my time, but I have no idea whether it still exists.
Dennis Childs started using brown ink, which he had made up by the minimum quantity, a pint.
Other Barnes B colleagues wrote in green or red ink.
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Re: Desks

Post by Angela Woodford »

englishangel wrote:Marion Richardson is the loopy cursive script we were all taught. my handwriting now is very Marion Richardson.
I felt very interested in this, so hunted online until I found an example of Marion Richardson handwriting. Quite right, Mary, I'd thought it was Marianne R. (What a marvellous woman she was!)

As soon as I saw the style, I recognised Fran's handwriting! It's definitely more elegant and pared down from the looped cursive I learned. In fact, the loops are gone!

Did you really learn copperplate, Michael? Marvellous! It looks so beautiful. Have you retained the style?

I do hope Santa is noting this - I've sent him a request for a good fountain pen on Facebook!

I can remember a couple of girls who arrived at CH with italic handwriting - soon abandoned, sadly! And an American flatmate whose handwriting was loopy beyond all imagination. Phine Maude would write a little bubble instead of a dot over her "i's", which I thought was madly sophisticated at the time. :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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