Hertford Uniforms

[midget]

do you also keep your hands out of your pockets and not walk on the grass?

I do!

Doesn't everybody? Seriously, I should have grown out of it by now, but I feel really uncomfortable with my hands in my pockets.

[Pixie]

I put my hands in my pockets frequently, especially in the winter. I feel perfectly comfortable about it.

[anniexf]

I put my hands in my pockets frequently, especially in the winter. I feel perfectly comfortable about it.

Me too! I'm totally unstuffy these days - sometimes I even slouch!

[Foureyes]

Hi, ladies, this is your online fashion guru speaking! (Only joking )

Those of you who had to wear the yellow dress introduced in 1953 might like to know that I was informed over the week-end that it was made of Moygashel Linen (Moygashel is a small town in Northern Ireland). My source is impeccable, and on tracing this fabric I have discovered that it was considered at that time to be of the very highest quality, and thus very expensive. It was obviously selected with the very best of intentions, it is just sad that it did not work out better.
David

[Angela Woodford]

Yes, yes, I remember Moygashel linen advertising in Vogue Magazine in the 60's! To think those awful dresses were actually such good quality! What a shame the colour looked so dreadful. But OK for socks! OK for trimmings and pipings!

Now, I have had a bit of a shock. I had lunch on Friday with Sean - Forum contributor and HOBOF friend - and was shocked, utterly shocked to learn that the Horsham boys actually thought that Hertford girls had chosen not to wear traditional dress - had rejected it - wanted a "modern" uniform! When I think how undistinguished we looked... well, I choked into my Lady Grey tea.

Eek!

[DavidRawlins]

Does anyone know why the girls nowadays only wear yellow stockings on special occasions?

[fra828]

Angela- I thought we actually DID reject Housey uniform; it's a vague memory (seem to have a lot of those! ) but I can remember some kind of vote in early 70's, and when we talked amongst ourselves later, we agreed we definitly DIDN'T want THAT uniform , we were already locked-in nearly 24/7, and the last thing we wanted was to look and be even more different from other schoolgirls at that time-what do teenagers care about tradition? It's only when you are older that you appreciate tradition.

[Angela Woodford]

Angela- I thought we actually DID reject Housey uniform; it's a vague memory (seem to have a lot of those! ) but I can remember some kind of vote in early 70's, and when we talked amongst ourselves later, we agreed we definitly DIDN'T want THAT uniform , we were already locked-in nearly 24/7, and the last thing we wanted was to look and be even more different from other schoolgirls at that time-what do teenagers care about tradition? It's only when you are older that you appreciate tradition.

Don't the pupils at modern CH love and want to retain the Housey uniform? I seem to pick up that they love the traditional dress.

I can vaguely remember somebody (late 60's?) talking about what a traditional Hertford dress would be... and there was a bit of giggling about replicating the Susannah dress, which had a quaintly servile look about it, and (quite right) would have been most unsuitable. But I think the girls today look really terrific! Lucky things. I would have loved that special traditional look.

A horrible memory comes back to me. The first Sunday of my first school holidays, my parents insisted that I wore my CH uniform to church - panama hat and all. I refused. They pleaded. I shut myself in my room. They begged. "Fly the Flag!" my mother kept repeating through the crack in my bedroom door. I gave in. If it meant that much to them.....

You know that glazed, polite, tactful look that can come over peoples' faces when they don't want to hurt your feelings? "Oh!" said Mrs Lubbock, the wife of the Explorers' Group Leader. "I thought Christ's Hospital had a special uniform...?" "I don't know" I muttered. (I didn't. I hadn't seen the Housey dress at that point.) I wanted to continue feeling proud that I'd won that LCC Scholarship!

I felt a bit mortified, really.

[Foureyes]

Does anyone know why the girls nowadays only wear yellow stockings on special occasions?

Stockings - it's in my forthcoming booklet.

Here's another question. Why does the Housie gown have two slits in the front of the skirt? Polite answers only on a postcard, please.

On another topic, there is a well-founded story that several years ago a Head Master (not this one) asked the Senior Grecian of the day what would be her reaction to the suggestion that the school should give up Housie uniform? The reply, polite but through pursed lips, was did the Head want her resignation verbally and on-the-spot, or would he wait for her to get back to her house and submit it in writing? The matter ended there and then.

[Katharine]

Those of you who had to wear the yellow dress introduced in 1953 might like to know that I was informed over the week-end that it was made of Moygashel Linen (Moygashel is a small town in Northern Ireland). My source is impeccable, and on tracing this fabric I have discovered that it was considered at that time to be of the very highest quality, and thus very expensive. It was obviously selected with the very best of intentions, it is just sad that it did not work out better.
David

As someone who did wear the said dresses, I think the real problem with them was the greenfly. Would that have been just the colour? I can't imagine it was the fabric. Has anyone experienced greenfly on other yellow garments or was it just Hertford greenfly that loved them?

As I remember it, the style was the same as the Zephyr dresses that preceded the striped summer dresses, and were on the way out when I entered the school.

Munch, my grandfather made my father wear full Housey to church every Sunday of his school holidays - in 1930s Stepney. My brother and I were NEVER required to wear uniform in the holidays!

[Fjgrogan]

As another who wore a yellow dress throughout my time at Hertford, I do not remember the greenfly problem that Katharine seems to be so worried about; my main memory is of spilling ink and having to soak the stain in milk, which then went 'off' and smelled revolting - especially as I don't think the dresses were ever washed. On the subject of Moygashel though, it was probably chosen because it was a quality fabric and would last well - after all CH girls' uniforms were usually expected to last through numerous generations regardless of the prevailing fashion. How many teenagers in the 1950s were still clad in 'old ladies' lisle stockings beyond the confines of CH Hertford?! And we had to darn them!

The name 'zephyr' rang a huge bell, but I have no visual memory of what we wore before the striped dresses.

[michael scuffil]

Actually 1930s Stepney was not so very far in time or place from Newgate Street. The uniform would have been fairly familiar to many of the inhabitants in a way that it wasn't in Harpenden c. 1960.

I was dressed up in FHD during my first Christmas holidays on various occasions, including once when I was taken to see my grandfather, a Londoner born and bred who was quite familiar with the uniform. Another was the obligatory studio photo (quite good, really). And I actually asked to wear it to a carol service in Trafalgar Square (I think my father was a bit embarrassed).

[Fjgrogan]

Does anyone else remember the 'I-Spy' books? I-Spy Uniforms gave the highest points to anyone who spotted a Housey boy in FHD!

[Angela Woodford]

I-Spy Uniforms gave the highest points to anyone who spotted a Housey boy in FHD!

Isn't that totally wonderful?

Nil points to anyone spotting a girl in a scruffy threadbare blazer, nondescript cotton striped dreary-dress with laundry creases, fawn socks and brown lace-ups....

I was thinkinking about the Moygashel linen dresses. In my experience of pure linen, it creases as soon as you look at it. Was Moygashel treated in some way to avoid creasing? Jukes and Wilson would have been driven crazy!

I'll look it up... Moygashel...

[midget]

Were the dresses definitely linen? I ask because the fabric generally known as Moygashel ( MoeGASHel, not MoygashEL was a viscose rayon, with mixture of eithe cotton or linen, and treated with an anti-crease finish.