Hertford Uniforms

[Fjgrogan]

I think slippers were one of the few things which we were allowed to provide for ourselves - along with indoor shoes, hockey boots and a suspender belt!

[J.R.]

I think slippers were one of the few things which we were allowed to provide for ourselves - along with indoor shoes, hockey boots and a suspender belt!

ALL AT THE SAME TIME ??

Definitely a 'mind-boggler' !!

[Katharine]

The yellow dresses came in for summer 1953, the year after I left,

Yes I knew they were a way of celebrating the quatercentenary (was that the word used for the 400th celebrations?). They lasted thirty years but I wonder whether anyone liked them - except the greenfly!

Shome mishtake shorely, they were gone by 1965.

I don't know quite what went wrong there mary. I am grossly overworked at the moment and running on exhaustion most days, sorry! (I was at the office until 7 today!)

[DavidRawlins]

When the boys' prep school was at Hertford, did they wear normal Housie clothes? Perhaps an old photo or print may answer the question,

[Fjgrogan]

Now be fair - I know this thread is called Hertford Memories, but none of us has memories going back quite that far!

[mvgrogan]

[Foureyes]

David Rawlins wrote:

When the boys' prep school was at Hertford, did they wear normal Housie clothes? Perhaps an old photo or print may answer the question,

Yes, they wore absolutely standard boys Housie uniform as worn at Newgate Street, except, obviously, there were no Grecians. I suspect, but am not certain of this, that the Royal Mathematical School was only ay Newgate Street, so there would have been no RMS plates at Hertford. There are plenty of photographs to bear this out, but, of course, just as I want one, I cannot find any!
The girls wore a very old-fashioned, but not Tudor, form of dress until about 1875, when they changed into a more modern (ie. mid-Victorian) outfit, which lasted until the early 1920s.

There are three statues of Bluecoat boys still at Hertford; two atop the columns at the main entrance, the third in a niche above the entrance to the Main Hall. All three are replicas produced in 1985-7, when the originals, all 200-plus years old, were moved to the Museum at Horsham.

David Miller
Lamb B 1948-55

[Fjgrogan]

Yes, I remember that there was a bit of a battle in 1985 between the school and the town, both of whom quite rightly regarded the statues as part of their history. I am sure you have heard the story about the two statues on the main gates - one boy is said to have killed the other, so one faces the churchyard (All Saints) and the other faces Gallows Hill.

[englishangel]

From the badges thread, I had a flashback to panamas. I am sure when I started the Sixth form had narrow hat bands 5 stripes, narrow navy, narrow gold, wide navy, narrow gold and narrow navy. Lower forms had the same number of stripes in the same order but they were all the same width.

[Angela Woodford]

I think slippers were one of the few things which we were allowed to provide for ourselves - along with indoor shoes, hockey boots and a suspender belt!

I was just thinking (whilst the vision of Sunday Uniform was slipping past me) we all provided our own everyday gloves or mittens, didn't we? No rulings on colour either! Because I prized for a long time a pair of emerald-and-black Fair Isle mittens knitted by Queenie and bought at the Sale. Oh, how I loved those mittens!

It seemed rather bizarre. Queenie, who undoubtedly scorned me to well past the throwing-myself-out-of-the-window stage, was responsible for keeping my hands toasty in those gorgeous mittens.

I'm sure we had a pair of black or navy school gloves for winter Sundays... Yes! I remember the fiddle of sewing the 6:7 id tape into a pair. They lived in a Wardrobe Room Drawer during the week, but always seemed to have got lost by Sunday morning. Now I remember hiding my hands in non-uniform gloves in the Sunday Chapel crocodile on a cold day.

"Where are your gloves, Angela Marsh?" Oh hell....

[Katharine]

I don't think we had our own gloves in my time, at least I don't remember them. I went through a phase of immaculate Swiss darning - which means the darning replicates the original knitting stitch. The fingers of my gloves were almost stiff with the layers of darning but I couldn't get them condemned as they still looked entire! If the darning had all been botched I would have had them replaced!

[MaryB]

"Own gloves"must have come in right at the end of your time Katharine - in 1964 they were definitely on that pathetically short new girls' list of things to take with us. I co remember the thinness of Sunday gloves at the finger tips - the way I could feel the wool in each stitch - and the horror as I realised a darn was imminent......

[Angela Pratt 56-63]

When Istarted in '56, we all wore tunics and pullovers(+ blouses, underwear etc of course...) until about 1960 when the sixthform had skirts, cardigans and Harris tweed sunday coats. the rest of us continued with the thick old navy coats (newish for Sundays, threadbare during the week) until those navy macs were introduced for all, and after I left everyone had tweeds. In '56 our winter Sunday hats were broad-brimmed black felt with navy bands with 2 narrow gold stripes. Then the 6th form had navy narrow brimmed velour hats with narrower bands to go withtweed coats.Eventually we all did and there was a similar transition to smaller summer panamas too.
I can also remember the change from unbleached calico nighties to coloured floral viella ones., so much less crackly..
Qn summer weekdays we had blue "Zephyr"(??) dresses, but as this material became unobtainable, these were changed to stripey ones -pale blue, pink, orangey/gold, lilac. I remember that DR apparently had to persuade the council of almoners to give their permission and took 2 pretty sisters(Anne and Helen Tilstone) up to London. They were told to smile sweetly and modestly, but only wore the dresses in 2 shades of blue because DR thought it might put the council off if they saw multicoloured.
Wow this has really stirred old memories (Though I don't guarentee their accuracy..). I do remember though that in 1956 my grandmother said that my uniform was very similar to my mother's uniform(not CH) in the twenties. My dad then commented that to get 30 years behind in 400 years was not too bad really, as the boys were 4oo years out of date...

[fra828]

Does anyone remember when the tartan blouses came in for winter sundays? What colour were our everyday blouses? I would also put the arrival of the cherry reds circa 1969.

[englishangel]

The tartan blouses were winter Sunday wear in 1965 when I started, our daily blouses were basically blue with a very subtle plaid through them.