'Posh School' at Hertford

[DavebytheSea]

So how did you get big multi-coloured balls ?????

Gulp!

Julian - is there nothing you can do to control these wild Hertford women?

[Ajarn Philip]

I'm a squit as far as this site is concerned, but, for the moment at least, a devotee (my doctor assures me this will pass, at least I think that's what he was talking about.)
Somebody said earlier in this string (probably last year) that you have to read everything or you completely lose track, such are the tangents people go off on. Flitting through this particular string, I'm sufficiently encouraged and emboldened by the number of male contributors to add a little note of my own.
I remember in the mid 70s going to discos at Roedean and Haslemere, but never to Hertford. Was it too far? But surely we could have stayed the night?
Incidentally, I only ever played one game of hockey and quickly decided that rugby was much less likely to result in a life-threatening injury.

[Euterpe13]

Discos at Hertford ? With males present ????
Don't be daft....we didn't even have discos with all females present - might have got us too excited, or something...

[Katharine]

I'm a squit as far as this site is concerned, but, for the moment at least, a devotee (my doctor assures me this will pass, at least I think that's what he was talking about.)

One of the things you will soon learn, Philip, is how different our lives in Hertford were from yours in Horsham, not just in uniform but in the relative freedoms we had.

Both my father and my brother were at Horsham but I have learnt far more about the life there from the Forum than I ever learnt from them.

I think it is a very good thing that it is an integrated forum, and that we can each learn more about the others.

[Angela Woodford]

I remember in the mid 70s going to discos at Roedean and Haslemere, but never to Hertford. Was it too far? But surely we could have stayed the night?

Staying the night at Hertford? There wouldn't have been anywhere to stay! Nor would we have been allowed to entertain males at all. I can honestly say that when I left aged 18 I was light years behind other girls who had had a normal social life. I'd never even held hands. I have been mesmerised by accounts of the love lives of those at Horsham, I must say!

Munch

[sejintenej]

I only ever played one game of hockey and quickly decided that rugby was much less likely to result in a life-threatening injury.

We used to get American exchange students back in the late 50's. I remember the one who came in 1960 used to play American Football at home but they decided rugby was too dangerous so his parents forbade him playing. that had an interesting side effect - he got a large number of people interested in basketball which AFAIK had not previously been played at CH. (BTW at that time there was an outcasts group which actualy played soccer somewhere other than on the asphalt behind the houses. How downmarket can you get?)

[sejintenej]

I remember in the mid 70s going to discos at Roedean and Haslemere, but never to Hertford. Was it too far? But surely we could have stayed the night?

Though none of the OB ladies has ever admitted it but it seems to me that they were being bred for just one role in life - to act as ladies "companions" (aka chaperones). For such an occupation any connection with males past or present was a no-no (highly regretable that a male had fathered them but better if the father died before they were born), they had to be able to take part in polite conversation, do needlework, be available to submit to their employer's instructions 24/7 and have no opinions of their own.

The concept that such a female had actually touched a male was unthinkable. Hence one teacher's reported revulsion when she heard that one of her pupils had dared to get married.

[englishangel]

I remember in the mid 70s going to discos at Roedean and Haslemere, but never to Hertford. Was it too far? But surely we could have stayed the night?

Though none of the OB ladies has ever admitted it but it seems to me that they were being bred for just one role in life - to act as ladies "companions" (aka chaperones). For such an occupation any connection with males past or present was a no-no (highly regretable that a male had fathered them but better if the father died before they were born), they had to be able to take part in polite conversation, do needlework, be available to submit to their employer's instructions 24/7 and have no opinions of their own.

The concept that such a female had actually touched a male was unthinkable. Hence one teacher's reported revulsion when she heard that one of her pupils had dared to get married.

Midget is the oldest of us on here (sorry dear) and she is married, and reading between the lines she has had a career so perhaps she has an opinion. By the time it got to my generation we were expected to have careers. By the 70's keeping us away from men was more to do with "no decent man would want to marry 'soiled' goods". Apart from the heir to the throne it was very anachronisitc and I don't think any of us were in THAT league. (aiming for the heir to the throne)

[cj]

But surely we could have stayed the night?

That's so funny!!!!!!!!!

I remember the band coming to Hertford in 1983/4 on my first year and the huge excitement of having males in school grounds who weren't staff or parents. Obviously we weren't allowed near them in case something terrible happened, we just watched from the sidelines. But it was a bit different for us as we knew we were moving down there in a couple of years. I remember feeling sorry for the VI formers.

[Ajarn Philip]

I'm glad you picked up the tongue in cheek.

I remember hearing, only 8 years or so after I left CH, that the 2 schools were to merge. I felt quite envious. I think it was Angela who said earlier that she was light years behind her contemporaries from "normal life" in terms of relationships. Well, in spite of the comparative gap in progressiveness between Horsham and Hertford, I felt equally behind. Without wishing to offend the sensibilities of a public forum (tongue now only very mildly in cheek), I'm curious to know how the merging of the two schools changed the "male-female interaction scenario" (oh God, how delicately can I put this?)

[englishangel]

there is a thread somewhere way back posing this very question.

[J.R.]

I only ever played one game of hockey and quickly decided that rugby was much less likely to result in a life-threatening injury.

We used to get American exchange students back in the late 50's. I remember the one who came in 1960 used to play American Football at home but they decided rugby was too dangerous so his parents forbade him playing. that had an interesting side effect - he got a large number of people interested in basketball which AFAIK had not previously been played at CH. (BTW at that time there was an outcasts group which actualy played soccer somewhere other than on the asphalt behind the houses. How downmarket can you get?)

We had one in Coleridge B around 1960, who's surname was Flynn. I was assigned as his swab. At first I found him a typical brash Yank, but we did get on well together in the end.

He had some family connection to the American cartoonist Schultz, of 'Peanuts' fame !

[midget]

We were cetainly expected to have careers, even as long ago as my time at Hertford! For example I wanted to do nursing, but was firmly told by DR that I should do medicine. She was wrong-it was a disaster, so i had jobs (not a career) in textile labs, and then ended up in the Civil Service--DHSS, in the contributions inspectorate, what Joe referred to as the armed branch.

Old Maggie

[cj]

Old Maggie

No! Experienced and worldly Maggie!! xx

[midget]

Old Maggie

No! Experienced and worldly Maggie!! xx

Bless you, my child

Maggie xx