Welcome to the unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum - for discussing everything CH/Old Blue related. All pupils, parents, families, staff, Old Blues and anyone else related to CH are welcome to browse the boards, register and contribute.
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....
englishangel wrote: The Hairy Bikers have been doing Romania and in one show one of them said about getting great tomatoes growing near sewage plants becayse the seeds go through untouched, and I remember being rold that on the trip.
Certainly tomato seeds are not affected by the digestion system. Equally certain coffee beans are also unaffected and about 500kg per annum are collected after pasing through "monkeys" to become very expensive drinks.
(AIUI they might be lemurs and not monkeys but it's the same principle - definitely something to put you off your breakfast cup of instant.)
Civet cat, if memory serves, which are kept in captivity for the purpose.
They produce the most expensive coffee in the world, as recently discussed when on a repeated travelogue of one of Rick Stein's BBC1 shows.
Alexandra Thrift wrote:JUNIPER HALL. That's exactly where we went. I think it was the summer holidays. A really beautiful area. I didn't realise that there was a famous pub nearby ( doh !). The education centre was a bit run down but nevertheless pleasant. The shady walk along the footpath next to the river ,with trees overhanging, was beautiful.
One of the questions on the interview we did was " Who owns Box Hill ? ". A hippy answered " Nobody owns it. How can someone OWN a hill ? " ; a reply I thought wonderful at the time ( and studiously wrote on my chart). ( the answer was very boring, like the local County Council...though it is probably The National Trust now )
Anyhow , I had completely forgotten about that trip, so thanks for jogging my memory Midget, John ( no, it wasn't you leaping around in the bushes ) and the other story tellers.
sejintenej wrote:
Certainly tomato seeds are not affected by the digestion system. Equally certain coffee beans are also unaffected and about 500kg per annum are collected after pasing through "monkeys" to become very expensive drinks.
(AIUI they might be lemurs and not monkeys but it's the same principle - definitely something to put you off your breakfast cup of instant.)
Civet cat, if memory serves, which are kept in captivity for the purpose.
They produce the most expensive coffee in the world, as recently discussed when on a repeated travelogue of one of Rick Stein's BBC1 shows.
Kopi Lewak coffee and sorry, that should have been 500lbsper annum which goes through the wild Indonesian Lewak (Paradoxus hermaphroditus) a member of the mongoose family. ( http://www.animalcoffee.com/ )
Whatever, just think when you settle into your mug of instant where it might have been!
At £200 per kilo I'll stick to Blue Mountain, thank you very much.
I have been browsing through this Forum and I am equally fascinated and horrified !
1.What the Blue Blazes are "Chapel Caps" ?-- They sound like a primitive form of contraception !
2. No the "Flasher" was not I neither-- Englhshangel will note , nor I 'but of course we are different grammatical generarations also, he says -- smugly
Neill - a chapel cap was a bit like a beanie, in navy blue with gold piping and the school crest on the front. I have one here somewhere, but not sure that I have the technical expertise to photograph it, save the photo to the computer and e-mail it. However perhaps someone else has - I think my daughter Maria also has one. I shall explore the possibilities when we are in Finland at Easter. I love the idea of some primitive form of contraception - as if we at Hertford would ever have had the opportunity to require such a thing! However, in a warped sort of way I guess it was, because we were never allowed to set foot outside outside the school gates (or of course in chapel - St Paul strikes again!) without donning these incredibly unattractive garments - guaranteed to scare off any interested male out there in the 'real' world. Even the monitresses who delivered mail to the staff houses across the road had to wear a hat to do so.
I liked the chapel caps; they were unusual, and furthermore my initial one was so threadbare that it was condemned after a year and I had a new one! Absolutely new! Lovely bright gold piping and a gleaming badge!
Come to think of it, it's interesting that a worn out garment at Hertford wasn't scrapped or thrown out, it was condemned. What a word!
"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.""
At the top, a hook for the chapel cap. You could hang your Ashbourne hat from here too, by it's dangling tapes, in summer.
Below, a double hook for brush-and-comb bag, mac or blazer, light blue aertex games blouse, scarf in House colour in winter.
Below that, a shiny wooden bench which ran round half the cloakroom. Under the bench, three slats for outdoor shoes, indoor shoes and games shoes + their whitener.
"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.""
You only just missed macs and scarves, Annie. I can't remember exactly when the macs arrived, probably 1961 or 2. I well remember being an Umbrella Girl and having to go round the school searching for the elusive ones marked dark blue. DR gave us the scarves to mark some anniversary of her arrival. Somehow our housemistress had the excellent idea of just cross stitching our house number in the corner in a matching blue to label them. It meant that the marking hardly showed, it may have been the only good idea she had as a housemistress!
Did other houses mark things in cross stitch? (Brush & Comb bags, um what else?) If so did you do it in your house colour?
Hmm... in 1964 when I was assimilated, I believe the scarves were a fairly new acquisition?
Ann, what did you have for everyday coats in winter? Did you wear year-round blazers? The macs suffered greatly from being hung on the cloakroom hooks, as on rainy days they never had a chance to dry out properly. I remember mine as feeling damp for days on end!
I was watching an Attenborough programme of bats huddled up together on a cave wall, and it reminded me a bit of our cloakroom arrangements...
"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.""
Angela we had navy woolen coats, for Sunday best and a weekday one. The Harris Tweed came in for VI form when I was very junior, I think the first ones were all raglan sleeved and V neck, later there was a different style.
A wool coat! That doesn't sound very waterproof! And you had umbrellas? House umbrellas? It must have been impossible to pick one's own umbrella out of 37 others!
"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.""
You didn't have your own brolly, just each Ward (yes!) had their own. 2's were fancy ones different from all the others - instead of hook handles they had loop handles. There were various places where you dumped the brollies when you went into a building and took your coat off, then you were SUPPOSED to remember to take one back with you when you went back to the Ward but ...
They must have been very sturdy ones. I'm just imagining a giant pile outside Chapel on a wet morning! Or dripping onto the wooden floors by the coat racks in School Hall? Forming puddles on the landings of the School and Science Blocks! Or even blighting Miss Gamble's life in the Ante-Room...
The hooded macs must have been amazingly convenient.
"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.""
