Hertford uniform

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 8:04 am

DR still told the story of the school, always with the little doll saved from the Newgate fire but I can't remember the occasion.

Great Plum · Post by **Great Plum** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 10:10 am

Forgive me if this question has been asked before - but how many uniforms were there at Hertfod?

Mrs C. · Post by **Mrs C.** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 10:26 am

Funnily enough Matt, I was wondering exactly the same thing!
Much easier now, as its all the same ! (apart from girls` socks and varying numbers of buttons etc........ and Ceremonials , of course.)
On the other hand, not quite so interesting!

Katharine · Post by **Katharine** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:53 pm

Great Plum wrote:Forgive me if this question has been asked before - but how many uniforms were there at Hertfod?

As you will have realised, this is not the easiest of questions to answer!
In my time, there was the everyday tunic which was worn by everyone up to GE, in winter we had long sleeved blouses, spring & autumn short sleeved blouses, the VI form had skirts instead of the tunic. In summer we had everyday dresses (VI form skirts and blouses). There was a Sunday uniform in Winter and Summer varieties too.
That is the basic summary however I could go on....

Great Plum · Post by **Great Plum** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 4:43 pm

Good grief - how did you copewith all the uniforms - why not just have one?

AKAP · Post by **AKAP** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:20 pm

Great Plum wrote:Good grief - how did you copewith all the uniforms - why not just have one?

It was all part of a developmental processs. i.e look in the wadrobe at all the school uniforms and then say
"I havn't got anything to wear."

Katharine · Post by **Katharine** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:42 pm

AKAP wrote:
Great Plum wrote:Good grief - how did you copewith all the uniforms - why not just have one?
It was all part of a developmental processs. i.e look in the wadrobe at all the school uniforms and then say
"I havn't got anything to wear."

It seems strange to say, that it didn't seem excessive at the time. It was all stored very efficiently in the wardrobe room in each house. I think both Mary and Alex were wardrobe girls so they know more of that side than I do. One girl from each year worked in the wardrobe starting with being responsible for hankies and then moving through the heirarchy. You NEVER had to make a decision on what to wear, the powers that be decided (perhaps that should read the powers that were). As far as I can remember when the call to change from one to another went out the wardrobe girls did the necessary.

There was a drying room in each house with slatted shelves, these were numbered in order, so on clean clothes day the wardrobe girls put out the clean ones and when we went to bed we picked them up for the morning, Can't remember whether we put the dirties on the shelves or in laundry bags. Details probably varied from house to house.

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:47 pm

I can't remember either. We must have put them into bags I think, I don't remember handling dirty underwear (sorry guys).

Laundry day Tuesday and Friday. Clean underwear/shirt/blouse/dress twice a week (whether you neeed it or not) Clean sheet and pillowcase once a week (top to bottom.)

Clean towel once a week.

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 11:43 pm

Great Plum wrote:Forgive me if this question has been asked before - but how many uniforms were there at Hertfod?

the girls in the picture here

viewtopic.php?t=906&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

are wearing a summer Sunday uniform. from the 60s.

the tunic and socks were grey and the shirts were sky blue and white stripes.

In 1969/70 they changed the grey tunic for a blue straight one.

WildOne · Post by **WildOne** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 3:29 am

I think the thing to remember is that it wasn't 'a uniform' in the way that most schools had, but a complete wardrobe to cover all situations and days of the week. As we had no clothing of our own, there is no single uniform that would have been suitable for every waking hour.

And on the subject of dirty laundry... we definitely had to replace the clean things on our slats with the dirty ones, which were all checked to make sure we had returned all the required items before they were thrown into a central laundry bag.

I still shudder with embarrassment to recall that we were only issued with clean underwear twice a week, and that meant wearing the same pair of 'linings' for THREE OR FOUR DAYS IN A ROW!!! To this day, I cannot comprehend the mentality that thought this was appropriate for pubescent teenager girls!!!!

I remember trying to wash them by hand some evenings, but they were too thick and heavy to dry completely overnight, so I would often wear them cold and damp next day and just pray that people didnt notice the damp patch on the wooden pew as we filed out of chapel in the morning. Sometimes I accepted the punishment of missing chapel so I could sneak into the wardrobe room and steal a spare pair, and sometimes I wore the scratchy outer 'blues' without linings to allow more drying time. Often, I would delay my exit from a classroom so that nobody else would see my damp chair and misinterpret the cause of it! I'm sure now that others must have faced the same dilemma, but it was just never discussed openly by anybody. We weren't allowed our own underwear from home at the time, it was a punishable vanity, so the whole situation was one of constant embarrassment, discomfort and humiliation that continued relentlessly for over five years! Can you imagine amy modern female being subjected to such a horrendous situation??? If I hadn't lived it, I would hardly find the story believable.

Gaye Linskill 4.24 1965-1970

Katharine · Post by **Katharine** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:35 am

When did summer vests go out? We were supposed to wear them but even as a junior this was something we violated most often. In certain lights it could be seen whether they were there or not.

Not only was it 3 or 4 days for our linings it was TWO WEEKS for washing hair, in 6s. Numbers were read out on Saturday morning to say who would be washing hair that day. If you were going on exeat you were permitted to wash it the previous Wednesday. Try telling that to today's teenagers.

Somehow I accepted most of this without rebelling at all. Naively I thought all schools were the same!

AKAP · Post by **AKAP** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:24 am

WildOne wrote: To this day, I cannot comprehend the mentality that thought this was appropriate for pubescent teenager girls!!!!

My wife went to a boarding school, which also managed to get it's knickers in a twist over girls underwear.

The thinking behind the clothing list still puzzles her today.
Her clothing list read
Knickers: White 7 pairs or green 3 pairs.

J.R. · Post by **J.R.** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:31 am

I'm not even going to comment !

('Now, there's a surprise !' , I hear you gasp !

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:36 am

The linings in winter were not too bad, they would just about dry on a radiator, it was those summer 'things' that were dreadful.

And I daren't even mention what else we wore once a month on an open forum.

I quite liked wearing a vest. All my family still wear them. My sons are so skinny they have to keep warm somehow, my husband is from Yorkshire, but you would never believe it the way he complains about the cold. My daughter also likes to keep warm and she wears a lacy undergarment to this end.

DavebytheSea · Post by **DavebytheSea** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 1:05 pm

Having read all of the above, I am speechless - and very foggy about the exact nature of "linings". Until I read Mary's posting, I had altogether mistakenly supposed they were quite something else .....

Makes twice a week Housey issue vests and underpants seem altogether civilised.