Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

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ailurophile
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Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by ailurophile »

Returning from dropping DS back to school yesterday evening, I managed to catch the second half of a BBC4 documentary on health before the NHS. It included some brief but fascinating footage of Christ's Hospital during the 1930s, when a research project into the effects of poor nutrition found that CH pupils were on average 2 inches taller at 13, and 4 inches taller by 16, than their less well-nourished counterparts from the more deprived areas of London.
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by sejintenej »

ailurophile wrote:Returning from dropping DS back to school yesterday evening, I managed to catch the second half of a BBC4 documentary on health before the NHS. It included some brief but fascinating footage of Christ's Hospital during the 1930s, when a research project into the effects of poor nutrition found that CH pupils were on average 2 inches taller at 13, and 4 inches taller by 16, than their less well-nourished counterparts from the more deprived areas of London.
An up-to-date research project by Bristol University was carried out not too long ago using medical data from CH covering over half a century and was mentioned here. The outcome was that OBs had a longer average lifespan than the (to (?mis)quote an uncertain MP) hoi polloi
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by Kit Bartlett »

Did not Doctor Friend CH Doctor, a great expert on diet, publish during the nineteen thirties and forties publish a work on the health of the British Schoolboy at that time ? It was certainly he who introduced weighing three times a term. I do not suppose that this practice still operates and it would be interesting to know when it was discontinued. I have various school calendars in my CH memorabilia collection. In the Michaelmas 1970 term Weighing took place only once, on the second day. Lent term 1977 shows a date for Juniors only.
I remember completing the Bristol survey some years back which asked a number of pertinent questions about one's medical history.
When Doctor Tommy Scott took over as School Doctor in 1946 he sat for a week at the Coleridge B Dining Hall table and ate only what the boys did. Presumably this was of use in improving the school diet.
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by Fjgrogan »

In Hertford durng my time (1956 - 62) we used to be weighed and measured at the beginning of each term. We were also inspected for posture and feet problems, and if necessary assigned to remedial sessions known as 'back drill' and 'flat feet'! I do not remember anyone who was overweight in spite of the vast amounts of food on offer.
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by postwarblue »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... _Recovery/

VERY brief clip from CH at about minute 45.

Gordon Peiser of Mid A, who was at CH when the war started, told me that when rationing came in the food improved considerably. My own post-war memories of Housey Stew and Skiffage Pie leave me wondering what on earth the food was indeed like in the 1930s. One would have been unlikely to leave CH with a trained and discerning palate.

In my day under Dr Friend's successor, Tommy Scott, we were weighed and so forth and at the beginning of each school year measured in detail - chest, biceps etc. Must be a fascinating archive.

There's a hidden question about whether the CH boy provided a representative sample, since those who failed the medical requirements or the really less intelligent didn't get in.
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by Angela Woodford »

Fjgrogan wrote:In Hertford durng my time (1956 - 62) we used to be weighed and measured at the beginning of each term. We were also inspected for posture and feet problems, and if necessary assigned to remedial sessions known as 'back drill' and 'flat feet'! I do not remember anyone who was overweight in spite of the vast amounts of food on offer.
Really not, Frances? I began in 1964, and quickly became overweight through comfort eating. I remember quite a few girls who were overweight! I think I was about fifteen when a selection of us were summoned to the Infirmary and weighed by (absolutely huge) Sister Summers, and I remember my subsequent chat with Dr Jory very well. "A bit slow are we?" he enquired, as I stood, horribly embarrassed, in front of his desk. "Not very good at Maths?" I nodded, dumbly, instantly morphing into the role I was expected to play.

"Hmm..." he said scribbling something. "Well, we're going to put you on some tablets!"

He promptly put me on thyroxin. No blood tests, no further questioning about why I'd got so fat. I was filled with nervous anxiety every day - I ate everything I could to try and allay my feelings of inferiority and failure. Thyroxin! The stupid man. I think I lost a pound and then gained it again.

Still, the rice pudding was really, really good.
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by michael scuffil »

I remember being weighed and measured for height at the beginning and end of each term, and having other measurements taken less frequently (annually?).

I think all schools should do this as a matter of course, and I'm surprised it wasn't routine in other boarding schools at the time.

Dr Scott's son was in ThB, and was, shall we say, 'weedy'. When at the end of term it was discovered that he'd only put on, say, three pounds, the doctor would mutter, under his breath but audibly, 'Wretch!'.
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

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Fjgrogan wrote:In Hertford durng my time (1956 - 62) we used to be weighed and measured at the beginning of each term. We were also inspected for posture and feet problems, and if necessary assigned to remedial sessions known as 'back drill' and 'flat feet'! I do not remember anyone who was overweight in spite of the vast amounts of food on offer.
I can confirm what Frances says. We were pretty well exact contemporaries, and on the few occasions I came into contact with Hertford girls, I don't recall any fat ones. There weren't many fat boys, either.
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by Katharine »

Surprise, surprise I couldn't see my Dad there in the CH clip! He did have fairly distinctive hair, so there was a chance of seeing him!
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by fra828 »

Angela Woodford wrote:
Fjgrogan wrote:In Hertford durng my time (1956 - 62) we used to be weighed and measured at the beginning of each term. We were also inspected for posture and feet problems, and if necessary assigned to remedial sessions known as 'back drill' and 'flat feet'! I do not remember anyone who was overweight in spite of the vast amounts of food on offer.
Really not, Frances? I began in 1964, and quickly became overweight through comfort eating. I remember quite a few girls who were overweight! I think I was about fifteen when a selection of us were summoned to the Infirmary and weighed by (absolutely huge) Sister Summers, and I remember my subsequent chat with Dr Jory very well. "A bit slow are we?" he enquired, as I stood, horribly embarrassed, in front of his desk. "Not very good at Maths?" I nodded, dumbly, instantly morphing into the role I was expected to play.

"Hmm..." he said scribbling something. "Well, we're going to put you on some tablets!"

He promptly put me on thyroxin. No blood tests, no further questioning about why I'd got so fat. I was filled with nervous anxiety every day - I ate everything I could to try and allay my feelings of inferiority and failure. Thyroxin! The stupid man. I think I lost a pound and then gained it again.

Still, the rice pudding was really, really good.

Vast amounts of food? I only remember the usual meals and tuck on 3 days a week, and that was only about 3 sweets a time.At tea we got alot of bread that would pile on the pounds. I hated Friday lunch of steamed fish followed by stodge pudding, hardly ate a thing if I could help it. In the 5th form(couldn't get away with it in more junior classes), a couple of us would sneak out to Hertford Woolworths to fill up on broken biscuits-1p for big bag! How insulting for Dr Jury to speak to you like that Angela .. and what's maths got to do with it?!
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by Angela Pratt 56-63 »

Yes Frances no fatties at all. I was 9stone 13 lbs when I started and stayedthe same most of the time only going up to 10.2 in7 years.(not the same since...) food was nothing special and tuck was restricted but when I went to college we had doughnuts or lardy buns for elevenses every day...!
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by pierre »

I also do not remember many overweight pupils in the years 61-69. But we didn't starve either! Much of the food was good although I do even now remember with some loathing the disgusting porridge every day for breakfast that set solid in the bowls. We got got cornflakes instead on Weds and Sundays. Sausages made excellent projectiles but best of all were the bullet like peas which could be launched from the end of ones knife practicaly to the ceiling in that enormous dining hall. I seem to recall on one occasion We even managed to hit Clarry Seaman from the Barnes table! Woolworths in Horsham had an excellent line in broken biscuits although I can't remember how much they were. Can't have been much.
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by Angela Woodford »

fra828 wrote: Vast amounts of food? I only remember the usual meals and tuck on 3 days a week, and that was only about 3 sweets a time.At tea we got alot of bread that would pile on the pounds. I hated Friday lunch of steamed fish followed by stodge pudding, hardly ate a thing if I could help it. In the 5th form(couldn't get away with it in more junior classes), a couple of us would sneak out to Hertford Woolworths to fill up on broken biscuits-1p for big bag! How insulting for Dr Jury to speak to you like that Angela .. and what's maths got to do with it?!
:oops: :oops: :oops:

It was possible to eat a lot for comfort on that school diet. The excellent bread, breakfast, lunch and tea! Remember the system for second helpings? Whichever junior was due to perform this task patrolled up the tables at where "more" was due to start, attempting to move fast, "more? more? more?" taking up to the Housemistress the plate of anyone who wanted a second helping until all the syrup spong (or whatever) was gone. Then "more" would stop at that point on the table, where it would recommence the next day.

There's a picture of me somewhere, aged about 13, which is the age at which I went into a Senior House and began the daily system of punishments by The Study. My cheeks are beginning to become pudgy and my waist to burst out of a tight skirt. Oh no! But comfort eating was becoming established with me. I remember the broken biscuits at Wooolworths! There was a particular variety, bashed about and totally crumbily delicious covered in a sickly caramel icing. Mmm, a bag of those to scrunch seemed to help through some of life's difficulties...

It was easier to eat even more in the V1 Form, when you could go out into Hertford with a friend, or even alone! A great friend and I - the same size - would hurry to the newsagent, buy an ice cream and repair to a little hill in the Castle grounds to slurp down our treat. A constant litany would be how we would undoubtably lose weight when we left School. But in the meantime, we were both about twelve stone.

"When we get down to eleven stone..."

"Yes. When we get down to eleven stone..."

It seemed an entrancing dream of future beauty.

There certainly were a few other fat girls. A fat girl wouldn't forget that there were other fat girls. A great comfort.

Meanwhile, there was the beginning humiliation of continuing "weighing and measuring" at the beginning of each term. After the failure of the thyroxin experiment, no further attempt was made to encourage me to lose weight. "Squizzing", which I think happened at a random point during the term was a ghastly embarassment - everybody hated it. A cretonne-covered screen would be set up in the gym in front of the small dais, at which Nellie would sit as one took off the Aertex shirt, slung it over the screen, and stood for inspection. (Neat notes by Nellie.) Then there'd be the request to turn around and bend over slowly. I suppose this would be to evaluate the straightness of one's spine. (More notes.) The anxiety involved here was exacerbated by the problem of those not wearing a school bra (panic!) and many a pre-squizz swap was made prior to the procedure.

"Feet" and "Backs" happened in the gym with the junior games mistress before chapel. I went to "Feet" for a term, and attempted to pick up bean bags and bamboo canes with my toes to help with my foot pronation. I don't know if it did any good. (I wish Nellie could see a modern gait evaluation treadmill with video recordings of one's foot placement when running - I bet she'd love such an invention! :wink: )

There was a below the belt examination by Dr Jory - maybe when we were about thirteen? I can remember lying in the Infirmary, semi-draped by a blanket while he made a few prods at my lower abdomen. Happily, my memories of this inexpert moment have faded. Remember queueing up in the Infirmary after breakfast if you felt ill, whilst big bossy Sister Summers saw each in turn outside her clinical room? No chance of privacy - the queue behind heard exactly what you were compaining of, and a considered malingerer would be briskly dismissed, to slink away... If Sister thought there really was anything wrong, you'd wait in the corridor to be seen by Dr Jory. He'd sit in an armchair in Sister's sitting room and you'd stand uncomfortably the other side of the room and blurt out your symptoms. This routine for a consultation with a doctor seems incredible to me now!

Thyroxin! Dr Jory must have considered that hypothyroidism was presenting in me with the symptoms of weight gain, and slow wittedness... hence the "bad at Maths?" question. Very bad - to dish out a strong dose of thyroxin to a teenager in such a careless manner! Still, no harm done. But I've since been very weight conscious for the rest of my life.

All these memories! :roll:
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by michael scuffil »

pierre wrote: I do even now remember with some loathing the disgusting porridge every day for breakfast that set solid in the bowls.
Yes, I tried the porridge on my first full day at CH. Shock, horror. About six years later, I thought: 'Maybe it wasn't that bad.' And tried it again. Shock, horror. All the other days I had 'milk and sugar only' (which I suppose was reasonably nourishing).
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Re: Fascinating documentary footage of 1930s CH

Post by DavidRawlins »

When I started in 1946 porridge was served every day. It was always lumpy. I used to resort to putting the marmalade we were given (which I did not like either) into it.
The next year a choice of cornflakes was available every day.
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