Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

This may have been dealt with at length and I just never found the thread.

When the girls came from Hertford, the number of boys must have decreased by a similar amount. Was this done by several previous years of smaller intake, so there were enough beds waiting when the girls came? There must have been a lot of accommodations (in every sense) for new traditions.

If there is a site that covers all the changes that took place, please let me know. If not, it would be fascinating to hear from both sides about that first year.

I'm sure we have, or at least, did have some ladies on this site that were present at the time of the transfer.

Ladies - Can you help LongGone ?

Needless to say, the transfer was 'after my time' !!

J.R. wrote:I'm sure we have, or at leat, did have some ladies on this site that were present at the time of the transfer.

Ladies - Can you help LongGone ?

Needless to say, the transfer was 'after my time' !!

Vonny was around at that time I believe from previous postings. Not sure whether or not she still visits the forum.

There were smaller intakes, primarily of boys, for some years before reuniting the schools. The number of boys' houses grew less over the subsequent years, until the school has equal numbers of boys and girls. The Coleridge block was in the first wave of the conversions.

Both my daughters were amongst those involved in the great migration from Hertford to Horsham, otherwise known as CHAOS (Christ's Hospital Amalgamation of Sites (?Schools). I shall nudge the one who still sometimes contributes to this forum, for her reminiscences. I do remember at that time ploughing through the Blue Book and calculating that there were two and a half boys to every girl at the time of the merger - can't imagine why I did that!

Fjgrogan wrote:Both my daughters were amongst those involved in the great migration from Hertford to Horsham, otherwise known as CHAOS (Christ's Hospital Amalgamation of Sites (?Schools). I shall nudge the one who still sometimes contributes to this forum, for her reminiscences. I do remember at that time ploughing through the Blue Book and calculating that there were two and a half boys to every girl at the time of the merger - can't imagine why I did that!

So much for 'equal opportunities' in those days !

The girls must have been rubbing their hands in anticipation.

Fjgrogan wrote:Both my daughters were amongst those involved in the great migration from Hertford to Horsham, otherwise known as CHAOS (Christ's Hospital Amalgamation of Sites (?Schools). I shall nudge the one who still sometimes contributes to this forum, for her reminiscences. I do remember at that time ploughing through the Blue Book and calculating that there were two and a half boys to every girl at the time of the merger - can't imagine why I did that!

I wonder what the girls did with the half boys?

michael scuffil wrote:

Fjgrogan wrote:Both my daughters were amongst those involved in the great migration from Hertford to Horsham, otherwise known as CHAOS (Christ's Hospital Amalgamation of Sites (?Schools). I shall nudge the one who still sometimes contributes to this forum, for her reminiscences. I do remember at that time ploughing through the Blue Book and calculating that there were two and a half boys to every girl at the time of the merger - can't imagine why I did that!

I wonder what the girls did with the half boys?

Hmm !! Interesting !!

I await comment with interest.

I guess it would depend on which half!

Mid A 15 wrote:
Vonny was around at that time I believe from previous postings. Not sure whether or not she still visits the forum.

I was and I do!

When we moved to Horsham in 1985 there were two houses that had been converted, Barnes and Coleridge. So yes, we girls were greatly outnumbered (not that we saw that as a problem!). During my time there these were the only two girls houses. Don't think it was that long after I left that the other two houses were taken over by girls. From what I remember, the boys thought the girls houses were palaces compared to theirs, and from what I saw of the boys houses I would agree. The girls houses hadn't been refurbished brilliantly though, the cubicles (for two) we had on the second floor were rubbish - no doors, just a curtain and the partition walls did not reach the ceiling so noise was an issue. We may as well have been in a dormitory. The Hertford cubicles on the other hand had doors and proper walls! The houses have been refurbished again since then as when I visited for OBD there were quite a few changes.
I don't know exactly how the reduction of boys happened, how long it took etc ....

But Vonny, compare that with the dormitory set-up that we had at Hertford before they built the cubies in upper dorms; bright mustard yellow curtains hanging from black metal poles to separate the beds from each other (but only supposedly for dressing in privacy) - in fact we didn't use them - we quickly learned to dress efficiently underneath our nighties! This meant that we didn't have the chore of refolding and hanging the curtains each day before bedmaking inspection. So when the upper dorms were converted to 'real' cubicles we saw it as a great luxury; it must indeed have been a great letdown when you moved to Horsham.

Fjgrogan wrote:But Vonny, compare that with the dormitory set-up that we had at Hertford before they built the cubies in upper dorms;

I definitely appreciate that we had it good compared to years gone by but it was a backward step when we moved to Horsham. That said, if I could do my time again, I would rather be at Horsham than Hertford, but am glad I got to experience both!

By the time I arrived in late 1983, the reduction in intake for the merger was already well underway. Barnes A & B were empty during my 2nd & 3rd form having been "moved" to Thorn B & Mid B respectively and both Col A & B were cleared of boys and their stuff by the end of Summer Term 1984. Then the lovely ladies arrived in September 1985.

There was no further official change until the end of the Summer Term 1989 when LHB was transformed into a girls' house with Alison Muir as the Housemistress. I remember Mr Sillett having a get together for old LHB pupils & staff at the end of the summer term. LHA followed suit a couple of years later I believe and then Thornton was next to be changed over.

The addition of Grecians East & West in the early 2000s obviously helped increase the numbers slightly all round by freeing up approx 100+ spaces from the "standard" boarding houses.

Clearly the upheaval for the girls was greater than for the boys. My two were lucky in that the move came at a natural break in their academic career - ie one was just about to start GCSE subjects and the other had just taken GCSEs and was moving onto A levels. But I feel sorry for those who were halfway through A levels and had a different range of subjects available. I believe some spent their Lower VI year joining with boys at Haileybury for some subjects before the move - presumably subjects available at Horsham but not at Hertford? There must have been a greater range of subjects at Horsham, but I wonder what effect the disruption in midstream had? Bear in mind that in those days the norm was to study a subject for two years and just have exams at the end, not the bitesize chunks they do nowadays!

Fjgrogan wrote:but I wonder what effect the disruption in midstream had? Bear in mind that in those days the norm was to study a subject for two years and just have exams at the end, not the bitesize chunks they do nowadays!

It wasn't good. I was half way through my O levels when we moved to Horsham. It was difficult to adjust to the changes in my opinion.