Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Can one of the Hertford women fill me in on the origin of the naming of the houses at Hertford. Were there at any time 1s, 2s, etc?

Originally the houses were called Wards and they were numbered round the square from 1-8. Thus you were in Ward 1 or Ward 7 ........... We used the terms 1's, 2's, 3's etc as shorthand. In about the early 60's someone decided that the name Christ's Hospital with the addition of a Ward number was leading to some confusion, outside the CH community, as to the function of the school. Apparently there were sometimes enquiries from benefits offices etc. As a result the term "Ward" disappeared and the houses were simply numbered 1 to 8.
In the early 60's Wards 1 and 5 were junior houses and 2,3,4,6,7 & 8 were senior houses. Later all houses became through houses. For girls to change houses, other than from a junior house to a senior house, was very rare whilst I was there.
Curiously enough 9's did exist, both physically and linguistically, as a remnant from before the move of the boys to Horsham. 9's was part of the old buildings and had been part of the original accommodation for the girls.In my time it housed the wardrobe (I think). No girls lived there post 1904. The building was always referred to as 9's never Ward 9. We also had a strange cubby hole of a building called "sack" which was used to store and issue shoes.
Does that help?

Many thanks, that clears up my understanding. I wonder if there was ever a thought to naming them after Old Blues.

I agree with Chrissie, about the names etc. 9s did house the Wardrobe on the first floor above it was an area for Guides, can't remember what it was called. I don't remember the place where the shoes were being called sack.

I think the problem with naming them after Old Blues was that in 1904 when the boarding houses were built, there weren't 8 well known female Old Blues. I don't think I can name any, except Susannah, from pre-1904. Susannah is only known for her portraits, not her achievements. The first name entered on the CH register way way back was a girl (Annie?) so girls have been around from the beginning of the school. For the first 350 years or so they were not given the same education.

It took a wholesale change of premises for the boys' numbered wards to be changed to named 'houses'. The wards in London were rooms in larger buildings, while the houses were real houses. I suppose the numbers could have been retained, as the correspondence was, I think, one to one. The ward numbers were retained in a number of OB associations. There is still a ThorntonB and Nines Association, although of course no one any longer who was in Ward 9. Incidentally, the name suggests that '9's' was the term used, as at Hertford, and not just '9'.

I think it was Miss West who, without consulting anyone, suddenly decreed that the Hertford wards were to be called houses.