School Needlework

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....

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
J.R.
Forum Moderator
Posts: 15835
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 4:53 pm
Real Name: John Rutley
Location: Dorking, Surrey

Re: School Needlework

Post by J.R. »

I saw bits of that programme.

Strange lot, the Amish.

Apparently, their teenagers get to spend some time in the modern world, just so they can see what they are giving up.

A bit like taking an alcoholic into a bar before putting him 'on the wagon' !!
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
User avatar
englishangel
Forum Moderator
Posts: 6956
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:22 pm
Real Name: Mary Faulkner (Vincett)
Location: Amersham, Buckinghamshire

Re: School Needlework

Post by englishangel »

I saw bits too, where they were out on the picnic and one of the Brit girls was almost hankering after the Amish lifestyle.

Incidentally my son called me earlier to ask if I have a strong needle. he was checking his tent before going camping next weekend and one of the seams has come apart and he wants to stitch it up.

Update later on whether he did it, or if it is waiting for me to go home.
"If a man speaks, and there isn't a woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"
User avatar
J.R.
Forum Moderator
Posts: 15835
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 4:53 pm
Real Name: John Rutley
Location: Dorking, Surrey

Re: School Needlework

Post by J.R. »

englishangel wrote:I saw bits too, where they were out on the picnic and one of the Brit girls was almost hankering after the Amish lifestyle.

Incidentally my son called me earlier to ask if I have a strong needle. he was checking his tent before going camping next weekend and one of the seams has come apart and he wants to stitch it up.

Update later on whether he did it, or if it is waiting for me to go home.
Sounds like a job for DBTS.

A curved sailors needle would be ideal.
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
kerrensimmonds
Button Grecian
Posts: 9395
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2005 8:34 pm
Real Name: Kerren Simmonds
Location: West Sussex

Re: School Needlework

Post by kerrensimmonds »

What's a 'curved sailor'?
Kerren Simmonds
5's and 2's Hertford, 1957-1966
User avatar
J.R.
Forum Moderator
Posts: 15835
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 4:53 pm
Real Name: John Rutley
Location: Dorking, Surrey

Re: School Needlework

Post by J.R. »

kerrensimmonds wrote:What's a 'curved sailor'?

I see you've been at the Wincarnis again, Kerren !
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
kerrensimmonds
Button Grecian
Posts: 9395
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2005 8:34 pm
Real Name: Kerren Simmonds
Location: West Sussex

Re: School Needlework

Post by kerrensimmonds »

I thought you might have replied 'a bent sailor' - but without casting nasturtiums at DBTS.
Kerren Simmonds
5's and 2's Hertford, 1957-1966
Angela Woodford
Button Grecian
Posts: 2880
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:55 am
Real Name: Angela Marsh
Location: Exiled Londoner, now in Staffordshire.

Re: School Needlework

Post by Angela Woodford »

Oh well. I wanted to discuss our needlework skills...
"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.""
User avatar
J.R.
Forum Moderator
Posts: 15835
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 4:53 pm
Real Name: John Rutley
Location: Dorking, Surrey

Re: School Needlework

Post by J.R. »

Angela Woodford wrote:Oh well. I wanted to discuss our needlework skills...

Try and keep this post on THREAD !!!!!!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
Angela Woodford
Button Grecian
Posts: 2880
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:55 am
Real Name: Angela Marsh
Location: Exiled Londoner, now in Staffordshire.

Re: School Needlework

Post by Angela Woodford »

Spoiled now.
"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.""
MaryB
GE (Great Erasmus)
Posts: 161
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:35 am
Real Name: Mary Bowden (Gaskell)

Re: The World's Squarest Teenagers

Post by MaryB »

Angela Woodford wrote:
Hertford CH Girls - possibly the squarest teenagers of our time? But we could sew!
Oh no I couldn't......
Mary Bowden (Gaskell)
5.10, 3.6: 64-71
Angela Woodford
Button Grecian
Posts: 2880
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:55 am
Real Name: Angela Marsh
Location: Exiled Londoner, now in Staffordshire.

Re: School Needlework

Post by Angela Woodford »

Ahem! Mary! You could sew, allright...

I have never forgotten the time we queued to have DR and SWSNBN inspect us wearing our Needlework! I know I've written about it before, but I, having been quickly inspected with something of a shudder by the two dragon women, remember the beaming approval that greeted you, next in the line.

"Very nice!"

"Very nice!"

And DR added "You have a trim figure, Mary!"

It was a bit agonising for fattie me. So like brusque, rude, tactless DR. I was not only bursting out of my (unfortunately bright scarlet) garment, but had completely b%ggered the bound buttonholes thereof. I emitted a lack-of-moral-fibre whimper and fled, to rip the Needlework from me in despair.

Your sewing was not only excellent, but you looked terrific in it too! 8)
"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.""
midget
Button Grecian
Posts: 3186
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:49 pm
Real Name: Margaret O`Riordan
Location: Barnstaple Devon

Re: School Needlework

Post by midget »

At least we were spared having to parade before DR and Miss Hindsley.
Thou shalt not sit with statisticians nor commit a social science.
MaryB
GE (Great Erasmus)
Posts: 161
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:35 am
Real Name: Mary Bowden (Gaskell)

Re: School Needlework

Post by MaryB »

Angela Woodford wrote:Ahem! Mary! You could sew, allright...

I have never forgotten the time we queued to have DR and SWSNBN inspect us wearing our Needlework! I know I've written about it before, but I, having been quickly inspected with something of a shudder by the two dragon women, remember the beaming approval that greeted you, next in the line.

"Very nice!"

"Very nice!"

And DR added "You have a trim figure, Mary!"

It was a bit agonising for fattie me. So like brusque, rude, tactless DR. I was not only bursting out of my (unfortunately bright scarlet) garment, but had completely b%ggered the bound buttonholes thereof. I emitted a lack-of-moral-fibre whimper and fled, to rip the Needlework from me in despair.

Your sewing was not only excellent, but you looked terrific in it too! 8)
I really have no memory of this at all, or of anyone ever saying anything good about my needlework - though I do remember being told I had one shoulder higher than the other.
I also remember going to my Oxford interview in a collection of everyone's school needlework that remotely fitted (my skirt, Carolynn's coat (which can't have done up), someone else's blouse). I got changed in the Ladies at Paddington. It was the era of Biba, maxi coats, laced short boots...I must have looked like a jumble sale even though every garment was individually fine. I think they took me because I was obviously not going to get distracted by Men, or be any distraction to them....
Mary Bowden (Gaskell)
5.10, 3.6: 64-71
Fjgrogan
Button Grecian
Posts: 1427
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 7:56 pm
Real Name: Frances Grogan (nee Haley)
Location: Surbiton, Surrey

Re: School Needlework

Post by Fjgrogan »

I believe the rule with school needlework was that we had to make a garment a term, but there was nothing to say that it had to be for ourselves; if we made something for someone else then we could not be expected to model it!!
Frances Grogan (Haley) 6's 1956 - 62

'A clean house is a sign of a broken computer.'
midget
Button Grecian
Posts: 3186
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:49 pm
Real Name: Margaret O`Riordan
Location: Barnstaple Devon

Re: School Needlework

Post by midget »

Our rule was thatyou could knit for 2 terms out of the three, and your sewing could be embroidery. This may have been because when I first went to Hertford clothing was still rationed, so it depended on how many coupons you had left.
Thou shalt not sit with statisticians nor commit a social science.
Post Reply