Class Differences!

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....

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fra828
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Re: Class Differences!

Post by fra828 »

There was often talk of people possibly having to leave as their parents had 'too much money' to be at CH , but can't remember anyone actually ever leaving for this reason. The variety of backgrounds of CH pupils was great and it generally made for a good mix. Once, I visited a friend (from home) at her 'posh' boarding school in Dorset, and what a contrast! The accents were ALL middle/upper class. My dad was a primary school teacher and my mum was a secretary, so that probably made us middle-class , but CH was/is classless and that's how I like to think of myself.
threesrebel
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Re: Class Differences!

Post by threesrebel »

I must have been unbelievably dense but I never noticed differences until after I left school. It was only then on visiting a CH friend in London that I discovered that Mare Street, Hackney was not the smartest address in the world. Strangely Ruth Turton (who lives about four miles away) and I were agreeing recently that one of the chief benefits of school was this indifference to "class"; most of our parents were dirt poor for one reason or another - the War being a large contributor- and the privations of the lovely uniform and living in "reach me downs" for eight years did a lot to lower the crest of even the most socially conscious!
I have recently been made FURIOUS by the present Headmaster's insistence that having fee paying pupils will iron out differences and teach people to live together..............bring back linings, Berlei bras and that ghastly gold Sunday dress and then we'll see who feels superior!
sejintenej
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Re: Class Differences!

Post by sejintenej »

fra828 wrote:There was often talk of people possibly having to leave as their parents had 'too much money' to be at CH , but can't remember anyone actually ever leaving for this reason. The variety of backgrounds of CH pupils was great and it generally made for a good mix. Once, I visited a friend (from home) at her 'posh' boarding school in Dorset, and what a contrast! The accents were ALL middle/upper class. My dad was a primary school teacher and my mum was a secretary, so that probably made us middle-class , but CH was/is classless and that's how I like to think of myself.
There WAS a strict policy that, once a pupil was in then thery would never have to leave under those circumstances. The family's increased income would be taken into account in calculating fees but that was it.
Parental/home conditions were not widely discussed in Col A when I was there though there was a case where the press gave details of the home conditions of one of our boys. There was widespread sympathy and respect for him and Kit's request that we say nothing to him about it was IMHO unnecessary.

I'm not sure about accents. Coming into Prep A we had a variety of accents from several Irish cities, Devonian and all parts north and east as far as Hong Kong. There were no elocution lessons though, as Peter Hiner has pointed out, one's peers (and occasionally housemaster's canes) ensured that you complied with the masses. I suspect that there was a similar situation in that Dorset school that fra828 writes about. I am told that I had the most awful accent when I left CH and for decades afterwards - it was what I picked up from learning "proper english" at CH. It has toned down a lot but is still most embarrassing. (A couple of the Hertford ladies can attest to that!)

Lastly, IS CH classless? Look at the background of the majority of pupils. Look at the conditions in which they have been raised. Look at the culture of the circles in which they moved. OK so some nose-uppers have got in but have they been like a noxious virus infecting everyone else?
In any case I suggest that "upper-class" is misunderstood. Imagine a woman in her 40's standing behind a serving line dishing out food to a crowd of Orkney and Shetland fishermen - and working to learn their language so she could talk to them. It was a job that needed doing so she did it despite having a personal fortune (in today's terms) approaching £50mm. Ex Cheltenham Girls whatever, she had real class and it showed. Would a WAG be seen anywhere near a place like that? - I class most / all of them as "nouveau riche" with all the contempt that term implies.
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J.R.
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Re: Class Differences!

Post by J.R. »

According to our beloved leader, David Macaroon, there is no longer a 'Working Class' !!

He's dead right !

There's the 'Upper Class'

The 'Middle Class'

.... and the 'Out of Work, Courtesy of the Coalition Class'.

:oops:
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
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