Dormitories, studies etc...

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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Jude
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Dormitories, studies etc...

Post by Jude »

Thought I would start another topic up to regurgitate all the crap in my head... I remember in 5's our dorm had 18 beds, dorm runs were frequently encouraged by the older pupils (I think to get us younger ones into trouble - and it worked!) the order was to get around the dorm from your bed and back again without touching the ground at all...... Some girls were really frumpy and didn't want you to tread on their bed - if it was a 3rd former you had no choice, you had to let them stand on your bed - they were like God - as for the L6 & U6, you didn't make eye contact let alone speak to them!!

I remember we also stuffed the HUGE red fire alarm bell with tissues so we could dreep out at night down the fire escape and no one knew - you did have to get back though - and that was dependant on someone in the form allowing you back in through the fire door!!
Jude Comber (nee Kelynack) 5's 5.38 1975-1980 Herts.
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Post by Vonny »

I don't remember how many beds we had in 2's dorm but I do remember the "dorm runs" - not sure if we called them that though. As you say - the 3rd form ruled in dorm. I seem to remember each year had a different time to be in bed which was silly really as if you were a !st or 2nd year there was no way you could get to sleep with the racket the 2nd & 3rd form made :roll:
I remember as soon as "Laurie" turned the lights out we would get out of bed and talk on other people's beds. She very rarely came back in after lights out but I do remember the few times she did - you could normally get away with just lying still on whoevers bed you happened to be on - she was blind as a bat 8) I once snuck upstairs to see Tanya Heasman who shared a room with 2 others - we heard Laurie coming up the stairs so I jumped in the cupboard and she was none the wiser 8)
I remember the fire escapes - we really only used them when we had the fire practices in the middle of the night :twisted:
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dorms

Post by midget »

There were 16 beds in each of the two main dorms, plus one room with 3 beds, and one single room ( I had that one my last term because I was doing S-levels-HEAVEN)
A couple of years earlier I was put in the 3-bedder with 2 juniors, one of whom was not wanted in the main dorm because of the racket she made when she was asleep.(she had something wrong with her nose, and her friend could have slept through the last trump) The arrangement was that I would wake up the noisy one when I went to bed, and that I would go to sleep before she did ha!ha! After a couple of weeks with no sleep I finally got my bed moved into the main dorm but in the fireplace space, so there was no front curtain Happy days!
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Post by Jude »

I remember moving upstairs into cubies - 2 to a room - I shared with a girl called Jane Newton - she had the most wonderful auburn hair, but we were not mates at all - all hair drying was done in the "boudoir" which was a space between the 1st set of 3 cubies and the next.

Head of house had single room (above the linnen cupboard in 5's)

deputy head and prefect had a 2 bedder - next to the loos - and heaven of all heavens was a WARM 4 -5 bed room that looked out over the avenue - but you had to be quiet as you were above the house mistress -

We had Mrs Cook when I first arrived then a South affrican lady whose name I fail to recollect.... 6's had the nicest and worst housemistress - she was a chimney smoker and made marmalade every year into which fell her fag ash (yes we did nick name her fag ash lil) I can't for the life of me remember her name, but she seemed very kindly - if you could tolerate the smoking!
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Post by Vonny »

Jude wrote: 6's had the nicest and worst housemistress - she was a chimney smoker and made marmalade every year into which fell her fag ash (yes we did nick name her fag ash lil) I can't for the life of me remember her name, but she seemed very kindly - if you could tolerate the smoking!
Mrs Scott-Houghton? :? Otherwise known as "Pot" :lol:
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Post by Jude »

you have her - we called her Scottie though!
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Post by Vonny »

I seem to remember she died when I was still at Hertford.
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Post by Jude »

she retired while I was still there - I'm not surprised she has died though - I know when we look back at 12 years of age everyone in the staff looked to be 100+ in age - now in my 40's I look back and think how small we were!!! And age - 42 is nothing!! But to my daughter - it is "mildly aged" she has stated!
:lol:
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Post by Vonny »

Jude wrote:she retired while I was still there - I'm not surprised she has died though - I know when we look back at 12 years of age everyone in the staff looked to be 100+ in age - now in my 40's I look back and think how small we were!!! And age - 42 is nothing!! But to my daughter - it is "mildly aged" she has stated!
:lol:
I know what you mean - she did look VERY old to me - she came out of retirement to cover for 6's housemistress - can't remember the actual circumstances.
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Post by englishangel »

I thought all the houses were the same but it appears they weren't because 2's certainly didn't have a 2 bedder next to the loos, or a 4/5 bedder looking over the avenue.

A word for midget.

We didn't have curtains by the time I got there. The cubies were put in in the summer holidays in 1967 in the second floor dorm.

Strange how you were still calling the central bit the boudoir all those years later.
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Post by Jude »

but that's what they were called - goodness knows why - but in there we hung our Cherry Blazers, Tweeds, and Sunday clothes - all the rest of our stuff was either under our beds, in the tiny wardrobe they provided or in the Linnen cupboard (opposite the 1st floor bathrooms)....

Some girls wore makeup in defiance to the rules - it was quite funny watching them being sent back to house to "wipe that mess off your face"!
Jude Comber (nee Kelynack) 5's 5.38 1975-1980 Herts.
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Post by Jude »

Who remembers what we all had to do for fire drills?????

I can remember the ones from in house (usually done about midnight) - and they thought we didn't know!
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Post by englishangel »

The fire escapes were built while I was there. Euterpe may remember the year. Before that only 1's and 5's (the junior houses) had proper stairs, the others had ladders attached to the outside walls.

I don't remember ever having a fire drill tho'.
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Post by Jude »

Grief how things change! We had proper fire escape ladders from the dorm or from upstairs (painted in heavy leaded red)

the drill was usually held not long after the new girls arrived - we all had to "escape" in our school nighties with our slippers and dressing gowns - but leave our teddies behind! and line up on the field where we would have to go through the morning roll call of 5.1, 5.2. etc.... up to me - who was for a while the last number - I wanted to move up a number when the 6th formers left, but instead I stayed the last number until my last year - when we went up to 5.40
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Fire Drill

Post by midget »

I got into trouble once for exiting through the music room window during a fire drill, and then got into more trouble for suggesting that as the fire was most likely to be in the dayroom it would be daft to go out that way.
You can guess the reply "The correct route is through the dayroom and the cloakroom"
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