beds

[michael scuffil]

I have heard tell that the beds we had in the 60s, and were still in use at least until the mid 70s, which had come from London, have gone. If so, this was an act of vandalism, as they had a fine Zen aesthetic, and moreover were, after you got used to them, very comfortable (the sicker beds, which were sprung, gave you backache). So comfortable, in fact, that I am now reconstituting something similar for myself.

To understand the principle, you have to understand how most German beds are constructed. They take the form of a bedstead (metal or wood) with a ledge running lengthways along the inside of each side of the frame (just like the CH beds) to support not hard boards but what the Germans call a "Lattenrost". This is a frame the size of the bed containing about 25 springy laths, on which the mattress is supported.

My new bed however will not have a Lattenrost, but loose boards from the DIY shop, on which will be a pseudo-Japanese futon with layers of cotton and coir -- the modern version of horsehair, but not dissimilar in feel.

I got the idea for the mattress from my daughter, who has bought herself a folding bed with a futon and fixed hard boards. Quite cheap and very comfortable. But movable boards are better because they don't corrugate the mattress.

Incidentally a shop called Greenfibres in Totnes sells a similar arrangement at an inflated price.

[kerrensimmonds]

When I was a tiddler, in 1957, in a Junior Ward at Hertford, our bedheads were battered solid black painted iron, the bedframes were solid iron and so was the foot of the bed. I think the bedframe (2'6" wide?) was connected by metal coils side to side and covered by a thin horsehair mattress in white and blue ticking. Rumour had it (although this is apocryphal) these beds came from the Crimean War. Generations before us had carved names, dates, numbers into the painted bedhead. The sheets were rough cotton, more than likely repaired 'sides to middle' so that there was a stonking great raised seam right down the middle of your undersheet. Shortly after that (but whether it was when I went to a Senior House or not, I cannot recall), we got much bigger beds (3 foot wide?) with tubular black bedheads and foots, a tubular frame and (am I right?) a sprung base. The mattresses, while still in white and blue ticking (and may still have been horsehair) were about four times the thickness of their predecessors.
How I now long (51 years later....) for a memory foam mattress to put over the top of my individually sprung mattress on my double divan (and extremely comfortable) bed....

[englishangel]

Our mattresses were certainly horsehair, and the bed bases were horizontal springy metal things. I think they were still either 2'6" or more likely 2'9", as are single beds from IKEA by the way.

[carong]

It still tickles me that our mattresses were so luxurious that we could roll them up at the end of each term!

My daughter informs me that her school bed is more comfortable than her bed at home ... but then that could just be because I'm a terrible mother ...

[Great Plum]

The old horsehair mattresses and wooden boarded beds were still inuse when I was first at CH and got phased out whilst on my seniors...

I do remember when beds were 'lamp posted' (turned vertically) with people in them or the age old trick of removing bed boards...

[midget]

The metal mesh bases stretched with use so that most of them had a pronounced dip in the centre,which was a bit like sleeping in a ditch.

[huntertitus]

They were painted white and had a kind of square slot at the end for your house number

Often, boys would jump onto their bed with such force that a couple of boards would snap

These had to be smuggled out so matron wouldn't find out, and the rest of the boards would be spaced further apart

I'd have bought one if I knew they were being got rid of

As it is I always put boards abobe the springs of a Victorian bed and buy the hardest possible mattress

Better for the spine

I also still like the window open every night and prefer draughty old houses

I suppose they have also closed the windows in the lav ends and installed carpets

The country's gone to the dogs

And I'm turning into a moaning old goat!

[michael scuffil]

They were painted white and had a kind of square slot at the end for your house number

Bryan Magee's memoir includes a story about how he had written an obscene limerick to a boy he fancied (who slept in the bed in question) on the back of the house-number card. He had the gross misfortune of having it discovered by his housemaster, Pongo Littlefield, who made a great moral issue of it (the hypocrite!!)

[jhopgood]

I seem to remember that before going to breakfast we had to strip the beds, fold the blankets and sheets and leave the mattress as a sort of inverted U, or if that was not possible because it was too old and basically hinged in the middle, just doubled over.
After breakfast we had to make the beds before going off to morning chapel.
I can't remember whether the made beds were inspected to ensure they were ok, but the Barnes Matron (Miss Watts?) was reputed to have said to someone, "If you don't make that bed better, you and I are going to fall out"
Swabs had to do their monitor's bed, which was one reason swabs couldn't do trades as monitors were late risers.
Am I delirious and what do they do now?

[michael scuffil]

No John, you're not delirious. That's just how it was. Except on Sundays, when beds were made before breakfast. I too recall that alleged bon mot of Miss Watts, but I suspect it was told of most matrons.

Particular attention had to be given to achieving the so-called "hospital corner". I suppose with the advent of duvets, bedmaking as it was then understood has become a thing of the past.

In fascist houses like Lamb B, the bed had to be stripped before the getting-up bell stopped ringing. Most other places were more laid back (literally!). In Thornton B, we had 5 minutes grace, and to be out of bed by 7. Senior seniors could lie in until 7.15.
House captains were allowed to arrive at breakfast 15 minutes late. In 1963, large numbers of monitors took to "sharing" this privilege, or not coming to breakfast at all. It led to a big hoo-ha. I remember Seaman himself standing outside Hall at 7.15 watching breakfast parade with a list, ticking off monitors as they arrived.

[CHAZ]

We used to fold back delicately the sheets and then arch the mattress too. matron would destroy the bed if she thought the arch was not done well enough. Many people came a cropper and of couse board setting was always a favourite and a pain in the ...when they fell through.

The rising bell was at 7am and bfast at 730. House Monitors would wake us up and as there was a top and bottom dorm, they had their work cut out for them. They would turn on a radio (always Mike Reed radio 1) and use that to bring us around.

When we gathered outside it was notable that grecians were still missing fron the morning parade and if they skipped breakfast it was at their own risk as soemtimes the Housemaster came through or matron and Mrs Wylie of Peele B was
worse than a firing sqaud!

When I was a monitor and SG I slept in the cubilce at the end of top dorm (UF/GE and two HM): The House captain had the cubicle in bottom dorm (Deps/Grecians). As SG I had to be up fast and in front of dining hall to watch the houses come in.

I always will remember Maine A (Junior House in those days) marching in at 710 and always before me! JDS held a reign of terror there and the marching at b'fast was as agood as at lunch: Impressive.

The stragglers would squeeze in around 740 and then it was too late as we locked closed the doors. if Killler Fry or Michael carrington saw you come in after that you were in big trouble....

[gma]

our bedheads were battered solid black painted iron, the bedframes were solid iron and so was the foot of the bed. I think the bedframe (2'6" wide?) was connected by metal coils side to side and covered by a thin horsehair mattress in white and blue ticking.

I for one, loved the beds in Ch Hertford, but the best bit about them was when 'tucking in' newbies by jamming their sheets into the springs on both sides while they were still in bed, the mattresses were so thin you could almost roll up the unfortunate 1st years in them into a horsehair mattress tube and once in, it was almost impossible to get out of it!! I understood this to be the reason that you wanted to get back early from hols so that you could bags the corner beds in dorm, it was certainly my reason! (You needed clear space on both sides of the bed to be able to be 'tucked in' hence the corner bed advantage) - can't remember what it was called in school slang but I'm sure someone can tell me!

[Katharine]

I understood this to be the reason that you wanted to get back early from hols so that you could bags the corner beds in dorm, it was certainly my reason!

You CHOSE your own beds!!! Words fail me, how things changed! Perhaps it was always different in different houses. The Hag took great delight, we assumed, in putting people who did not get on next to each other.

[J.R.]

Our beds were arranged in the dorms by house-number.

[gma]

You CHOSE your own beds!!! Words fail me, how things changed! Perhaps it was always different in different houses. The Hag took great delight, we assumed, in putting people who did not get on next to each other.

I do remember a 'bed plan' in the fist year but, knowing my history, once I understood the benefits I would probably have ignored it, stood my ground and stayed in the bagged bed! I know I had a corner bed for at the very least a year...............

There were all sorts of tortures in 2s, I remember scissors which was regularly played on the first years by our olders and 'betters' - designed purely to make you feel terminally stupid and totally out of the loop!! Very effective too!

(At least I can laugh now............!)