Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Now I see, Andy; thank you!

J.R. wrote:

michael scuffil wrote:

Deb GP wrote:
Oh and the old beds. Their legacy on my back made bed shopping an absolute nightmare - I'm honestly so much more comforatble on the floor than most beds.

My sentiments entirely. Answer: buy a bedstead on which you can place boards, then put a good futon on them. Brilliant.

I thought you found them in soup ?

-------------------I think he means CRETINS !

Mid A 15 wrote:

Angela Woodford wrote:

Deb GP wrote:
I still pine for the layout of toyces much to my husband's annoyance and the manner in which I keep our study.

What is a toyce, please?

In modern parlance they would be described as work stations. They were (large) desks with partitions for privacy and one could almost create a mini study within the dayroom with a bit of creative decoration.

They were considered state of the art when they appeared during my time in the sixties and the rumour was that they were designed by Barnes Wallis.

I have no idea as to whether or not that actually was the case.

Toyces were after my time but I am pretty certain BW had something to do with them. I seem to remember him coming into Barnes B dayroom to have a look around and get an idea for what would fit.

Mid A 15 wrote:

Angela Woodford wrote:

Deb GP wrote:
I still pine for the layout of toyces much to my husband's annoyance and the manner in which I keep our study.

Oh and the old beds. Their legacy on my back made bed shopping an absolute nightmare - I'm honestly so much more comforatble on the floor than most beds.

What is a toyce, please?

Those horrible hard CH mattresses, with the dip in the middle! It was lovely to get home and sleep in a soft bed again! And that was before my back suffered from the heavy lifting that was nursing in the Seventies. There was no compulsory use of lifting aids/ hoists/slidy sheets then.

How I love the bed I have now. I forget the name of the stuff, but it moulds to curve where I do.

I know we called our CH mattresses "horsehair", but were they? Remembering the time we had the lemon jelly midnight feast underneath a bed (and set fire to the mattress with the candle) the smouldering mattress stuffing smelled horrible.

In modern parlance they would be described as work stations. They were (large) desks with partitions for privacy and one could almost create a mini study within the dayroom with a bit of creative decoration.

They were considered state of the art when they appeared during my time in the sixties and the rumour was that they were designed by Barnes Wallis.

I have no idea as to whether or not that actually was the case.

In 1958 in Maine A two of us built what would certainly be called a toyce as part of our Manual shop class. I know the basic design was quickly copied by others. I cannot swear ours was the first, but I do know it was not influenced by Barnes-Wallis

Reverting to the original topic:

Do pupils still say "Quis?" "Ego!" or was all that stuff left behind in the days of Jennings & Darbishire, Billy Bunter and yours truly?

They do still use Latin phrases. Most of the old Housey slang has died out now but some still remains.

onewestguncopse wrote:They do still use Latin phrases. Most of the old Housey slang has died out now but some still remains.

What a shame ! When I was last down at C.H., I was talking to some of the girls in Coleridge B. One of them had a booklet of Housey slang and a lot of the contents, even I didn't know !

I know that the CH Housey special has not run for many years. How do pupils travel home now if not being able to be picked up by car? Presumably by normal train from CH station. Does the school still break up in the early morning ?
When did travelling home in Housey uniform cease ? When did travelling into Horsham in uniform stop ?

Is streaming still practised ? The forms from Lower Fourth to Great Erasmus were streamed into two levels,by alphabetical order ;generally classics A,B,C, and non classics D and E. Mathematics was in five streams .We had one boy I remember who was in stream 1 for Maths. yet in the D stream otherwise,

Chrissie Boy wrote:Reverting to the original topic:

Do pupils still say "Quis?" "Ego!" or was all that stuff left behind in the days of Jennings & Darbishire, Billy Bunter and yours truly?

Yes indeedy, they still use Quis and Ego. Everyone's pretty cautious about it, cos everyone suspects that the Quisser is trying to palm off an empty packet to them so they don't have to take it to the bin. So it's more like "QUIS?" and "......Ego..."

2007-2013

BroadieMan wrote:

Chrissie Boy wrote:So it's more like "QUIS?" and "......Ego..."

I remember there being a third part of “Quis?” and “Ego!” It was “Fin” (the latin was not as good as the other two words), indicating that the process has been completed.

Thanks for that, Oliver and PR.

Call me reactionary, but I dread to think what the (presumably) latter-day Housey slang is, even though it's certain to be no less valid than older terminology...as long as it doesn't consist of words which are also used beyond the ring fence by ordinary mortals without yellow stockings. Or did JR mean that the bulk of the slang which he didn't know was Newgate slang, obscurer even than fotches and owls?

Haven't seen any posts by A Dirty Old Jack on this forum lately, but I'm nonetheless wondering whether the term jack is still in use at CH, meaning a dirty old man. Is it? Or did it sink like a stone after the '70s, settling on the bottom of the murky pond of disuse?

Chrissie Boy wrote:Thanks for that, Oliver and PR.

Call me reactionary, but I dread to think what the (presumably) latter-day Housey slang is, even though it's certain to be no less valid than older terminology...as long as it doesn't consist of words which are also used beyond the ring fence by ordinary mortals without yellow stockings. Or did JR mean that the bulk of the slang which he didn't know was Newgate slang, obscurer even than fotches and owls?

Haven't seen any posts by A Dirty Old Jack on this forum lately, but I'm nonetheless wondering whether the term jack is still in use at CH, meaning a dirty old man. Is it? Or did it sink like a stone after the '70s, settling on the bottom of the murky pond of disuse?

When I checked later, it appeared that most of the Housey slang I didn't know was indeed, way way back !

Dirty Old Jack does raise up from time to time. However, an alter ego is suspected !

Are the words stick and slurp still used at CH, denoting a swot and/or a pupil who tries to suck up to members of staff?

Chrissie Boy wrote:Are the words stick and slurp still used at CH, denoting swots and/or pupils who try to suck up to members of staff?

I certainly never heard those expressions used.