Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Did anyone hear this morning's Book of the Week https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b4ztdd#play It is written and read by Damian Le Bas, who was at Horsham - his Mother was an Art Teacher there after he started. He is a gypsy and was terrified of anyone learning his heritage.

I didn't hear it, but I did hear an interview with him (on Today?) in which, in a very non-public-school accent, he mentioned in passing that he'd been at a public school, and I wondered if it was CH.

There was an extensive interview with him in today's Guardian. He went on to Oxford to study Theology, Hebrew and Greek. Makes a change from totting and flat roofing. No please, don't start lecturing me about political correctness. I will have my little joke. There was a Romany site near us in Kent and when my kids were growing up all my three daughters had Gypsy friends in primary school. The routine is usually that after, or even during, secondary school they get taken out to conform to Romany life - the girls to do basic sort of work and then become housewives and the men to do basic sort of jobs.

I wonder if CH collected the "traveller premium". Every state school receives substantial additional funding for every child from a "travelling family" in the school. It's worth having - or was when I was in education.

I heard this morning's episode - quite entertaining. Reminded me of "Blue Highways" by William Least Heat-Moon.

Katharine wrote: ↑Mon Jun 04, 2018 11:41 am Did anyone hear this morning's Book of the Week https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b4ztdd#play It is written and read by Damian Le Bas, who was at Horsham - his Mother was an Art Teacher there after he started. He is a gypsy and was terrified of anyone learning his heritage.

What a talent for descriptive writing / speech. Unfortunately tinkers are all too often classed with travellers to the mistaken negative views of travellers and in the part I listened to he doesn't even refer to tinkers

When I was young, and living in London, I was a great supporter of gypsy rights and of the MP Norman Dodds who was known as the 'gypsies' friend'. Then my parents moved to the country (briefly) and I actually saw a gypsy encampment for the first time. It was, shall we say, a sobering experience.

This is vaguely off topic and probably only of interest to me.
When I was helping my uncle on my mother's side to do the family tree, one of his ancestors (1890's) had a relationship with a servant whose surname was Traveller, and they had 2 children. He married someone else but I always wondered whether the surname Traveller was real or whether she was from a Travelling family.
Then last week, I was contacted on Facebook by a Hopgood from the same council estate that I lived on. It turns out that her grandfather and mine were cousins and that he married into a gypsy family in Erith.
Suddenly it is all much closer to home than I had previously thought.
I feel sure that in the past, especially in the so called "lower classes", prejudices were not as rampant as they now seem to be.

jhopgood wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 10:57 am
I feel sure that in the past, especially in the so called "lower classes", prejudices were not as rampant as they now seem to be.

When you look at how the poor used to live when we were young there was not much difference between standards. I can remember the kettle springing a leak and it was the travelling people who did the repair. We did distrust tinkers though

sejintenej wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 1:20 pm

jhopgood wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 10:57 am
I feel sure that in the past, especially in the so called "lower classes", prejudices were not as rampant as they now seem to be.

When you look at how the poor used to live when we were young there was not much difference between standards. I can remember the kettle springing a leak and it was the travelling people who did the repair. We did distrust tinkers though

Should one refer back to what is referred to as 'The Good Old Days' ?

I remember well the French onion sellers with the bikes festooned with their wares.

Swill bins for what waste food there was for the pigs. Gas street lamps where I lived in Farnham, Surrey, etc., etc.

jhopgood wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 10:57 am I feel sure that in the past, especially in the so called "lower classes", prejudices were not as rampant as they now seem to be.

You've used the 'c' word. Someone will be along shortly to tell you how wrong you are, but also how preposterous it is that you are wrong...

J.R. wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 2:34 pm

Swill bins for what waste food there was for the pigs. Gas street lamps where I lived in Farnham, Surrey, etc., etc.

Swill bins? what luxury - we didn't have anythng to go in any bin.

Avon wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 3:35 pm

jhopgood wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 10:57 am I feel sure that in the past, especially in the so called "lower classes", prejudices were not as rampant as they now seem to be.

You've used the 'c' word. Someone will be along shortly to tell you how wrong you are, but also how preposterous it is that you are wrong...

Don't worry about it - we all know all about "them" and can simply ignore their comments - that is what really infuriates them.

The opposite of love is not hate - it is indifference - so that is what to show

In the late 40s and the 50s the ‘swill bins’ were simply called ‘pig bins’ where I lived and they mainly contained potato peelings. These bins were emptied by the usual garbage collectors (called ‘dustmen’ then, in a less elegant town than Farnham, Surrey), for behind their lorry there was an open trailer expressly for the pig bin contents.

However it’s ironic that for some decades my wife has been serving potatoes at home, always in their jackets. (That shows how elegant we are; they are never ‘skins.’)

I remember well the French onion sellers with the bikes festooned with their wares.


One turned up at CH once. Apparently Arthur Rider had met him in France, and, the way one does, had said 'You must drop in and see me if ever you're in England again' (without, I imagine, thinking this would actually happen).