Housemistresses

[Angela Woodford]

That accounts for it - we were the last year to go into junior houses so wouldn't have needed to be told.

My mother had provided me with a dire brown package of "supplies" just in case. I hid them at the back of my dormitory locker. Within a couple of days, I realised that the "supplies" had been searched through very thoroughly. It made me feel quite creepy that Millie's bony fingers had rifled through my personal things - whatever did she think I was hiding in the brown paper package of those horrid bulky things?

(I never did use them!)

[englishangel]

I was a 'big' girl and my Mum was a nurse so I was very well prepared from the age of 10. I did the same for my daughter.

Regarding the facts of life, it was just part of life in the country for me and twins always want to know why they are twins and everyone is so interested so that was an easy one.

[Angela Woodford]

Nobody searched a locker as ruthlessly as Millie searched a locker.

It was lucky - once I'd got into 6's, the Hag was about to leave, and I suppose the joy of locker seaching and booty snatching had grown stale for her. Mrs Blunt was too vague and unmotivated to begin on a career of locker-searching, and Jackdaw was probably too nervous that locker contents would cascade out and ruin her stockings. As for searching upstairs, her heels would have made too much noise and ruined her mission - a giveaway! Not to mention that we'd have made even more cawing noises to torment her.

Dear old Pot lacked the finesse for the sudden locker-swoop. I don't remember her ever confiscating anything. Even my transistor radio, which she found talking quietly to itself at the bottom of a "packet of Ariel" was remarked upon but not removed. Therefore, she suffered the humiliation of being informed by DR that pet mice were being kept in lockers.

That was a bit mean of Judy Evans. To boldly go straight to DR with the info, rather than tactfully allowing Pot to deal with the situation. Pot was shown up as not knowing What Was Going On.

Locker searches! Little did I know what the future held - the daily mascara-seeking mission of two daughters to whom my make-up bag was a casual target.

[MaryB]

Wasn't there a major swoop early in the life of the cubicles, when the convenient space under the bottom drawer of the standard issue desk was discovered in one house and all hms were ordered to carry out a thorough search of the equivalent spaces in theirs ... revealing, tampax, aspirin, home underwear, and probably much worse.
And wasn't this the occasion when DR quoted Jeremiah to the whole LV upwards?
Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
look around and take note!
Search its squares and see
if you can find one person
who acts justly
and seeks truth—
On reflection, "search its squares" is rather appropriate. But honestly -talk about a disproportionate response.

[Mid A 15]

Keep them coming ladies.

Some of these posts are so wonderfully descriptive and fascinating to read that I almost feel I was there with you!

I've said it before but in many ways Hertford seems to have been more repressive than Horsham.

I don't recall searches such as you have described unless I was oblivious and unobservant which is quite possible my wife will tell you!

[fra828]

Thank you for reminding me of that Jo-about Mrs Gardiner- aka Mrs Pryke. We had one of those facts of life talks in prep too. Maybe same one as you were in-must have been in the second year, and she was drawing quite graphically on the blackboard. One of the most daring in the class went up to Mrs G as if to ask her something, and suddenly whipped off her wig (we had all suspected she wore a wig) and had dared this girl to prove it; we all collapsed in fits of laughter, poor Mrs Gardiner...she never did finish that 'little chat' with us!!

[midget]

I'd back Miss Norris against anyone when it came to searches.
She did get her comeuppance on one glorious occasion though. We had 2 sisters in 3s, Marianne and Norma. Norma, the younger one was always convinced that Marianne was getting things from her locker so she pinned up a notice which completely covered the locker contents. It read "KEEP YOUR NOSE OUT OF HERE". Needless to say it was one of the days when nobs decided to do a locker search. I can't remember the intricacies of the reaction!

[Angela Woodford]

One of the most daring in the class went up to Mrs G as if to ask her something, and suddenly whipped off her wig (we had all suspected she wore a wig) and had dared this girl to prove it; we all collapsed in fits of laughter, poor Mrs Gardiner...she never did finish that 'little chat' with us!!

The poor woman. She must have felt desperately mortified and embarassed.

At least you had somebody in the place who must have realised that the Reproduction of the Rabbit (last Bio Lesson of the U1V) was insufficient information for growing girls!

[fra828]

That's true, Angela! I was SO innocent when I started CH, my mum sat on the end of my bed, in the dark, on the night before I went, and told me very briefly about periods, but not very much at all...During the first term, I never even knew what the brown paper bags in loos were for until I asked another girl who looked at me in amazement! Talking about those brown bags, when I was up tin'f and I couldn't eat the meal on offer, I would put it in one of those dreaded bags and hurl it through the window, over the school wall, can't remember where it landed, well out of sight with any luck!

[seventhirty]

I seem remember getting 'the talk' from 3rd formers in the dorm after lights out, after I had been there for about a week. It was obviously a ritual, a second or third former approached each first former to ask what they knew, and then the first formers all had to go and sit on a bed down the end of the dorm, to be instructed in the facts of life. They introduced us to some words I had never heard before, but not much new factual knowledge. I remember overhearing some third formers (after lights) discussing the supposed risque behaviour of older girls (who obviously had real or imaginary boyfriends in the holidays). I think there was a lot of fantasy mixed in - a little gossip had to go a long way at CH!

[Alexandra Thrift]

Just a little post script regarding 3s housemistress " Lil ". I am still in touch with a couple of 3s OGs ( Penny Manning and Jacquie Tomlinson ) and between us Lil is oft'imes remembered. Sixes and Threes used to go on Sunday crocodile walks together over the meads watched over ( every other week ? ) by Lil Thomson " Come along gels ! Keep up ! " she would shreak , exasperated , as we dawdled behind.

However I seldom visited my friends in 3s for fear of Lil ,which is rather sad and in contrast to my friends in 4s , Shelagh Regester and Julie Stones (who sadly I lost touch with) who I could visit as 4s housemistress, Bessy Summers, was not only quite friendly but never noticed our occasional smoking (!!!) in upper little dorm ( or whatever it was called) as she chain smoked herself and was immune to the odour. ( we usually smoked in the castle grounds though... lurking in the shade of a large tree.)

[MaryB]

Yes, I think we were quite isolated... as you say, Alex, it was (and is) quite sad: joyless would be a good word. Even when we were in the Study visitors weren't really able to feel welcome - I used to prefer to spend my evenings in 5s or sometimes 8s. Penny M et al had the right idea, though I didn't necessarily think so at the time, in refusing to accept the rather rigid enforcement of the rules that prevailed in 3s. Actually, as they were 5th form when I was a mon, I definitely didn't think they had the right idea..... a bit late to say so, but no less true for that!

[englishangel]

Yes, I think we were quite isolated... as you say, Alex, it was (and is) quite sad: joyless would be a good word. Even when we were in the Study visitors weren't really able to feel welcome - I used to prefer to spend my evenings in 5s or sometimes 8s. Penny M et al had the right idea, though I didn't necessarily think so at the time, in refusing to accept the rather rigid enforcement of the rules that prevailed in 3s. Actually, as they were 5th form when I was a mon, I definitely didn't think they had the right idea..... a bit late to say so, but no less true for that!

2's was much the same perhaps that's why Jane and I were so friendly with Ailsa and Carol in 3's, because we were all suffering. When Fanny was off sick we had a very unpleasant woman who I always thought must hve been a prison officer, then towards the end we had Mrs Dean (Lucy's Mum) who was quite different.

[Kim2s70-77]

There is so much I had forgotten! Who was Mrs Mac and why does that name spring to mind about 2's Housemistresses around 1970 or 1971?? Did no one else experience the abuse and trauma that I suffered at the hands of Mrs Dean?? If I remember correctly, she was only there for a year or so, before the infinitely kinder Mrs Lawrence arrived - but that was at an extremely impressionable point in my life. Mrs Dean singled me out, and I believe one or two others, and set out to destroy any shreds of self esteem we might previously have had. She also decided to make me one of her lackeys and would order me around like a servant. One of her tasks was to fetch and carry stuff from the Buttery for her. I took great delight in spitting into her soup and stirring it with my grubby fingers and watching her eat it. Sadly this was one of the few small and petty triumphs for one who felt so disempowered. That woman was possibly one of the most cruel psychological sadists I have encountered.
Mrs Lawrence was, in contrast, quite delightful It did, however take me a few years before I trusted her!

[Fjgrogan]

Your relationship with Mrs Dean sounds exactly like mine with Miss Jenkins - yes, cruel psychological sadist just about says it all.