Hertford hygeine, hierarchies and heartache (from CH Forum)

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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icomefromalanddownunder
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Hertford hygeine, hierarchies and heartache (from CH Forum)

Post by icomefromalanddownunder »

kerrensimmonds wrote:In my House (2) in Hertford, there were the remains of little bits of red ribbon attached to the bath plug chains - I recall that you were not allowed water above the ribbon and that it was set at 4" from the bottom of the bath.
Would not even cover the back of my legs now......

Don't remember any such rule in 6s. Or, perhaps we just ignored it. I just loved those enormous baths and remember soaking in one after sitting my last O Level paper while reading a novel (Alistair MacLean and Jean Plaidy were often post-exam fav reads). All well until I dozed off and dropped the book.
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The bathrooms

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icomefromalanddownunder wrote:
kerrensimmonds wrote:In my House (2) in Hertford, there were the remains of little bits of red ribbon attached to the bath plug chains - I recall that you were not allowed water above the ribbon and that it was set at 4" from the bottom of the bath.
Would not even cover the back of my legs now......

Don't remember any such rule in 6s. Or, perhaps we just ignored it. I just loved those enormous baths and remember soaking in one after sitting my last O Level paper while reading a novel (Alistair MacLean and Jean Plaidy were often post-exam fav reads). All well until I dozed off and dropped the book.
Quite right Caroline, we did ignore bath rulings as soon as we could. In 1s (Junior House) the rule was 3" water, time spent in bath 3 mins. The curtain of the bath cubicle could suddenly be ripped open exposing you as Millie "checked on the depth of the bath water". And hair washing by UV from another House only on Saturday afternoons.

Newly in 6s, I remember only a rule that there were no baths on Sunday nights - when did that go? The Study punished me mega for bathing on a Sunday night. It was no good protesting that it was a cold bath - there wasn't much hot water on a Sunday night. There was some sort of
Senior Dorm Supervision Duty system. I can remember Katharine leaning against the radiator in Lower Dorm bathroom dispensing a few pearls of wisdom - she was flushed pink from the steaminess of all us little girls running baths, battling into Viyella nighties, or bagging their bath while kicking their basket across the bl/wh slippery marbly bathroom floor. Maximum noise!

Munch
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Re: The bathrooms

Post by icomefromalanddownunder »

Hi Munch

Do you also remember that Pot always used the same cubicle, and that one day certain house members (possibly one who recently celebrated a birthday) borrowed an arm and hand from the Bio Lab skeleton and positioned it with the hand coming up from behind the bath and on to the tap, in Pot's favourite cubicle?

I have a pathetic 3/4 sized bath (3/4 of what, I have to ask), and can't remember the last time that I used it.

Note to JR: I have a very well used shower.

Love

Caroline
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Re: The bathrooms

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icomefromalanddownunder wrote:Hi Munch

Do you also remember that Pot always used the same cubicle, and that one day certain house members (possibly one who recently celebrated a birthday) borrowed an arm and hand from the Bio Lab skeleton and positioned it with the hand coming up from behind the bath and on to the tap, in Pot's favourite cubicle?

Love

Caroline
Yeesss! Superb!
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Re: The bathrooms

Post by J.R. »

icomefromalanddownunder wrote:Hi Munch

Do you also remember that Pot always used the same cubicle, and that one day certain house members (possibly one who recently celebrated a birthday) borrowed an arm and hand from the Bio Lab skeleton and positioned it with the hand coming up from behind the bath and on to the tap, in Pot's favourite cubicle?

I have a pathetic 3/4 sized bath (3/4 of what, I have to ask), and can't remember the last time that I used it.

Note to JR: I have a very well used shower.

Love

Caroline
Thanks for that !
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Post by midget »

Mon's warcry--Mark time please girls, left-left left, then step out.
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Post by kerrensimmonds »

Just to clarify for non-Hertford Old Blue members of this Forum. 'Mons' = Monitresses. The Senior Girls in each House, those who led the procession as we marched from our Houses (in Midget's day they were called 'Wards') up to Dining Hall for our meals.
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Post by englishangel »

By the time I got there we only marched on Sundays, we straggled the rest of the week. Even only marching once a week we still managed to make a good job of it.

Prior to St Matthews Day we practised with a gramophone playing marching music for us.
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Post by Katharine »

We used to think we were the luckiest house as we marched last, in my early days. I think they changed the order when we started to do it just on Sundays. By marching last you could scoot back across the square when 2s were marching, or even 7s and still be in place in time to march. It also meant that we didn't have to sit and wait in Dining Hall for everyone else!

At Horsham is the order of houses constant or does it change?
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Post by sejintenej »

Katharine wrote: By marching last you could scoot back across the square when 2s were marching, or even 7s and still be in place in time to march. It also meant that we didn't have to sit and wait in Dining Hall for everyone else!

At Horsham is the order of houses constant or does it change?
Having two doors, everyone could start marching at the same time and the order would simply work out that the nearest houses (Col B and Lamb A) would arriove at the doors nearest to them first followed by the other houses in succession. If you were in Peele A (the furthest away) then you got in last but, because nothing happened until after grace they didn't lose out.
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Post by Mrs C. »

Marching order changes termly now......I think!
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Post by midget »

Monitresses were house/ward prefects. There was a separate small group of school prefects (most of whom really thought they were the bees knees) all of whom would also have beenhouse mons. Am I nit-picking or what?
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Post by Katharine »

midget wrote:Monitresses were house/ward prefects. There was a separate small group of school prefects (most of whom really thought they were the bees knees) all of whom would also have beenhouse mons. Am I nit-picking or what?
Not in my day, Midget. I was a school prefect but NOT a house mon. I was a Headmistress's Mon instead. I had the dubious privilege of working for DR and Miss Gamble, but had no house duties when I was a mon. And yes, we did think we were the bees' knees!!!
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The Bees' Knees

Post by Angela Woodford »

Katharine wrote:
midget wrote:Monitresses were house/ward prefects. There was a separate small group of school prefects (most of whom really thought they were the bees knees) all of whom would also have beenhouse mons. Am I nit-picking or what?
Not in my day, Midget. I was a school prefect but NOT a house mon. I was a Headmistress's Mon instead. I had the dubious privilege of working for DR and Miss Gamble, but had no house duties when I was a mon. And yes, we did think we were the bees' knees!!!
Sorry, Katharine, but this does make me a bit furious. Being the "bees' knees" sounds so elitist. There were very many wonderful and talented girls at Hertford who never were recognised for their individual abilities ( for example the late Judith Pook) who held no particular position of status in the school - prefect, Mon, whatever, who felt excluded from that magic circle of being one of DR's "swans" as you have described yourself before. From the L1V onwards we were divided into A and B streams, and it went on from there. Maggie is not nit-picking.

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Re: The Bees' Knees

Post by Katharine »

Angela Woodford wrote:
Katharine wrote:
midget wrote:Monitresses were house/ward prefects. There was a separate small group of school prefects (most of whom really thought they were the bees knees) all of whom would also have beenhouse mons. Am I nit-picking or what?
Not in my day, Midget. I was a school prefect but NOT a house mon. I was a Headmistress's Mon instead. I had the dubious privilege of working for DR and Miss Gamble, but had no house duties when I was a mon. And yes, we did think we were the bees' knees!!!
Sorry, Katharine, but this does make me a bit furious. Being the "bees' knees" sounds so elitist. There were very many wonderful and talented girls at Hertford who never were recognised for their individual abilities ( for example the late Judith Pook) who held no particular position of status in the school - prefect, Mon, whatever, who felt excluded from that magic circle of being one of DR's "swans" as you have described yourself before. From the L1V onwards we were divided into A and B streams, and it went on from there. Maggie is not nit-picking.

Munch
What I was saying, Munch was that I was a School Prefect but NOT a House Mon, and it was that which I was trying to correct.

I was an academic high flyer, but if you look back at some of my other posts I felt myself a failure at school as I was totally unmusical, and not much good at games. For most of my time at school (until my last two terms) I had a Housemistress took an irrational dislike to me. I was in a year group in my house with whom I had very little in common. Those last two terms, when I was a school prefect and studying some challenging Maths, which I loved, were a time of freedom. I really enjoyed them far more than most of the other 6 years.

It was part of the system that we did feel we were the bees knees. I hope you were cross with the system and not with me.
Katharine Dobson (Hills) 6.14, 1959 - 1965
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