"Screw Kick!"

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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Katharine
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by Katharine »

Angela, I think it was 617 Squadron not 317. My niece was a much later RAF Presentee. She was in 6s with Maria Grogan - the third generation of Hills girls there - my aunt, myself and Joanna (Jo). My brother (Thornton B) was in the RAF, and when he retired he was the longest serving Squadron Leader in the RAF.
Katharine Dobson (Hills) 6.14, 1959 - 1965
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by Kim2s70-77 »

I'm resurrecting this thread, because I just found an old photo of me getting out of a pool in CH bathing suit and hat. Can't imagine it was taken at school - but I also can't imagine my very practical mother purchasing a different bathing suit for home, if I had a perfectly good school one that fit - so it could have been taken anywhere. If I knew how to post it, I would put it here. I am guessing I was in the second form - maybe 12. What I was questioning, was the reason for the red stripe on the shoulder band of my black suit. I did a very cursory perusal of this thread and saw mention of a WHITE stripe on the shoulder, meaning one could go in the deep end? - but what did a red one mean??
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by kerrensimmonds »

Maybe the red stripe is a warning that should you be permitted out of your depth you may suffer the consequences.....??? Sorry, I truly cannot remember..............
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by Liz Jay »

Wasn't it your Lifesaver's amblem of office?
That seems to ring a bell!
(Though I even struggled to get my White Stripe.....!)

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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by Angela Woodford »

I think it was a Diving Stripe.
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by englishangel »

I think diving stripes were white, I don't remember a red one at all. I think you could go in the deep end as soon as you had any stripe because you could swim a length.
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by MKM »

I remember the coloured stripes being orange or yellow, but they may have started out red and been faded by the chlorine in the pool. The first three were awarded for good style in various strokes (breaststroke, crawl and backstroke?) and the fourth was for lifesaving. The stripes were sewn on in different shapes, according to how many you had: single stripe, cross, H, box.

I don't think I ever had any coloured stripes, just the basic white one.
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by Angela Woodford »

Mary, I'm sure you're right. Breaststroke, crawl, backstroke, lifesaving = stripe, cross, H, box. That's why ISTR the looped stripe on the right strap of the cossie was for *diving. Judy Evans was our 6's House brilliant diver - I remember her sewing on the looped red stripe - and yes, they quickly faded to orange in the strong pool chlorine!

*I know. I could be wrong.
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by Angela Pratt 56-63 »

Yes, my moment of glory was in getting my "box "!! I recntly dug out an old school team photo - NOT with us posing in swimming costumes, but with our black woolly ones casually draped over one arm so that our awards could be seen. Delphine Palmer, Sarah Ram, Nicky Mills, Pat Barker, Sheila Peskett, Eileen?Fowler? When Sarah, Nicky and I were in Upper 6th and Miss Park was unwell,(They left at the same time as I did) she and Miss King actually let the three of us do "PASSING" on a few occasions! We found it terrifying to try and be kind to people who'd been trying for stripes for ages, without being caught out lowering King-and-Park's standards!!
Does anyone remember Miss Park and Miss KIng's old-crock of a car?THey really were a couple of amazing characters. Terrifying at times but also suprisingly funny and interesting at others. I can remember MKP used to keep her handkercheif in a pocket in her sensible Knickers (very skillfully discrete getting it out...)We had pockets too in our summer "Blues", but didn't use them!
I can remember going back to Hertford just before the move to Horsham. Sarah and I felt very mature at nearly 40 years old, But we suddenly nheard a voice say "Look, dear, it's Sarah and Angela from8's" - and they must have been in their eighties by then.
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by Angela Woodford »

Angela Pratt 56-63 wrote: Eileen?Fowler?
Eileen Fowler!

When I was very young in the Fifties, my mother would pause during the morning's housework, move back the "settee" and armchairs in the drawing room and switch on our gigantic brute of a cabinet television. It was time for Eileen Fowler, the first TV keep-fit queen. I can see it now... my mother doing bending and stretching with a broom-handle to the cut-glass eccent of Eileen Fowler! "Up! Dine! Up! End s-t-r-e-t-c-h!

Of course, there must have been a swimming team Eileen Fowler at CH. I apologise.

But thet memory suddenleh came beck to me! :rolleyes:
"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple, and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing "Cunning plans are here again.""
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by Angela Pratt 56-63 »

No, it's just come back to me, she was Eileen Carron, not Fowler! Perhaps I was remembering the keep-fit lady of the fifties, too...
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by Katharine »

Delphine must have been quite a bit younger than all the rest of you, Angela. The only names I can't remember in your swimming team are Pat Barker and Eileen.

I seem to remember MKP coming into the School Hall after the End of Term Mark Reading to say Goodbye to the whole school. I don't remember any other leaving member of staff ever doing that.
Katharine Dobson (Hills) 6.14, 1959 - 1965
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by Angela Woodford »

Angela Pratt 56-63 wrote:I can remember going back to Hertford just before the move to Horsham. Sarah and I felt very mature at nearly 40 years old, But we suddenly nheard a voice say "Look, dear, it's Sarah and Angela from8's" - and they must have been in their eighties by then.
That's really rather sweet!

Were Miss King and Miss Park "a couple"? You wouldn't remember Merce and Chemi-T, Angela. They were, definitely!
"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple, and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing "Cunning plans are here again.""
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by fra828 »

Other couples of 60's/early 70's era were Nellie and Miss Rutherford(did she have a nickname?) and Betty Jukes and Miss Wilson, but whether they were couples 'like that' or just shared a house is a matter of opinion!
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Re: "Screw Kick!"

Post by midget »

Angela Woodford wrote:
Angela Pratt 56-63 wrote:I can remember going back to Hertford just before the move to Horsham. Sarah and I felt very mature at nearly 40 years old, But we suddenly nheard a voice say "Look, dear, it's Sarah and Angela from8's" - and they must have been in their eighties by then.
That's really rather sweet!

Were Miss King and Miss Park "a couple"? You wouldn't remember Merce and Chemi-T, Angela. They were, definitely!

We always wondered.
The thing I remember most about MKP (apart from the fact that she did nothing to reassure someone who was terrified of swimming) was after one half term mark reading when I was in UIVB. We had had a tongue lashing from DR, as the worst behaved UIV since the dawn of time. Our first lesson that morning was gym, ho hum! MKP had us get changed, then made us sit on the floor while she gave us a going over. "At my school we didn't wait to be gi ven the equivalent of Order or Disorder marks. We were expected, and did, report ourselves for misbehaviour. We were taught to be honourable, etc,etc,etc". This took up the whole lesson!
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