CH food

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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fra828
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Re: CH food

Post by fra828 »

Angela Woodford wrote:My memory is that the bread was always extremely fresh. And goodness knows, I ate a lot of it. :roll:

If I were confronted with one of those white crusty bloomer loaves now, I guarantee that I could slice it up in exactly the once-recommended way - down the middle, into quarters and then, crust up, into eight slices.

But - do I remember a white old-fashioned bread bin in the House kitchen in which any leftover bread lived? It sat on the top of the huge dresser, and in the bottom left cupboard of that dresser were the marge or butter leftovers on a plate; often bearing the smears of a jammy knife. In summer, they'd be semi-melting out of their ridged pats, with a rancid taste of the smell of the cupboard silverfish.

Yes! It was leftover butter as there was rarely any leftover marge brought down from Dining Hall. A half-pat per girl for breakfast, as I remember.
Now you've mentioned it Angela, I can remember very fresh bread too, very moreish (if you could get more than one piece!) with our Wednesday/Saturday/Sunday home-jams; maybe I was thinking of something else which had vinegar added to keep it fresh for longer?
midget
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Re: CH food

Post by midget »

FISH? It always seemed rather elderly!
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Re: CH food

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Scrambled egg was about 50% bread.
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Re: CH food

Post by kerrensimmonds »

Oh, the bread. Yes, it was always hugely spongily and aromatically fresh (albeit white) and therefore extremely eatable........ especially if it turned up in House at breaktime, alongside a great vat of beef dripping (and a jar of salt). Possibly my best food memory from school - and with great regret I have never been able to replicate it.
Deep double fried bread eaten with sharp marmalade comes a close second.
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Re: CH food

Post by Pixie »

Oh Kerren! I couldn't stand the bread and dripping, just the thought of it now makes me feel sick!
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midget
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Re: CH food

Post by midget »

Who got the dripping in my day? Unheard of!!
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Re: CH food

Post by Fjgrogan »

I don't remember dripping at all, but fried bread, crisp and golden - Wow! When he had it at home it was always grey and dirty looking because we used to recycle dripping to cook with ad infinitum. My husband now replicates beautiful Hertford fried bread occasionally. This may be one of many reasons why I left school weighing 7 stone 12 lb, and have now just hit 15 stone - ouch!
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fra828
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Re: CH food

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Does anyone remember when we started getting the occasional lunch of bread roll, chunk of cheese and an apple? Early 70's? It was very popular and if you were lucky you got a second roll. Mind you the 'chunk' of cheese was probably more a cube and the only snag was that it wasn't enough to sustain us through the afternoon. I did lack an awful lot of energy by late pm;I can't remember if we had an afternoon break for a drink and ?snack of some kind. We really needed it, especially when games was after lessons in the summer.
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Re: CH food

Post by Angela Woodford »

Yes! The bread-cheese-apple pudding was produced in the Winter Term of 1971.

We had just daringly refused our lunches for the Great Food Strike. Carolynn, in the tricky position of Head-Girlship, addressed the School from the Grace lectern after the refused lunch, advocating moderation in our protest. We had been given spong and syrup, spong and custard, coconut spong, "chocolate" spong..... Eee-nuff!

After the Food Strike, there was mince on Monday with a bit of curry powder and sultanas in it. Bottles of a cheap vinegary tomato sauce, and a brown sauce "made in Oswaldtwistle", appeared every so often. And of course, the bread roll with cheese and apple, which caused gasps of amazement. Dear old Pot puffed up her cheeks and turned pink with pride as she dished up the rolls. You'd have thought it had been her idea, bless her. :)

Sixes V1 Form based the House Christmas Decorations on an Oswaldtwistle theme that year. DR was not amused.
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fra828
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Re: CH food

Post by fra828 »

Angela Woodford wrote:Yes! The bread-cheese-apple pudding was produced in the Winter Term of 1971.

We had just daringly refused our lunches for the Great Food Strike. Carolynn, in the tricky position of Head-Girlship, addressed the School from the Grace lectern after the refused lunch, advocating moderation in our protest. We had been given spong and syrup, spong and custard, coconut spong, "chocolate" spong..... Eee-nuff!

After the Food Strike, there was mince on Monday with a bit of curry powder and sultanas in it. Bottles of a cheap vinegary tomato sauce, and a brown sauce "made in Oswaldtwistle", appeared every so often. And of course, the bread roll with cheese and apple, which caused gasps of amazement. Dear old Pot puffed up her cheeks and turned pink with pride as she dished up the rolls. You'd have thought it had been her idea, bless her. :)

Sixes V1 Form based the House Christmas Decorations on an Oswaldtwistle theme that year. DR was not amused.
Did we not have the roll, cheese and apple as the main meal, no pudding that day; that's why I and probably many others, would have felt so hungry later in the afternoon! I just cannot remember afternoon breaktimes at Hertford. :?
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Re: CH food

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What a coincidence! In my first year in college my room mate was from Oswaldtwistle - I had never heard of before or since, until now!
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Re: CH food

Post by Angela Woodford »

fra828 - the roll-cheese-apple was definitely a spong-replacing pudding.

There wasn't any "tea-time". "Tea" was at 17.40 hrs. That gloomy puddle of tinned spaghetti and cold toast.

I do wish I knew who you are, fra28! Possibly in my year? A pm would put me out of my misery?
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Re: CH food

Post by sejintenej »

midget wrote:Who got the dripping in my day? Unheard of!!
There were times when I wished I wasn't wherever I was. One memory which will never leave was after work in Frankfurt one night being taken out by one of the staff (who over-loved his beer) to the Platz outside the Opera House. There I was taken to one of his favourite 500 drinking houses where one was forced to endure a Frankfurt speciality to go with one's beer - about 1 inch of gritty fat/dripping on a huge bit of bread 1/4 inch thick. He thought he was doing the right thing but bread and dripping has not been my thing since the war. Had you been broadminded (and around) you would have been welcome to take my place on that pub crawl!
fra828
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Re: CH food

Post by fra828 »

Angela Woodford wrote:fra828 - the roll-cheese-apple was definitely a spong-replacing pudding.

There wasn't any "tea-time". "Tea" was at 17.40 hrs. That gloomy puddle of tinned spaghetti and cold toast.

I do wish I knew who you are, fra28! Possibly in my year? A pm would put me out of my misery?
Thanks for putting that right, Angela, don't know why I was always so hungry then! pm sent.
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Re: CH food

Post by midget »

The cooked "high tea" was introduced while I was ar Hertford, but surely after most rationing had ended. DR in her wisdom decreed that growing gels needed more than bread and jam, with cake on Sunday and school buns (remember those?) on Wednesday. I don't remember what we had instead, apart from the delicious shrpherds pie one evening, which turned out to full of some horrible poisoning bug.
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