New Forum Section - Hertford Memories

[englishangel]

Yup, we had big melamine mugs in the houses, ours (2's) were dark green, I suppose yours were dark blue.

I think they sell table dustpans and brushes in Harrods, (something for the wedding present list I suppose) and I have certainly seen the sweeper thingy, a bit like a clothes lint roller.

Sir Colin Davis (conductor and Old Blue) was the VIP at Prize Giving one year (possibly my last) and he told us his sisters (Hertford OBs) donated the fish cutlery.

[Euterpe13]

said fish cutlery was cleaned once a week with a very strange pink emulsion - I remember doing it in the kitchen. Maybe that was where the smell came from...

[englishangel]

said fish cutlery was cleaned once a week with a very strange pink emulsion - I remember doing it in the kitchen. Maybe that was where the smell came from...

The silver equivalent of Brasso I think ....Silvo?

[midget]

Lucky old you, having separate fish cutlery! Why on earth could Heather and Gretel have donated it BEFORE they left, and I might have enjoyed it too! The smell of the ordinary cutlery after kipper breakfasts lasted for days.

When I first went to CH it was in pre-Gumption days. For the basins we used something called Monkey Brand, like a lump of solidified Vim. No wonder I've spent a fortune on hand cream since those days, trying to restore my skin.

[Angela Woodford]

No, really, Maggie, believe me, the fish cutlery was of a weird soft metal. It mopped up the smell of the fish. then when it was cleaned with the pink polish, it mopped up the smell of the polish which made the fish taste very strange... and so on.

I didn't mind school fish too much, and would eat mine with my pudding fork to avoid this cross-flavouring! I remember Caroline going quite green at the sight of the fish every Friday.

love, Munch

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Sir Colin Davis (conductor and Old Blue) was the VIP at Prize Giving one year (possibly my last) and he told us his sisters (Hertford OBs) donated the fish cutlery.

Hi Mary

There is a mention of Ms Davis claiming that 'when she was rich she would donate fish knives and forks to the school' on one of the Founder's Day addresses I have typed.

Kerren - if you are reading this: Hello! I finished the typing over the Easter w/end, but took a break before proof reading, so that I would see what I had typed, rather than what I had intended to type.

Will do a final read through and then email the files off, probably this weekend.

[Angela Woodford]

Today I have been mulching the bases of small fruit trees with sheeps' wool. As I was tending a lovely little mulberry tree, I remembered getting my school dress stained from sitting on fallen mulberries!

Where was the mulberry tree at Hertford? It could have been on the edge of the Field? Or possibly near/behind the Art School?

This is so annoying... I wish I could remember!

Love Munch

[Alexandra Thrift]

There was a mulberry tree at Hertford.Yes it was somewhere between the Art School and The Gym.I liked to forage and sometimes ate the mulberries aswell as Blackberries and Elderberries from The Leas or Lees ??

All that cleaning that we did is mind boggling in retrospect.Being a "laundry girl" for so long saved me from some of it...but not all.

The white fish at lunch was sometimes a bit crispy and a crusty yellow colour on the top and yes,the fish cutlery stank.

My year in Sixes started something called the "Kipper Destroying Club"....we used to mash our kippers up in various disgusting ways....she who produced the most disgusting mulch was declared the winner.

On a different topic...I also remember crushing and embalming our dead ,racing water snails along with Liz Plummer (Jay) and possibly Mary Mc and Caroline ?....then putting them in a matchbox and burying them, while singing funereal hymns, in sixes house garden. How weird was that ?

[Liz Jay]

Hi Alex

What an impression the snails made! But I'm damn sure you wouldn't have got me doing crushing and embalming of the little darlings. I was brought up to be respectful of the dead.
I do remember choosing the hymns from the little used "funeral" section of Hymns Ancient and Modern. Some of them were so obscure we had to improvise, "borrowing" a tune from elsewhere.
The mood of solemnity did not always prevail alas and we used to collapse into giggles quite frequently!!!

Are we all still gigglers??? I know I am. Just need the right company, sniff of a glass of wine and I'm away...

Love

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Hi Everyone

Multipurpose reply coming up.

Friday fish - I still turn green at the memory. One particular day haunts me. Sitting at the dining table after everyone else had left, supervised by Megan. I think that I have described the scene elsewhere - knowing that if I swallowed the fish mornay I would vomit, and would then almost certainly be punished for vomiting. Result: a hanky full of expectorated fish (sorry Alex - I hope I rinsed it out thoroughly before depositing it in the laundry).

Embalming racing snails. Hmmm, sounds like something that may have occured to me (scientists are born, not made ). How did they die? Hopefully the act wasn't performed on peacefully hibernating snails?

The mulberry tree was between the playing field and the building between the gym and the music block - there may be a photo somewhere. I'll look later. I always thought it such a shame that the tree was so tall that we only had access to fallen mulberries that had splattered on the ground.

Fond memories of blackberry and elderberry picking, and stewing them up in 6's kitchen. Sadly, blackberries are classed as a noxious weed in South Australia. We do have an elderberry tree in my daughter's herb garden, but berries are scarce and somewhat shrivelled.

Definitely still a giggler - often at inopportune moments.

Love

Caroline

[englishangel]

Hi Everyone

Multipurpose reply coming up.

Friday fish - I still turn green at the memory. One particular day haunts me. Sitting at the dining table after everyone else had left, supervised by Megan. I think that I have described the scene elsewhere - knowing that if I swallowed the fish mornay I would vomit, and would then almost certainly be punished for vomiting. Result: a hanky full of expectorated fish (sorry Alex - I hope I rinsed it out thoroughly before depositing it in the laundry).

Embalming racing snails. Hmmm, sounds like something that may have occured to me (scientists are born, not made ). How did they die? Hopefully the act wasn't performed on peacefully hibernating snails?

The mulberry tree was between the playing field and the building between the gym and the music block - there may be a photo somewhere. I'll look later. I always thought it such a shame that the tree was so tall that we only had access to fallen mulberries that had splattered on the ground.

Fond memories of blackberry and elderberry picking, and stewing them up in 6's kitchen. Sadly, blackberries are classed as a noxious weed in South Australia. We do have an elderberry tree in my daughter's herb garden, but berries are scarce and somewhat shrivelled.

Definitely still a giggler - often at inopportune moments.

Love

Caroline

The infirmary

[MKM]

My year in Sixes started something called the "Kipper Destroying Club"....we used to mash our kippers up in various disgusting ways....she who produced the most disgusting mulch was declared the winner.

I was a keen member of this club. I actually quite like kippers, but mashing them up and refusing to eat them was more fun. I expect peer pressure had something to do with it too. I used to conceal bits of kipper in my tea bowl (I don't remember if I was ever made to drink the tea).

Kippers were served for breakfast on Saturday mornings. Sometimes we had smoked haddock instead. My favourite morning was Thursday, when there were sausages for breakfast, and my Mum's weekly letter arrived.

My younger daughter, when she was about 9, spent the night at a friend's house. Next morning they were taken, as a treat, to breakfast at a posh hotel, where she impressed everyone with her kipper-eating skills.

[Liz Jay]

Hi Mary

I liked kippers - and still do. At least they had a proper recognisable flavour. I think I must not have been a member of the kipper-destroying club.

My personal vomit-inducing meal was "veg pie" which was the week's leftovers with a pie crust, very much like pig swill, too many flavours and non-flavours all mushed up for me to cope with.

And all that bread and jam!

As for hot sausage rolls, I used to like them and ate many, put myself off them for life I think, can't stand them nowadays! And not that keen on fudge (which was an occasional delicacy at CH), gives me toothache just thinking about the stuff.

I suppose tastes do change. But I still like kippers!!!!

Love

[Katharine]

And not that keen on fudge (which was an occasional delicacy at CH), gives me toothache just thinking about the stuff.

Was this a Sixes thing or did other houses make fudge? Breakfast sugar was saved/confiscated by the Mons and then used to make fudge to sell to the rest of the house for house funds. I can't remember who had the idea first, but I think it was to get enough money to go to Woburn Abbey on Ascension Day.

[icomefromalanddownunder]

The infirmary

Thanks Mary

I had a senior moment, and couldn't remember which side of the music block the infirmary was. Logically I knew that it had to be between the gym and the music block, but I just couldn't visualise it. Yet, I can 'see' the mulberry tree.