Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Share your memories and stories from your days at school, and find out the truth behind the rumours....Remember the teachers and pupils, tell us who you remember and why...

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michael scuffil
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by michael scuffil »

Was Farlington not the school that Olive Peto became headmistress of? (I believe she had to do a great deal of sweeping clean.)
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by wurzel »

If I remember rightly a whole load of Thorn sat down and decided if we all admit to a certain level of experience they can't suspend us all - wrong, about 1/2 the house got an early 1/2 term

The one's who got expelled were if i remember rightly 3 boys + 1 girl and it came after a tip off from an old blue who saw the purchase taking place in/around the car at ULU at recognised what was happening.

When everyone saw what happened in Thorn no-one else admitted anything and then hansford had the audacity to stand up (with I think bob sillett) and say they were sure they had got everyone involved !!!!!!
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by Great Plum »

Was this the year that the Grecians put a lot of 'magic mushrooms' in the quad as their leaving present to the school...
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by wurzel »

Not that i remember
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by Vonny »

wurzel wrote:Not that i remember
I don't remember that either and it was my year.
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by White Flag »

Well during my time at CH 69-74 there was certainly a fair amount of drugs being taken. I remember that somebody got expelled from Col B around 72/73.
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by Great Plum »

Thre was apparently a year that did the magic mushrooms thing or maybe it was a legend / myth sent down through the ages...
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by J.R. »

They abound in the woods near me, or so I'm reliably informed.

Dodgy business playing around with fungi unless you really know what you're doing, though !
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by JULIANGARNER »

Mid A 15 wrote:A number of boys were expelled in about 1971 for bringing drugs into School.

I believe they got them at a pop festival.
I was involved in this. A bunch of us - I'm keeping names back; I don't think any of them would mind, but you never know - went to squat in the bushes by Lamb A and smoke (curious housey tradition, this). I was the only nonsmoker, but we were usually in mid-conversation when the nicotine urge struck so I often ended up going along for the ride. Usually the "cigarettes" were meagre affairs - a few strands of Old Holborn in a skin was known affectionately as a Slim Jim or a Biafran Bernie (following the Nigerian civil war: political correctness was not one of our sins in those days!) Well, this time they turned out to have a couple of joints, which were consumed pretty fast under the dripping leaves, and that was that. Except that the sh1t hit the fan during the holidays - a parent, would you believe, had reported her own son to the school! - and I and my mother were summoned to David Newsome's lair for some kind of showdown, we knew not what. When it turned out that Newsome, in his infinite wisdom, had decided to expell me anyway ("ask me to leave" was the popular euphamism then in vogue) despite that the others all testified that I hadn't puffed the stuff, my dear old mum went quietly balistic and he fairly quickly backed down. Though he did regret rather pompously that I had "got in with the wrong crowd (sic)" and that I'd taken up playing the guitar instead of concentrating wholeheartedly on trying to win my expected (but never achieved) place on the First XV. I loved my mothers observation to him that, if he was so appalled that a teenager would want to play the guitar in the 1970s, perhaps he was in the wrong job. Anyway,that put payed to that batch of talent, as far as CH was concerned. They all recovered pretty well,though; one of them is a private practice dentist who makes more money per minute than most small African nations do in a year.
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by JULIANGARNER »

Mid A 15 wrote:A number of boys were expelled in about 1971 for bringing drugs into School.

I believe they got them at a pop festival.
I was involved in this. A bunch of us - I'm keeping names back; I don't think any of them would mind, but you never know - went to squat in the bushes by Lamb A and smoke (curious housey tradition, this). I was the only nonsmoker, but we were usually in mid-conversation when the nicotine urge struck so I often ended up going along for the ride. Usually the "cigarettes" were meagre affairs - a few strands of Old Holborn in a skin was known affectionately as a Slim Jim or a Biafran Bernie (following the Nigerian civil war: political correctness was not one of our sins in those days!) Well, this time they turned out to have a couple of joints, which were consumed pretty fast under the dripping leaves, and that was that. Except that the sh1t hit the fan during the holidays - a parent, would you believe, had reported her own son to the school! - and I and my mother were summoned to David Newsome's lair for some kind of showdown, we knew not what. When it turned out that Newsome, in his infinite wisdom, had decided to expell me anyway ("ask me to leave" was the popular euphamism then in vogue) despite that the others all testified that I hadn't puffed the stuff, my dear old mum went quietly balistic and he fairly quickly backed down. Though he did regret rather pompously that I had "got in with the wrong crowd (sic)" and that I'd taken up playing the guitar instead of concentrating wholeheartedly on trying to win my expected (but never achieved) place on the First XV. I loved my mothers observation to him that, if he was so appalled that a teenager would want to play the guitar in the 1970s, perhaps he was in the wrong job. Anyway,that put payed to that batch of talent, as far as CH was concerned. They all recovered pretty well,though; one of them is a private practice dentist who makes more money per minute than most small African nations do in a year.
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by gingerbeard »

In 1970 what seemed like half the school invaded the Isle of Wight for the festival to see Jimi Hendrix and of course to experiment with substances galore. A number of boys continued to experiment when they/we got back. There were rumours of local drug dealers visiting the school during the next term, although I'm sure that most of the substances around were brought in from home sources. Subsequently the police were called in by Newsome and prime suspects were summonsed to Big School (if my memory serves). Word spread like wildfire and following numerous clandestine meetings it as decided that those of us that had been at the IOW would admit smoking weed there and nothing else. A cunning plan that worked, we were lectured but no one was expelled or even suspended.

However the "problem" did not go away, a lot of weed made its way into school and remained well concealed for the next couple of terms. I left in the Easter Term of 1971 and used to visit those I left behind at least once a month as did many others of my era (not that it matters now, but I never brought drugs). I then received a phone call at work telling me that there had been a "drugs bust" and that there was due to be a mass expulsion and that "certain recent leavers" had become "persona non grata". For some inexplicable reason (I was a teenager) I went straight down to School, stayed over with John Hall-Matthews and met with Newsome. I pleaded for my friends and, along with others, managed to persuade him that he was expelling boys who were innocent amongst the guilty. I think two or three expulsions were recinded. However, because I had "owned up" to partaking of substances at the Isle of Wight and was friendly with almost all of those expelled I was asked not to return to visit.

Two years later I got married and following a creeping letter letter to Newsome was allowed back on School grounds, the assumption being that I was now a sensible married man!

Drugs were so much part of the popular culture at that time that I am sure that the problem did not go away with those few boys, it was typical scapegoating. It was used as a means of removing an "undesirable element" from the school and some of the most persistent users escaped scot free as they were either sporty or would keep the exam results table looking good.
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by White Flag »

I believe that LSD was being used in Col B around 1973. I even bought some myself or so I thought. Turned out it was just an aspirin. Spent the whole sunday afternoon waiting for something to happen.
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by michael scuffil »

I find these recollections of Newsome as headmaster interesting. I knew him because he was my Senior Tutor at Cambridge (in which capacity he fined Tim Yeo 50 pounds -- multiply by about 15 for present-day values -- for having a girl in his room overnight ("I could always send you down...")). It was only at CH that I got to see the inside of his house, with its Siamese cats. (My wife was doing a project that involved observing Nuffield science lessons.) Newsome told me on that occasion that "Streaking* had now reached CH." I was able to tell him that it had been around much earlier, and involved more spectacular exploits than just zipping across from Mid A to Thorn B (the example he mentioned).

*then something that was contributing to the gaiety of the nation.
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by jasondean98 »

I never indulged in entertainment accessories at school (apart from smoking and drinking :wink: ) but made up for it when i left, misplaced a decade of my life and i'm still paying the price.

Drugs have a habit of making things go very pear shaped :?
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Re: Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock'n'Roll Part 1: Substance Abuse

Post by gma »

My God, surely this was not restricted to Horsham? Am really looking forward to some of my elders and betters 'fessing up (Clinton style maybe - did but did not inhale?) - did my heroines have feet of clay? Ladies?
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