Quick questions and (maybe) answers Hertford Memories thread

[Jo]

The abolition of junior houses was definitely Easter 1965 - a term before we would have expected to move in the normal course of things - although each junior house had a small group of LIVth including 2 "Junior Mons" - Elinor something and Gillian Thorn, inevitably known as Prickles in 5s that year. I felt sorry for them because they were the only LIVth still wearing knee length brown woolly socks (remember how they smelt when wet?) - LIVth in senior houses wore the ribbed fawn stockings, and of course the famous suspender belts.

I gather Gillian Thorn was supposed to be my schoolma when I arrived in 5's in September 1967, but she had unexpectedly decided to leave during the summer holidays and so I had Anita McLeod instead whom I shared with another newbie. Anita was a nice gentle soul in the same year as the much more outgoing (not to mention outrageous) Janet Newman.

Elinor was Elinor Clark - I only know that because (with Kerren's help) I tracked down 5's mons' board at Horsham last year and took photos!

[midget]

Angela, I am intrigued by the idea of "feeling like going for a walk. Exercise was to be taken EVERY day, if not organised games then you went for a walk. When the weather was "iffy" we did gravel crunching, and if bad weather persisted for more than a couple of days, we had country dancing in the gym. Free will was not a right.

[fra828]

I remember doing that country dancing in late 60's early 70's! And DR's bridge club, was it Fridays? She would walk round and give us tips (think this may have been mentioned on another thread). A small group of us used to wash DR's car now and again, on one occasion she gave her breakfast toast CRUSTS as a thank you!! Sometimes she gave us a small amount of money I think. She had a good heart deep down, DR, but in the 60's/70's she seemed very old-fashioned and didn't seem to move with the times at all. Does anyone know if it was it true that she took CH headship after she lost her fiance in the war?

[Angela Woodford]

DR gave you cash for washing her car?

I wish I'd been in on this little earner!

I expect that Kerren will give us the correct answer, but DR? A fiancé? I would think almost definitely NOT. There was only one male whom DR seemed to think acceptable - benefactor Sir Harry Vanderpant. Mary V has a memory of DR commenting that, when escorting her (??!) he walked on the outer side of the pavement, and another of us - can't remember whom, but the comment is useful - recounts that DR would become "grotesquely coquettish in his presence". which is quite sweet, really, when applied to that formidable rather neuter woman.

Maggie, I agree that I expressed "feeling like going for a walk" in a rather casual way. Although we would be "put down" for a sporting activity on Nellie's Notice Board, sometimes we would find that we'd got an unaccounted-for slot - terrific! That was when we could approach a BA and ask to go on a walk. All-Out meaning just that, it was really difficult to lurk anywhere in the House, although the Really Desperate Behind With Needlework were sometimes driven to do Panic Needlework in the outside loos.

Three friends of mine were non sporting enough to send some excusing message to the game for which they were put down (or... just not turn up....) and retreat to a hideout in the inner Bio Lab. They never were caught.

[fra828]

You know, my memory was possibly playing tricks when I said about DR giving us money for washing her car, it just seems so unlikely doesn't it? I know she did give us an envelope: to the 'car- cleaning gang', maybe there was just a thank-you note in it. As for her having a fiance, this could have been a rumour going round at one time. Just wondered if anyone else had heard similar story? Or my memory playing tricks again !!

[englishangel]

There is no mention of a fiance in "Half to Remember", her autobiography.

I can believe the car-washing, a fair wage for a job well done perhaps.

Sir H.V and DR were in London I believe, (it may have been some CH do) and she said that nowadays (1969 or so) the gentleman should probably walk on the inside to stop the lady being attacked by a thug jumping out of an alley.

[Angela Woodford]

Say "mugger" to DR in those days, and she would have thought of a lurking crocodile from India!

(Come back to edit - another thought -

A thug! I remember discussing "suttee and thugee" with Merce. The original thugs were Indian professional assassins? But I was very upset at the thought of those poor Indian widows casting themselves on the funeral pyres. Merce did try to explain this clearly to the class but caught sight of my face....

[thamesmudandbarges]

The photo I have in my head includes Anne Gillespie walking towards the town centre, away from the school entrance, with a few others, past a bus stop just beyond the school gates (and not wearing Chapel caps). Is the Rosemary Gilespie you mention related to Anne?

I remember Anne Gillespie - sort of!

She was a sixth former (in my memory) and had a very studious look about her. Dark hair in a bob...

Was she in 6's or 7's or neither? Can't remember. Could have been 2's.

Oh, how the memory fades.

[englishangel]

7's I think but then I didn't even get her name correct. Definitely not 2's though.

[Angela Woodford]

Definitely not 6s!

[lonely_wolf]

...
I have a memory of teaching myself to type somewhere in " Nines"....

What was Nines, I mean there were 8 houses, right?

[englishangel]

A little building to the rear/side of the science block which predated the 1904 rebuild.

[lonely_wolf]

Interesting. Why was it called "nines"?

[Alexandra Thrift]

Lonely_Wolf asked "Why was "nines" called nines ?"

I think "nines" must still be there as it was part of the row of ancient listed buildings at the front of the school. It was once used as a house or "ward" as they were called in the distant past. There were still all kinds of artefacts lurking around when I was at CH marked "Ward 6 ", " Ward 9" or whatever. I think some of the young boys had lived there before they moved out ( did they go straight to Horsham or was there a period between when all the boys were in London ?). After that the youngest girls lived there for a time ( way before my time when some of the girls were eight and nine )....I'm sure DR told us that...but it could be my imagination....anyhow it had definitely been "Ward Nine" and children were housed there.

[midget]

I don't remember anyone living in 9s (though I don't remember it being called 9s either) The very young girls were in 1s and 5s, which I thought was a DR innovation.