Hertford hygeine, hierarchies and heartache (from CH Forum)

[anniexf]

now my post just looks ridiculous and pathetic,

No Mary, it was my post that was r & p & you were quite right to chide me. I shall stop trying to be amusing - JR does it so much better!

[Angela Woodford]

I did enjoy the progamme!

The Summer of Love was 1967, yes?

I'm just thinking - when did the realisation come to our sealed Hertford world that fun cheeky zany pop was at an end and that it was cool to drift about grooving to other sounds, painted with woad and handing out flowers? When the Spencer Davies Group had stopped Keeping On Running in the Dayroom, and Sargeant Pepper had made the noise like the End of the World and there was the faint furtive whiff of joss sticks in Upper Dorm?

Maybe spring of '67.

[englishangel]

Maybe even Autumn '66 we put Michaelmas daisies in our hair.

[J.R.]

'Woodstock' was fast approaching and the 'Isle of Wight' wasn't going to be far behind.

Arr - The Good Old Days !

[Mid A 15]

Those Were The Days My Friend as Mary Hopkin sung around the same time.

Spencer Davis was '66 incidentally.

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

In my innocence -- I still have not found out who the dreaded DR was --- I should like to hear more !

Was it not Mary Hopkin who constantly "Skipped to the Loo "

At my age -- I sympathise !!

[kerrensimmonds]

Miss DR West (Ruth to her friends)
Headmistress at Hertford 1942-1972

And she wasn't dreaded by everyone, either during or after her tenure

[Angela Woodford]

"Hierarchies and heartache" seems a good thread in which to remember DR.

One encouraging written remark from her ("This is better") in seven years. It wasn't much.

[anniexf]

"Hierarchies and heartache" seems a good thread in which to remember DR.

One encouraging written remark from her ("This is better") in seven years. It wasn't much.

One tended to be written off early, despite having been bright, optimistic and keen before arriving at Hertford, if one didn't fit the DR profile.

[Angela Woodford]

Sadly, you're absolutely right, Ann.

I can think of many girls who came to CH full of confidence and happiness. They'd done well in the 11+ and they and their parents believed that CH was going to be the very best thing for them. They were let down badly.

The rigid regimes, House culture, A and B streaming and personality labelling was very bad for various girls. DR just didn't seem to get it, did she? I believe it was her inability to connect with personal and emotional issues that did the damage.

I spent many lonely sent-to-Coventry years of being shunned in House because I was in the A stream. We weren't supposed to befriend girls younger or older, or have too much contact with friends in other Houses, so I relied on time in class to let off steam, with disastrous effects on my work. Why couldn't I explain this to anyone? Sadly, because of the lack of pastoral care, there was nobody to tell. Although Miss Mercer did go through a phase in 1970 of being available for one-to-one counselling - but then she too (I just knew it) would prefer to spend her time on those who showed promise....

I feel intense sympathy for all those other written-off girls. If only I could go back and do it differently!

That's a good thought. Put me back at Hertford as I am now. What would I do with a day?

[anniexf]

I can think of many girls who came to CH full of confidence and happiness. They'd done well in the 11+ and they and their parents believed that CH was going to be the very best thing for them. They were let down badly.

I feel intense sympathy for all those other written-off girls. If only I could go back and do it differently!

DR's parting words to my parents, so my mother told me, were "You'll always have trouble with Ann". Maybe they did; she certainly gave them ammunition whenever I looked like stepping out of line!
It wasn't until I read Paula's book, and then found this Forum, that I began to realise that I might not be the complete pariah I'd been labelled as. After 50 years of endogenous depression, salvation!

[icomefromalanddownunder]

It wasn't until I read Paula's book, and then found this Forum, that I began to realise that I might not be the complete pariah I'd been labelled as. After 50 years of endogenous depression, salvation!

I've had a lovely day - fantastic weather, unexpectedly ran into a friend at The Farmer's Market, the rope burns on my finger tips have stopped hurting, and it's a long weekend,

so

it is one of those days when I can feel sorry for DR, rather than just plain resentful. Sorry for her because I believe that only someone who deeply doubted herself would have treated us the way she did. Have you read 'Half To Remember'? I highly recommend that you do, if you haven't already. The poor woman couldn't even cook, and took lessons from BJ when her Ma came to live with her at Hertford. I wouldn't be surprised if she were as terrified of SWSNBN as I was.

If I could be transported back to Hertford in the 60s (does anyone else watch Being Erica?), knowing what I now know of course, or there would be no point, I would be straight to the Needlework Room and wouldn't leave until I were sure that SWSNBN would never, ever, bully another pupil ever again. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

Thank you Ladies -----
I am now a little wiser, now that I know who DR was.

Am I also to assume that SWMNBN is "She who must not be named " -- or is this another Hertford Secret ?

After reading all this --- I shall be forever grateful that I spent my time at Horsham ---Beatings -- Punishment Miles, and all --- It appears to have been a "Doddle".

(But then I may have been too thick to understand ! )

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Thank you Ladies -----
I am now a little wiser, now that I know who DR was.

Am I also to assume that SWMNBN is "She who must not be named " -- or is this another Hertford Secret ?


SWSNBN Neill, but you were almost correct: She Who SHALL Not Be Named.

xxx

[englishangel]

The needlework teacher, can you imagine what she would have made of Vivienne Westwood.

I was also thinking about BJ and Jamie Oliver, but I think she would approve, probably not so much of Nigella.