Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Well, whatever David.. I don't remember EVER in my time at Hertford being allowed to take back to school a personal blanket of any kind.......How lovely would it have been to have had something warm, from home, into which one could wrap oneself when occasion permitted. And as I have said before - there was me thinking that Horsham was more spartan than Hertford!

englishangel wrote:

kerrensimmonds wrote:Yes, I agreee....the poles and the curtains disappeared during my time, but I cannot be sure as to when. And at the moment I am most certainly enjoying the central heating at home today.... whilst also remembering those occasions when one curled up on top of a radiator (at the same time being admonished that one risked 'floating kidneys') when one was really really cold at school!
Ho Hum. In what luxury do we live these days...
Kerren

I always thought it was haemorrhoids, or perhaps that was sitting on a cold stone step. Or moving from one to the other and back again.

Pot used to tell us that we would get floating liver and piles from sitting on a radiator, or from sitting on a cold stone step.

My liver does, occasionally, feel as though it is afloat, but I'm reasonably sure that this has absolutely nothing to do with radiators or concrete steps

I've still got my rug from CH and it still has my name and house number on it!

It spends most of its time in the boot of the car these days.

Foureyes is absolutely right. We did take our rugs with us to Big School on film nights.

posted twice for some reason!

I'm blue (cold....) with jealousy. Why weren't we allowed to take a home rug or blanket back to Hertford?!

Angela Woodford wrote: I actually want to show off that I call do accents now...)

To err is human

.... if you say so.

Kerren, do you remember when we were crammed on to the side of the swimming pool to watch competitions? We were solidly packed to scream and cheer - right from the water's edge to the bench at the back.

And we had rugs to wrap around our legs! But which rug/blanket? I can't remember where they came from. There might have been a collection of Old Threadbares somewhere in House, much as we used the old gold cubicle curtains. as end-of term dust sheets.

It would have been nice and comforting to bring a rug from home!

Munch

Angela Woodford wrote:Kerren, do you remember when we were crammed on to the side of the swimming pool to watch competitions? We were solidly packed to scream and cheer - right from the water's edge to the bench at the back.

I remember feeling quite nervous. I imagined someone sneezing in the back row, the whole lot of us falling into the pool, and the front row drowning.

Yes I do remember being crammed in tiers down the side of the swimming pool - and I remember the rugs too but they certainly weren't our own and I suspect they were stored in the gym/swimming pool for that sole purpose and probably were not terribly savoury......ooooo dear!
I also remember the overwhelming stench of chlorine and the slippery wooden boards in the changing cubicles. And the itchy black woollen bathing costume....
Happy days

At the risk of confusing Kerren still further, not only did the boys have an extra rug, but once we were in the CCF at age 14 we had an Army-issue greacoat to go on our beds, as well.

Favouritism again.

Well, thanks for that, David!
You may have had more spartan living conditions than we did but it is clear that at least you were provided with facilities to keep you warm! Was Horsham deemed to be so much colder than Hertford (ermm... Hertford is further north?) that the boys needed more 'cover' than the girls.
Soon we will start reminiscing about the numbers of blankets and coverlet or whatever on the bed and will discover that at Hertford we may have been more generously provided anyway, than you were at Horsham.
Can any Hertford OB remember how many blankets we were given, to cover those crisp white sheets which we had to fold into precise hospital corners? My memory says two.. but .........
Dream on for duvets!
I seem to remember that later on (? in my time or soon after?) there were tartan rugs to 'throw over' the bed - but I seem to think that they were 'issue' and not to be taken away from the dormitory.
However, thinking this through, on what did we sit when we went out onto the School Field on e.g. a Sunday, or to revise before O or A levels? My memory is going into overdrive now, so is not to be trusted!
Kerren

The tartan blankets were in use throughout my time, from 1967 onwards. They were primarily bedcovers, although I also remember being allowed to take them out on to the field when revising for O and A levels.

Actually when I think about it some more, I believe Upper Dorm (LIV upwards) still had yellow dustsheets for bedcovers when I was first at CH, although after the cubies were built a couple of years later I seem to remember them having tartan blankets too.

Hello people from my (elderly!) generation. Were the yellow dustsheets the former curtains from our cubicles, when they were defined by the hospital-style metal poles?









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The tartan blankets were there when I started, and below them we had two 'natural' blankets which were so thin I think they had been there since the foundation.

We didn't have yellow bedcovers in 2's at any time.

If anyone can make out what Becky and Penny are sitting on while 'revising' for O Levels, let me know. It may be a yellow curtain but cerainly not tartan.