Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Just wondering - does the school still have a barber's shop on site (it used to be in the same block as the tuck shop)?

As juniors, compulsory mass visits were a feature of every term (some of the results of this shearing can no doubt be witnessed in old photos).

I imagine that in these more enlightened times, and as pupils seem to nip off home every couple of weeks or so, this sort of thing is no longer inflicted by the school.

Or, on the other hand, have they taken it a step further, introducing nail stylists/aromatherapy/thalassotherapy/back,sack & crack wax etc., and in-house visits by 'Cedric of Mayfair'?

The school barber was still a part of life on my juniors... But it wasn't compulsory...

By my seniors, it moved to the Scout Hut (much to a certain scout master's disgust!) but by the end of my GE (1997) it had stopped altogether!

No ,more school hairdresser I'm sad to say, budget constrainsts and all

I seem to remember that visits to the barber were compulsory during 'prep' years, and could be demanded by housemasters in the upper school.

Next to the tuck shop, which was run by the lovely Mrs Tickner !

Ring any bells ?

Bit charitable calling them haircuts really. It was more like sheep shearing.

Is my mind playing tricks or was the chief butcher in the 70s the man known [affectionately of course ] as Peg Leg ?

And what happened to the shoe place behind dining hall ? The one where some wag had written "ring for hitler" above the bell.

Aaah yes, 'Peg-Leg' it was...

By 'shoe place', do you mean the wardrobe?

Used to be run by a small bloke in a brown coat, I think.....

I'm sur 'Peg-Leg's' real name will come to me shortly. Story went he lost it during the war. As I recall, it used to 'squeak' and 'clunk' as he walked.

Was R.S.M. (squeaky voice) Cooke R.S.M. of the C.C.F. at CH when you older guys were there ? What a character he was ! I'll never forget his demonstration in the armoury as to why the Sten gun killed as many of our guys as the enemy during the second world war !

The wardrobe was run by the same guy for eons... don't know who runs it now...

Sometimes I think I didn't go to the same school as all of you. Your experiences are so different. At Hertford we had to have haircuts that kept our hair above the ear line. If it came below that then we had to screw(sorry) it back behind our heads and put a rubber band on it so it stuck out in horrible bits behind our heads. Anything to make us look as unappealing as possible because all those old withered women who were in charge of us - including DR West who I hope is withering away herself in her nursing home - couldn't abide the thought that we might have any appeal in the evolutionary stakes. I look into these threads occasionally in amazement to see what is happening at CH now and also to let you more recent pupils get an idea about what you are lucky enough to have missed.

I'm struggling to recall Pegleg's name. Pearson or Pearsall comes to mind but I rather think he was the School Dentist.

The Wardrobe chap was Mr Henderson. He was a National Standard Roadwalker in his youth, I believe with Steyning AC which had a good reputation for producing high standard road walkers.

Mr Pearson was certainly the school dentist in my day. I recall he had a practice in Horsham and called at the school one day a week, (or half a day ?)

I well remember the agonies of an abscesed tooth and refusing to wait several days for treatment and taking myself off to Horsham to find a dentist that would see me. This dentist was NOT pleased to discover I was expected to wait until the school dentist arrived at C.H.

rebel wrote:Sometimes I think I didn't go to the same school as all of you.

Ermmm, you didn't!

No-one on this thread, anyway....

Well said Richard !

The similarities between the School, circa C.M.E. Seaman's days, and afterwards are non-existant !

J.R. wrote:Well said Richard !

The similarities between the School, circa C.M.E. Seaman's days, and afterwards are non-existant !

And as for the differences between Horsham and Hertford........

Two tenuously connected worlds, I would say.

Richard Ruck wrote:

rebel wrote:Sometimes I think I didn't go to the same school as all of you.

Ermmm, you didn't!

No-one on this thread, anyway....

Interesting concept.
in practical/geographical terms of course I didn't - but in terms of what 'the school' means re CH, the foundation etc. I assume I did. Otherwise I suppose you didn't go to the same school as the people who were in the London school etc. and you have only been a part of the school which was established at Horsham in the early 20 century or whenever.
What does it mean 'going to the same school'? I would have thought it meant being a part of the same foundation regardless of the place where the bricks and mortar were laid. My point was that it seemed that the whole philosophical ethos - perhaps in todays' terms the 'mission statement' - of the school had changed - and this is all to the good it seems from what I hear of the experiences of the people who go through it all today.