HHS OB's lunch...

As some people know, Tim Masterman, Paddy Langdon and myself have been meeting every few months for a beer and a chat about past times at HHS!

We're meeting again at the White Hart, Catsfield, near Battle, on the 25th October, and owing to Paddy's excellent detective work, we're delighted to be joined by Andy Young, who is also a contemporary OB from the late fifties/early sixties!

Of course, anyone reading this will be very welcome to join us - it's a bit of a hike from everywhere, but there may still be some local names who are able to pop along...!

We usually meet around 12.30pm - and I always bring along the full set of the HHS Magazines, as some memories get a bit hazy...!

Update...

John Leslie is also expecting to join us, and Howard Kidd would have done but for a previous engagement!

I've been in touch with Eastbourne College, and their Archivist, Paul Jordan, has been so very helpful in bringing me up to speed on OBs who went onto Eastbourne after leaving HHS!

Sadly, we've lost David Mansell, Tommy Boltjes, A.H.Marcus and C.Thomson. Also we knew that Edwin Morton had popped off! I've yet to hear back from several others like Nick Matthews and hope that they might see this in time for the next 'reunion'!

Dormitory names...

Douglas Kell has been in touch recently about the fire escape ladder, and there was a mention of all the dormitory names!

So while I'm still awake, here are the names I remember...

Please, anyone can correct me if I've gone wrong!

Caxton - over  the Middle Common Room overlooking the front lawn and at the West end of the building

Cranmer - over  the Middle Common Room overlooking the front lawn

Sydney - in the main house, next to Cranmer and up a few steps and overlooking the front lawn

Nelson - next to Sydney and overlooking the front lawn - the first dorm to have double bunks...

Alfred - next to Nelson in the main house

Lister - the North-West side of the house, in the main house overlooking the Garden Room

Grace - at the back, next to Lister and looking North

Elgar - the small two-bed dorm in the passage next to the sick bay near Sister's room

Wren - across the bridge and over the stables

Faraday - a bit further on and over the stables wing where the woodwork shop was! Matron, (Miss Reynolds back then) had her room around there too!

I don't think there were any more, but there may have been in later years!

Cricket boxes...

I can just remember that a good friend at HHS, Roger Bray, got hit in a very painful place during a batting session. Mr Trendle said that the time that we should be issued with boxes and wondered why we weren't!

Can anyone recall if such items were on the clothes list?

Fire escape ladder...

I was reading a Nevil Shute novel from the 1940s the other day, and he was describing an internal fire escape ladder in one of the scenes in the book!

The recall began to grow, and I'm sure there was a red (?) retractable fire escape ladder in one of the passages at HHS!

Can anyone enlighten me please, as I've tried searching for such images and have found none!

I think it was situated somewhere along the passage between Sister's room and the high passage across to Wren, near 'The Blackwater' Lead Pedestal wc (remember that) at the end, but I could well be wrong!

Next HHS OB lunch...

Just to let everyone know, a few of us are meeting at 'The Queens Hotel', Sedlescombe on Wednesday 12th April around lunchtime!

I forgot that is going to be Easter week, but that might help some of us!

Does anyone remember the days when we spent Easter at school, as it came so early in the year? GBess would 'pool' everyone's sweets, (this was before a sort of tuck shop arrangement changed all that), and we all got one of the plastic mugs full of whatever was left in everyone's 'private' jars!

Sometimes you won; other times all you got was a few 'cheap sweets', (as Mr Miller used to call them)!