Ellerslie Boarding School for girls in the 1960’s
By Geraldine Dodd (nee Warren)
I attended Ellerslie school in Great Malvern during the 1960’s. My first term there was in January 1964 and my last term was in July 1969. Most of the girls in my year started at Ellerslie in September 1963 and I have no idea why I did not except for the fact that I only took my Common Entrance exam on November 5th 1963.
Previously in October 1963 I had attended an interview with the headmistress Miss Margaret D Prior. My parents and I were ushered into a large drawing room on the right-hand side of the front door of Ellerslie House. It was quite lavishly furnished I thought, considering it was school property. The walls were decorated with a pale blue traditional patterned wallpaper with a sheen on it. At one end of the room there was a large floor to ceiling mirror flanked by a tall column on either side. There were several armchairs in the room mostly covered in pale blue, and a large, well polished grand piano stood in the side window that overlooked Abbey Road. My mother had primed me up to say I was reading the book Black Beauty should I be asked.
“Tell me Geraldine, what book are you reading?”, asked Miss Prior; “Black Beauty” I dutifully replied having never read a single word of it! To this day I have still never read Black Beauty
“That’s absolutely splendid!” said Miss Prior. Little did I know that was to be her catch phrase for the endurance of my education at Ellerslie!
Hampton House
I passed my Common Entrance exam and obviously Miss prior was happy with me, so in early January 1964 I was deposited, by my parents, at the front door of Hampton House on Abbey Road fully kitted out in Ellerslie school uniform complete with a trunk full of clothes, an overnight bag, an eiderdown and a rug!
This is how the school was structured:
Hampton House, Abbey Road. Class Upper 3 age 11 years. Class Lower 4 age 12 years.
Southlands, Wells Road. Class Upper 4 age 13 years.
Cherbourg Wells, Road. Class Lower 5 age 14 years.
Ellerslie House, Abbey Road Class Upper 5 age 15 years.
School House, Abbey Road. Class Lower 6 age 16 years.
Study Bedrooms, Abbey Road. Class Upper 6 age 17 years.
Hampton House was the junior house. We lived there and our classrooms were there.
Housemistress – Miss Agatha Winifred Wardlaw Matron – Miss Mary Ward.
I soon settled into the school routine and on a day-to-day basis this is how we lived pretty much throughout the school;
7.30am
The morning bell woke us up, usually rung by matron. Jump out of bed and pull sheets back to ‘air’ the bed we were told. Get dressed and go down to breakfast.
8am Breakfast
In Hampton House it was in the dining room. The remainder of the school had meals in the school dining room that was newly built between Southlands and Cherbourg in 1966. The new music block was underneath the dining room.
8.30am
Return to your house. Make your bed. Change the sheets if it’s a ‘sheet changing day’. Pillowcase and bottom sheet to the wash. Old top sheet goes to the bottom and a new top sheet and pillowcase is provided. Also, we were supposed to turn our mattresses on a weekly basis but after Matron had been to check if we had done this we all turned them back again. They were hard and lumpy! The post was also given out at this time for the lucky ones whose parents had written to them.
Daily School Life.
8.45am
We went to our classrooms and the registers were called.
This photo was taken in more recent times and shows the middle school classroom block on the right-hand side. Immediately behind it, hidden from view, were the old cottages that were used as sixth form classrooms, the prefects study and the staff
Upper 4 in the French room 1966.
Lower 4 in the conservatory at Hampton. Another classroom at Hampton. 1970.
room. The Head Gardener and his wife lived in the gate cottage. One of the other gardeners lived in the gate cottage at Hampton House. They were called Mr Farmer and Mr Pendry.
Mr Cox the school Chaplain taking a lesson with Lower 5 in 1970.
9am
School assembly was in the school hall near Ellerslie House. All the pupils from Hampton House came up to this in crocodile fashion. Our music teacher would play classical music on the grand piano on the stage until Miss prior walked in. I loved listening to the music and hated the moment when it had to abruptly stop!
For the remainder of the day we had lessons. Lunch was 1pm and after lunch we were allowed to have 4 sweets out of our tuck boxes! At weekends we were allowed to have 6 sweets!! These had to be checked by matron as we filed past her and showed her how many we’d taken.
School finished at 4pm when we went for High Tea. In Hampton it was in the dining room. For the remainder of the school it was in the Domestic Science room in the basement of Ellerslie House, and immediately underneath Miss Priors drawing room. High tea consisted of a jam sandwich, a Chelsea bun and a cup of tea although the fillings and the types of buns did vary from day to day. The sixth form housemistress Mrs Hood usually presided over high tea. As we walked in she used to say ‘Jam in the sandwiches, the buns are extra’ exaggerating the ‘ex – tra’ in a sing-song tone of voice. It became a school catch phrase.
The Domestic Science rooms were under the balcony and the entrance was through the arch on the left. The assembly hall was behind the trees on the right.
At 4.30 we returned to the classrooms for Prep (otherwise known as homework) until 6.30pm.
At 6.30pm somebody, usually a fifth former, rang a bell to go to evening prayers After that there was a mad stampede back to our houses when we could change into our own clothes!! Hallelujah! It was the best time of day!
Supper was at 7pm and usually something quite inadequate like a bowl of soup, followed by a slice of corned beef, a tomato and a few chips, followed by some frothy bowl of mousse that could be beaten down to a teaspoonful if you could be bothered to do it! I spent a lot of nights at Ellerslie feeling starved to death. However, I have to say that the lunches were pretty good.
The senior school dining room situated Waiting for supper 1969 outside between Southlands and Cherbourg. the music block which was underneath the dining room.
In Hampton House ‘lights out’ was 9pm and strictly no talking once we were all immersed in darkness! In the middle and senior school it was 9.30pm, then 10pm.
Hampton House was a lovely house and had obviously been quite grand in its hey day. The gardens were lovely and the drive swept along the bottom edge of the lawn and curved around to the front door. It was flanked by tall fir trees and we used these trees as our dens. We had little imaginary shops in them. While I was there one of our dens was an imaginary stables but several years, when I was in the sixth form, I went to Hampton House and was told that this was now a night club!
We played many games in those gardens during our break times, during the summer evenings and at weekends. In winter we had to stay in the house. The Common Room was to the right-hand side of the front door. This was our room. We each had a little locker in there for our sewing boxes and our personal possessions. Jacks was a popular game, as was cards. We used to play Patience a lot and also Racing demon which was a form of patience. It was in this room that we were allowed to watch the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill. A black and white TV had to be hired and I remember wondering what all the fuss was about as I wasn’t bothered about watching this funeral. This was January 30th 1965
My sister and me at the front door of Hampton House in 1965 with Matron Mary Ward. The dog was my family dog and he went back home with our parents.
The conservatory was used as a Lower 4 classroom. The upstairs windows on the modern wing were dormitories with Upper 3 classroom below.
Playing in the gardens at Hampton House 1965.
Outside the common room and dining Side view of Hampton House. room windows at Hampton House 1965.
The school outdoor, unheated swimming pool was also situated at Hampton House. It was very cold and the changing rooms were very basic.
Here I am at the side of the pool with my family dog in 1965. I was being dropped off at school a bit late that term.
Photo taken in 1940’s or 50’s but still looked the same in the 60’s! Wells Road is just behind the changing rooms top right.
The tennis court at Hampton House. Tennis court in the background.
The Domestic Routine at Hampton House.
Of all the houses Hampton House was probably the most strict on domestic management. Perhaps it was to get us little girls into a regimented routine!
Monday evening was hair washing night when we were called out of Prep to go up to the bathrooms to have our washed by a Mr Birley and his son who were local hairdressers. There was one hair dryer for about 40 of us!! Matron fiercely held onto it and selected girls at random to have their hair dried by her. The rest of us knelt down in front of a gas fire either in one of the dormitories, or in Matrons study. Needless to say we all had frizzy hair!
Thursday night was mending night in which we were supposed to mend and darn our clothes should they require it.
Friday night was shoe cleaning night. We all spent an evening in the basement polishing our shoes and playing American skipping!
Saturday night we were allowed to play our own records! This was the 1960’s and a time when pop music was still in its infancy.
Another routine that had to be adhered to throughout the school was the bath rota. We each had a bath every other night. On a Sunday we had to bath alternately so one week it would be all those on a Mon, Wed, Fri rota and the following week all those on a Tues, Thurs, Sat rota! There were also bath times with three or four people going at 8pm, 8.15pm, 8.30pm and so on. Each house usually had several bathrooms in it.
Cherbourg
By the Autumn Term of 1967 my year moved up to Lower 5 and into Cherbourg. We were all 14 years old during that school year.
Moving to Cherbourg was the thing I had dreaded the most because the housemistress was a Miss Tredgett who was apparently considered to be a bit of a dragon! Fortunately she decided to retire at the end of the Summer Term 1967 much to the relief of us all, and Miss Sawtell arrived. Miss Sawtell seemed to spend a lot of time saying ‘Girls! I’m tired, Miss Prior’s tired, the prefects are tired, we’re ALL tired!’ much to our amusement and bewilderment. We were never sure why she said it.
It was during our time in Cherbourg that one of us decided it would be a good idea to place a tape recorder behind the staff table in the dining room one evening. This was
The back of Cherbourg (on the left), dining room and Southlands in 1966.
The front of Cherbourg in 2015
Housemistress and Matron – Miss Sawtell
duly done just before the gong was sounded and we all filed into supper like little angels. When supper finished we couldn’t wait to retrieve the tape recorder and listen to the staff conversation. Alas, all we could hear was the gong and a clatter of cutlery! It was very disappointing!
One summer evening in Cherbourg there was a car crash out on Wells Road. We had all gone to bed and I was in a dormitory on the top floor looking down onto Wells Road. Well of course this caused great excitement and especially when we heard the front doorbell ring. We all crept down the staircases and peered into the hall. Two young men were in the hall and were asking Miss Sawtell if they could use the telephone. The look of surprise on their faces was priceless when they saw all our 14 year old little faces peering at them from all angles!
My room mates in a Cherbourg dormitory on the front of the house in summer 1967.
Routines carried on as normal in Cherbourg. Weekends were the most boring in all of the houses. On Saturdays we had to wear school uniform and go into our classrooms and do Prep (homework) for an hour. We then had to go to the school hall and have one hour of hymn practice. This wasn’t as bad as it sounded because our music teacher was Miss Moon, the Housemistress of Southlands, and she was lovely. She used to try and liven things up a lot and we sang our hymns to quite modern tunes. One of these was father Hear The Prayer We Offer to the tune of Z Cars on TV. There was an occasion when we were out at the local churches in Malvern and we suddenly realised, at the end of the first verse, that the remainder of the congregation were only half way through! The vicar frowned at us over the top his glasses and the teacher on duty whispered to us to ‘slow down a bit’! Here was a body of about 40 girls all used to singing together and we had descants and altos going, we were very good, but the congregation weren’t impressed!
Walking and Shopping.
After hymn practice we had lunch and then had to go for a walk for an hour. The girls in Hampton House had to walk in crocodile, the rest of us had to arrange ourselves in groups of five. This was because if one had an accident two people could stay with her and two people could go for help, this was the days before mobile phones. The middle and senior school were also allowed to go into Malvern town centre to the shops.
In Hampton House Matron Ward did the shopping. We were issued with little Ellerslie cheque books. We were allowed to have 30 shillings pocket money per term and we could draw out this money at weekends by writing a cheque to Matron. Matron left a shopping list on the common room table and we had to fill in what we wanted followed by our name. The shopping list would read something like this:
1 bag of lemon sherbert please matron. A Evans 1 bag of licorice please matron. J Hughes 1 pack of Kleenex please matron. A.Brown
Matron would go out and buy these things and would tell you what you owed. You then wrote out your cheque for 3 pence, or sixpence, or even one shilling, as this was pre decimalisation. We also had to write cheques to get our money out for the collection in school chapel on Sundays too. This was always thruppence.
After walking or shopping we were allowed to change into our own clothes and have high tea. After high tea there was always a lecture or a film in the school hall. The films were things like Carve Her Name With Pride, A Tale of Two Cities etc. The lectures were usually given by professionals who would talk about such things as Badger Watching. In fact it was a Mr Everett who did the badger watching and sometimes he would take a group with him the following week. Names would be drawn out of a hat for this privilege.
After the Saturday film we had supper at 7pm and then we were allowed to play records until bedtime. One of us had to supply a record player and everybody would bring their own records from home. These were the old vinyl records and mostly 45’s. I don’t think anybody ever brought in any LP’s, there probably wasn’t enough time to listen to them before we had to go to bed.
Ellerslie House.
Housemistress – Mrs Ferrari, and later Mrs Adams. Miss Prior also lived in Ellerslie House.
We lived in Ellerslie house when we were all 15 years old in 1967 to 1968. We were all in Upper 5.
Our housemistress was Mrs Ferrari and, as her name suggests, was related to the famous Ferrari car family. Miss Prior lived in Ellerslie house. Her drawing room and study were on the ground floor where you can see in the photo the drawing room has a glass veranda. Her bedroom and private room was the room above that veranda.
The three top rooms were dormitories with a bathroom window slightly set back between them. The very large window on the right was the fifth form common room and the school library was underneath it (obscured by a tree in this photo). The other large window near the common room was a dormitory and slap bang next door to Miss Priors bedroom! We had to behave ourselves!
The cloakrooms and Domestic Science rooms were in the basement where you can see the pillars and rounded arch. The small lawn just near the arch was known as ‘The sacred lawn’! We weren’t allowed on it because it was Miss Priors lawn. However, in the winter of either 1968, or early 1969, we had heavy snow. A friend of mine, who was new to the school and came from Trinidad, had never seen snow before. On a cold freezing day she rushed out in the snow on the sacred lawn and danced around in it. The rest of us remained huddled up at the common room window watching her with amusement!
The school hall and chapel is to the right of the photo.
Mrs Ferrai had a little dog called Bella and fortunately for us Bella had a collar with a little bell on it. We always knew when Mrs Ferrari was coming as little Bella
followed her everywhere. It gave us plenty of warning to hide anything we shouldn’t have been doing! Miss Prior also had a dog, a little Yorkshire Terrier called Susie. Susie can be seen sitting on Miss Priors lap in some of the school photos. Miss Prior had a personal maid called Miss Bowering who had a sitting room and kitchen down in Ellerslie basement. We were always very wary of Miss Bowering because she would always report back to Miss Prior if she saw anybody getting up to mischief.
As with all the houses, we weren’t allowed to use the front stairs. Ellerslie had quite an impressive hallway and staircase.
Below are two photos taken in 2016 during renovations.
Ellerslie hallway and
The Drawing Room. The window Drawing Room door. overlooks Abbey Road.
In all the dormitories we were given two drawers each. Any hanging clothes were kept in communal wardrobes in the dormitories or on the landings. In Ellerslie House there was a room in the attic where we all hung our clothes. It was up a very tiny set of stairs and was quite secluded. Some of my year made a den up there and I don’t think it was ever discovered by Mrs Ferrari.
I would like to mention at this point that we pupils always used the maids stairs and the maids entrances in all of the houses. Watching the servants quarters on Downton Abbey reminded me very much of the houses we lived in. Some of the little winding staircases were actually quite dangerous.
All the floors in the houses were covered in linoleum. All the walls were painted pale blues, or pale greens and creams. We slept on beds with iron bedsteads and the mattresses were thin and lumpy! We were supposed to turn our mattresses every week but once you’d found a comfy side you would turn your mattress back after the matrons had done their inspection! There was a little thin rug at the side of each bed that was neither use nor ornament. As mentioned previously, the dormitories were heated by a single electric radiator on the wall which was totally inadequate.
School Library in Ellerslie House 1966.
The School Chapel and Assembly Hall.
Whether you wanted to be religious or not you had no choice at Ellerslie! We had morning prayers and evening prayers every weekday. We had hymn practice on Saturdays and chapel twice on a Sunday. If you were confirmed you also had to attend an extra service before the main Sunday morning service. I’m afraid to say it put me off religion for life and I was one of the few who never got confirmed. Mr Ingram Cox was our school Chaplain. He was a lovely man and very popular. He taught Religious Knowledge to some of the classes.
The Chapel was at one end of the School Hall. On Saturday nights we had to turn or chairs round to ‘face the other way’ ready for school chapel on Sunday morning.
Girls who were catholic were allowed to attend local catholic churches. Every now and again each class was also allowed to attend the Malvern churches. We walked to church in crocodile. Hampton House went to the Wyche church near Malvern Common. The middle school went to a church somewhere near Malvern Link, it was on the same road as Belle Vue Terrace but much further along. The senior school were allowed to attend the church of their choice, in small groups. Needless to say the Quaker Church somewhere near the Boys College was a popular choice because all we had to do was sit there in silence for a while!
At the opposite end to the School chapel was the school stage. This is where Miss Prior held school assembly every morning. It is also where our drama teacher Mrs Goodbody was based and she produced some very good plays throughout my time at Ellerslie. At the end of the summer terms there was usually a play put on either by the staff or by the sixth form. They were always absolutely hilarious and full of ‘in jokes’ that nobody else would understand. The one that stands out in my mind is when Miss Ward the maths teacher, who must have been all of sixty something, leapt over the back of a couch clad head to toe in green, including green tights. She was a very thin woman. The school just fell apart with laughter because here was a woman who terrified the living daylights out of most of us!
Speaking of Murder 1967 (with boys from Malvern College)
Under Milkwood 1967 at The Winter Gardens with Malvern Boys College.
Dr Faustus 1968 at The Winter Gardens with Malvern Boys College.
We also did school plays with Malvern Boys College and performed them at The Winter Gardens. My entire year were involved in Dr Faustus and most of them are in this photo. I helped in the costume department.
The school hall just before demolition in 2016.
Lady Precious Stream 1966 performed in the school hall.
Sundays
I suppose it’s worth mentioning Sundays at this point although it was the most deathly boring day in the whole week.
On Sundays we were allowed a lie in until about 8am. Most of us were awake by that time anyway as we always had to go to bed at a ridiculously early hour. I hated going to bed early, especially in summer when it was still light and often the sun was still shining. We always wore our best suits on Sunday. We had fitted jackets and box pleat skirts. We also had to wear our best pair of school lace up shoes.
We had a ‘continental’ breakfast on Sundays which consisted of cereal followed by bread rolls and marmalade. After breakfast we had letter writing for an hour. The house matron would collect our letters and post them for us. After letter writing there was school chapel in the main hall followed free time and lunch.
Sunday lunch was always roast beef and was usually very good. The school did not cater for vegetarians and I cannot remember anybody being on any kind of a special diet like some many people these days. You ate what was put in front of you and you left a clean plate!
After lunch we had Silent Reading where we sat in our common rooms and were supposed to read. You weren’t allowed to talk for an hour but there was much ‘message passing’ going on, and face pulling!
We then had to go for a walk. The juniors went in crocodile and the seniors in groups of five. This was usually around the Lower Horseshoe, up St Annes Well or along Malvern Common. I loved the walks, it was lovely to get outside and away from the confines of school. I really appreciated the beautiful countryside in Great Malvern.
We returned to have some free time and tea. After tea it was time for evening chapel followed by supper and bed.
If ever there was to be any mischief it would always happen on a Sunday and there was generally somebody being sent to ‘see Miss Prior’ on a Monday morning. Several girls were expelled during my time at Ellerslie. The school did not provide any hobbies apart from Girl Guides a couple of times a term and the Debating Society! Nobody was keen on either so we generally got very bored.
Sunday on the Lower Horseshoe 1968
School House.
Housemistress - Mrs Hood.
We lived in School House in 1968 to 1969 when were 16 years old and in the Lower 6
School House is the modern building on the left of the photo. The downstairs windows are those of the Geography Room. Further along, not shown in this photo, were the Science and Biology Labs. The upstairs windows were the Lower 6 dormitories. The top row of widows were the Study Bedrooms built for the Upper 6 in 1968 and completed in January 1969
Basically the living quarters of School House consisted of one long corridor with a chain of cow bells hanging in the middle of it. Everybody who went past them jumped in the air and rang the bells. There were four dormitories consisting of about eight beds in each one. Mrs Hoods room was in the middle of the corridor, as were the bathrooms. The Common Room and cloakroom were at the far end. As we graduated up the school things became a bit easier for us in some respects. The teachers seemed to treat us more like adults.
Our Lower sixth classroom was in the old cottages off to the left of this photo. The Upper 4 were based in the French room above us. We no longer had desks. Instead we had a table built all around the perimeter of the room. It was sectioned off so that we each had a desk area with shelves above it. In the centre of the room were two full length tables where we would sit for lessons. The old stables were just by our classroom doors and the gardeners used to keep all their equipment in there. You could see the old bays sectioned off where horses had once been stabled.
In the sixth form we were allowed more privileges. We wore our own clothes for most of the weekend although I think we still had to wear school suits on a Sunday. We were allowed to watch Top of The Pops on a Thursday night in the Geography room. The fact that we were allowed this treat meant that you watched it whether you wanted to or not! It was the only time we could watch TV! I think Upper 5 used to enjoy this privilege as well.
Outside the Lower 6
This photo shows the French Rooms upstairs. July 1969 That’s me on the right
The building on the extreme right is the back of Ellerslie gatehouse.
The Head Girl and Prefects in 1966 in their room in the old cottages.
The Study Bedrooms.
My class were in the study bedrooms in 1969 and 1970 when we were all 17 years old and in Upper 6.
The study bedrooms were built in 1968 on top of School House. They were built by a local building firm owned by the father of a girl in my year. They comprised of a long corridor with individual bedrooms on either side. There was also a small kitchen.
As with many schools the Upper 6 were given much more freedom and responsibility The Head Girl and Prefects were in Upper 6.
Housemistress Mrs Hood
Summer Term 1970.
The Uniform
The clothes list for Ellerslie was endless. It must have cost a fortune and all the uniform was supplied by Warwick House on Wells Road. This was a small department store opposite some formal gardens just near Belle Vue Terrace. The uniform was a mid brown colour and the clothes list was, as far as memory serves me, as follows:
1x Blazer.
1x Day skirt.
1x Suit Jacket.
1x Suit skirt.
1x Herringbone coat.
1x Cloak
3x Dresses-summer only, pink/blue/yellow/green.
1x Tie
1x Tie pin
1x Felt hat.
1x Boater – summer only.
1x Brown cardigan.
1x Brown jumper
1x Games skirt.
3 pairs brown knickers-for gymnastics
1 pair leather gloves.
1 pair beige cotton gloves-summer only
1x School scarf
1x Beret
1x Plastic mackintosh.
3x Aertex shirts.
4x Blouses. Green/Blue/Pink/Yellow
6 pairs long beige socks
6 pairs short beige socks-summer only
1 pair Sunday best lace up shoes
1 pair everyday lace up shoes
1 pair house shoes
1 pair black plimsoles
1 pair white plimsoles-summer only
1x Tennis racket-summer only
1x Shoe cleaning kit.
1x Sewing box
1x Tuck box filled with sweets.
1x Swimming costume-summer only
2x Swimming towels-summer only.
1x Games bag
1x linen bag.
1x Brush and comb bag.
1 Hairbrush
1 Comb.
1x Toiletries bag containing soap, toothbrush, toothpaste & a flannel.
1x Rug
1x Eiderdown
6 pairs white knickers
3x Bras
6 pairs 60 denier stockings
3x suspender belts.
3x Nightdresses
1x Dressing gown
1 pair of slippers.
3x outfits of your own clothes, dresses, skirts, tops, jumpers. Trousers are forbidden.
2 pairs of your own shoes.
1x Trunk
1x Overnight bag.
1x Brown overall for art lessons.
There may have been other things on this list but this is all I can remember. Absolutely everything had to have a Cash’s name tape sewn into it apart from shoes etc. which had to be labelled with indelible pen.
The reason there were so many items was due to laundry management. Some items on the above list allowed for example one blouse to be at the laundry, one blouse to be on its way back from the laundry, and one blouse being worn.
The plain everyday skirt worn during the week.
The school suit with the box pleat skirt and fitted jacket, as worn on a Sunday.
The boater, blazer, scarf, tie and tie Pin.
What did we learn from our education at Ellerslie?
Ellerslie was a good school if you were academic. However many of us were not academic so we were divided into A and B streams within each year. The A stream learnt at a much quicker pace and therefore covered more ground on various subjects. For those of us in the B stream there were less opportunities. I spent a lot of my education in a complete fog. I have since spoken to other old girls and they have agreed with me. If you didn’t understand something there was nobody to ask. Unlike a day school you couldn’t go home and ask your parents. If you were stuck with a problem during Prep (homework) then you had no chance of ever resolving it. The staff went home at 4pm and from that time onwards there were only ever the Matrrons and Housemistresses around.
We were actually told what we could, and could not, do with regard to subjects. We seemed to have little choice. My class did one term of Physics and one term of Chemistry. I quite enjoyed these but nobody ever asked me if I would like to carry on doing them. I was told to give up Maths because I was so bad at it. It never occurred to the school that perhaps I needed extra tuition to help me understand the subject!
The art subjects were practically swept under the carpet! When I was taking Art A Level (crammed into one year) the Art teacher left. We were left for two terms with no Art teacher! Before she left the Art teacher told us what we needed to learn and we all sat down in the school library and art rooms and taught ourselves for those two final terms!
The Gymnasium hadn’t changed since it was built, probably in the 1920’s or 1930’s. One morning in assembly Miss Prior stood on the stage and actually said that smoking in the school was strictly forbidden but if pupils insisted on smoking then perhaps they could do it around the vicinity of the Gym (and hopefully burn it down is what she was really trying to say!).
We learnt Latin which to me seemed totally crazy and a complete waste of time. The French lessons were more about getting the grammar correct than actually speaking it! I got so mixed up on the grammar that I felt I hardly ever learnt anything. The History teacher was preoccupied with dates of battles. We had to reel them off parrot fashion. How much better it would have been to have been given a broader knowledge of history instead of concentrating on battles!
Anyway, we all survived and Ellerslie produced Doctors and girls with good jobs in an era when there was little opportunity for girls to do anything other than be a secretary or a nurse. I went to college in Manchester and went into fashion design.
Were we prepared for the big wide world?
Tucked away in a relatively small boarding school which was largely run by old spinsters and an all-female staff did not really prepare us for everyday life. I found life quite difficult when I left school and so did many of my school friends. We had lived such a protected life for six or seven years. We all came from similar backgrounds and were the daughters of men who either served in the forces, owned successful businesses, were wealthy farmers or medical professionals and it was quite a shock to go out into the real world. I felt very uncomfortable with the other students at my college and I never let them know where I had been to school for fear of being labelled as a snob.
Ellerslie had taught us to be polite. In fact good manners were drummed into us morning, noon and night almost to the point of being subservient to others. We had to hold doors open for staff, we had to stand back and let everybody go before us, we had to be polite at all times. This was not the case once I had left school and I was quite horrified how rude the students were towards the college tutors.
At Ellerslie there was a very strong bond between us all. We were all ‘in it together’ and many good friendships were formed. We were with each other 24/7 and we looked after each other and supported each other when the chips were down. We had little contact with adults for the most formative years of our lives. Teaching staff came in the mornings and went home at night, the house staff such as matrons and housemistresses were too busy doing their jobs and nobody ever confided in them anyway. There was no ‘running telling tales’ because there was nobody to run to. In some of the classes there was a certain amount of bullying, which I suppose is part of growing up, but there was nothing major.
My year now meet up on a fairly regular basis ever since we first managed to get together in 1999 following the sad death of one of our year.
Some of the Class of 1963 to 1970 at Our first Reunion in October 1999.
The Author.
Geraldine Warren 1964 in Ellerslie summer dress.
