Saturday 20 June 2026
OH Reunion for the Leavers of 1996, 1991, 1986, 1981, 1976, 1971 & 1966
A boarder’s view?, 1976 Deanery leaver ?Firstly, I would like to thank all that made the recent reunion possible by giving up their time and it’s a bonus that at least four of the 1976 Deanery leavers are still above ground and able to find their way back after 50 years.? Where were the rest of you? You missed a lovely day with tea and cakes ON Deanery Lawn and a tour round the school.? Many of those in attendance from whatever year without fail recognised the efforts the teaching staff made, the Saturdays spent guiding the various sports teams, the extra hours during the week running the wide variety of extra curriculum activities. I believe this is what made the school standout for me.? On a personal note; what’s happened to the Bridge Club? It was so much fun pitting parents against pupils and being able to represent the school at national tournaments was such a great privilege? It will always be strange going back to a place where you spent a formative seven years of your life. The basic structure remains mostly intact, but the detail has altered, I was genuinely surprised that the table tennis hut and garden study at the side of the Deanery Lawn, which was old when we were using it is still standing 50 years on as a storage area.? Now to inside The Deanery in which we spent virtually all our time.? Top dorm our first introduction to being a boarder seems far smaller; the fire escape built during my time to replace a third-floor rope ladder system. Long dorm converted into 2 rooms, no more “running the gauntlet” of flaying wet towels, Upstairs study is no longer – knocked into B dorm. The flag stoned downstairs corridor where pocket money of 2 shillings (pre-decimal!) was dished out by the house-master’s wife and where letters from home were laid out, a Saturday ritual.? No tuck shop!!!? We were most appalled by the covering up of the handless monk’s gravestone (at the top of the entrance to the cellars and the multiple bathed bathroom). How do you terrify junior pupils without tales of “The Black Hand?” As a lone 11-year-old on 7.30 am “Bell Duty,” dark winter mornings meant staying well away from that particular area and never, ever stepping on it.?Even now. Every room that we could see held different memories, good and bad.? The missing extra-long table in the staff lounge, it was our main reading/TV room, was unsettling, but we noticed that a big stack of newspapers were still present. The angst that was caused by being sent to bed irrelevant of what you were watching on the only black and white TV, stays with you especially when it was enforced by strict monitors.? Bedtime ranged from 8.45 to 10.00+ for sixth formers, it’s now inconceivable that every dorm had a sixth former sleeping in the same room to control the juniors.? Just for those who are always amazed by this fact we slept for the first 2 years on creaking horsehair mattresses which by the time we used them were considerably dipped in the middle meaning that we slept in a trough with little padding, proper foam mattresses only came later.? Being told by a house master who shall remain anonymous (Hi Mr. Dunn) that the Senior dorm, over the unheated changing rooms, could not be considered cold enough to have a heater if a glass of water left on the mantle-piece did not freeze overnight. It did. Matrons cure all, aspirin dissolved in orange squash.? Cold showers and running the Hull, many losing trainers in the muddy bog at the end.? Monitors shouting “FAG” and the slowest junior to arrive being sent on an errand mainly to get something from Waffens, a sweet and tobacco shop across the Cathedral Close.? Fagging, the use of the junior house members as unpaid slaves to House monitors running tasks of their choosing, was still in force. House monitors could also beat you with slippers and hand out a variety of punishments including running “the bridges” and “writing a perfect page”, oh, how, I, hated, punctuation! House masters had an extra method of punishment – the cane. Choosing what service to attend on a Sunday, the choice between a 7.30 rise for Morning Song vs a sleep in and go for a much longer Eucharist.? The bells sounding and ringing, the Cathedral lights going out on the last toll of Midnight.? We all remember the canteen differently despite being part of the nationally reported “food strike”, it did improve a little afterwards.? The Saturday night cinema club held in “big school”, now the library. The films on multiple reels that occasionally jammed and burnt to resounding jeers. Kelly’s Heroes was a favourite, however someone jumping up screaming from behind a wall when we were walking back in the dark after “The Devil Rides Out” still bears a scar.? The Hereford pubs, The Grapes (currently closed), the Lichfield Vaults, The Saracens Head, the Ulu Bar (no longer), the Booth-now flats. No ID’s needed, 17p a pint of Double Diamond. A special mention for the Sun (now the Barrell's?) which was a first for many of the boarders, drinking the home made, cloudy with bits scrumpy.? The compulsory “out of house” on Sunday for two hours, the mischief we got up to, that these days would mostly probably have ended up with us having a juvenile record. I believe we were almost feral at some points.? The May Fair, how that filled the Hereford streets, I’m sure that if we attended, we were told not to wear our caps, so “you won’t stand out”, as if that would help!!?Running from local Skinheads. Saturday Classes, I’m not sure if they still happen 9-12.30, this fact gave us longer holidays, so it wasn’t all bad, but Math’s and Latin on Saturday was harder.?? It was fascinating mixing with the leavers of 86 so many of them had the same teachers and best of all a similar experience of a board rubber being flung at a pupil in Latin 10 years apart , I know our incident was true because it was my head the board rubber hit and Horatius is forever embedded in my brain. The Exeat book to sign in and out (with limited permission) to go home at weekends and the few escapee boarders who had simply had enough and had “done a bunk” getting caught and hauled back to school.? We saw the first girls in the school, firstly sixth formers and most of us fell in love with them, especially when it came to the school plays.?Then when we made it to the sixth form there, they were in classes with us, just getting a new seating plan was a task in itself with everyone wanting to sit next to the one of two girls in each class. Being a boarder in the seventies was, “interesting” as the whole structure was changing from a very strict regime to a far looser era. The relaxation of say, the compulsory wearing of caps and Fagging, usually just as we are about to get the privilege, the move from fives courts to squash courts and the development of the new science labs, in part by parents signing up to a bursary.? Did we enjoy ourselves? Mostly, not realising that being your mates 24/7 was a big plus and we had more freedom than one would expect.?? Has it shaped us? How could it not. Are were we better people for the experience? On balance, I believe so.? So, even though there are very few boarders now, the HCS looks to be in safe hands and I would wish that the current and future crop of students recognise before they leave rather than years later, that they are privileged to have such an education and the pastoral care that the school provides.? Here is the misquote of the piece?? “Education is so often wasted on the young as too many of them fail to recognise at the time the gift they are given”.? Andrew Williams