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Hooray, you were in the same house as me - Elm. Beech was always 'top dog' in my day, I don't know about your's.. School Motto, 'Hold on, Hold Fast, Hold Out'. That must have always been the motto I suppose. Yes, I had Miss Meech for English and music, well singing, choir and school concerts. She would tell us to 'project our voices - let the sound hit the hard pallet in the roof of the mouth, not the soft'. We would go through a particular piece of music so many times and sing, re-sing and then, do it again. She did like perfection - great teacher. I appreciate the school more now than perhaps I did in the time spent there. Did you 'Beat the Bounds' on Foundation Day? I think the younger girls amongst us couldn't understand why we 'walked round the school perimeter', when we did that every day anyway. Lady Mary Crichton was always invited on that special day. She'd say a few words and then Miss Shawcross, The Headmistress, would stand and tell us about how the school came to be.

School uniform, well, yes, it did cost so much and my Mother held down several jobs to pay for it all, one of them at The Castle. Caleys sold quite a lot of the outfit. I wore a green skirt, 'dayella' (sp), blouse, green tie, with tiepin and house badge, green cardigan or v-neck jumper. Brown or black shoes with beige, knee-hi socks in Winter term, brown sandals with white ankle socks in Summer. The first Summer term, the dresses were green and white checks, the next Summer term, much to my Mother's dismay, it was changed to green and white candy-stripe. Hockey boots and stick, tennis racquet, (given to me as I've explained in another contribution on the forum), green, knee-length shorts-cum-skirt, (probably like your's). Gym bag, plimsolls, yellow Airtex gym blouse. Any ribbons had to be dark green and I had plaits then, so bought some green ribbon in Woolworths. No ball pens, only fountain, pencil case, oh it goes on and on...I can't even think what it all would cost today.

I had Miss Williams for maths too. She terrified me, but, I can still remember simultaneous and quadratic equations, simple and compound interest. How I'd work them out now though, is another matter. She was very strict and I remember the days when I cycled into the King's Road double gates, I'd put my bike in the racks, then walk past the few cars parked there, just to see if her car was there. I still remember the numberplate, it was 'CAP 20'. I won't ever forget Miss Williams. Miss Lerrigo taught French but I had Miss. Riddle. She was so lovely. I loved learning French from her because of her gentle nature, I suppose. I still 'have a go' and try to keep up with the language. The art mistress over in Carfax, and right at the very top of the house - phew - was Miss. Barnet. She was the most kind-natured person I think I've ever met in my life. Needless-to-say, come the exams at the end of term, I loved it.....(the only one I loved!). I always expected to be first and if not, second. Any lower and I was very disappointed, probably more with Miss Barnet than myself...terrible thing to have an ego at such a young age...

Your ballgown sounded beautiful and white gloves too. Well, my Mother found me a 'dress'. I can't even bear thinking about it today. I'm not 'a dress person', and when she opened this box, and took out what I thought was a wedding dress for someone else......then said 'put it on'. Well, it was ghastly, but I wore it anyway and thank goodness there were no photographs taken of it...I think from that day to this, I've worn skirts but mostly trousers. I don't possess any 'frocks'....as I said before, someone had recently died in the Royal Family and the senior royals weren't there, but we had a fantastic time. I've never forgotten it and you have even more memories of it all, and that's great for you. Max Bygraves doesn't change at all and I go back to 'that night' whenever I see him on t.v. As for you dancing with Michael Bentine, well, I just envy you - wasn't he a great man. So clever and genuine with it. Lucky you!

My Mother used to tell us about some of the antics at the castle. One of the footmen said to her to 'put her hand in that chest' and 'see what you find' - she did, and she said it was where the footmens' wigs were kept....she said she screamed and they all laughed. She and my two Aunts who also worked there, all loved Prince Phillip. If any one of them even caught a glimpse of him, well, they 'went on' about it for days. My Mother was given, every year, two tickets, well, little medal-shaped, cardboard badges, on string, for The Royal Enclosure at Ascot....she was presented every Christmas, by Her Majesty, with a gift and my Mother, over the years, built up a collection of 'Masons' Regency' china, chosen by my Mother from The Token House at the top of Peascod Street, so I still have a tea set and plates from those days, not the whole set now as, over the years, we've cracked or broken some pieces.

I have to get some lunch ready now, but I could, as you can tell, go on for ever.....

Hi Lesley, welcome to the forum and, although I don't know a single thing about the 'new school', it's great to have someone from the U.S. to chat to......we do have our 'old' school in common though, even if you were there only briefly......I can't begin to imagine what you went through when changing schools.....how did the teachers cope? Elmfield and Carfax were reasonably 'old' buildings, so to suddenly change to a modern school must have been great...having said that, I expect all the old traditions passed down through the years, were carried on to the new school.

We do agree about one thing - that horrible, dark green uniform colour....I'm exactly the same as you, I can't bear anything resembling that shade of green. Actually, I just don't look at green, full stop! When some of us 1st formers asked a teacher why that particular colour was chosen, we were told that it was because of Windsor Forest, and oak trees. Well, I suppose it could've been worse, we could have been dressed in blue or red, maybe, so we were in a way lucky....still an awful colour to be dressed in.. We wore green berets all the year round. My cousin, who, like you, lives in America, went to the school some nine years after me. She wore a green beret in Autumn/Winter and a straw boater with green/white ribbon in the Summer term. I really did envy her that boater.

When I married my husband, I moved in with his parents for a while in Albert Street. Living next door was Barbara Taylor who eventually went to the County School. She saw me in the garden one Saturday and said she'd had a test that week at her new school, and all the pupils were given strips of 'old exam papers from years ago' to write their answers on, and my maiden name was on the back of her strip of paper. Well, what a surprise that was. I hadn't a clue that schools, all those years ago, were re-cycling paper - and what a coincidence too that Barbara got my old test paper.....