The Convent In Bridport
A Memory of Bridport.
I was disturbed to read the Memory posted in early September from a contemporary about our common primary school, Bridport Visitation Convent. It was reprinted in the Bridport News of October 1st so needs to be balanced I feel. That gentleman clearly doesn't remember his time there with relish but I wonder why he didn't put his schooldays into the context of the time.
My own experience at the Convent was not so different in the detail so I'm perhaps lucky not to be troubled by the same demons that our friend apparently is. The food was not great and some was truly awful. I can still taste it today and when I first had porridge without lumps, I thought there was something wrong with it. Discipline really was upheld rigorously as he says, but surely it was everywhere then in comparison with today. We were in the late 1940s/early 1950s and many greatly lament the gradual undermining of those standards.
I was a day pupil from Sept 1949 until July 1954. We ate school dinners with the boarders (until I persuaded my mother to let me take sandwiches) and a couple of times, we took a boarder home to stay with us for the weekend. In fact we had one for the whole summer once when he couldn't go home because a member of his family had some unheard of disease called polio. Unheard of today anyway, which again shows how far away we are from those days. I don't remember any of the boarders I knew complaining of anything abnormal or in fact anything at all really. We were just children of the time and that was the way things were. Some Nuns were tougher than others, some had a sense of humour and some didn't but they were all keen for you to learn and dedicated themselves to that objective.
So I remember the Nuns with affection actually, and whilst each of them had their individual favourites as I recall, they were generally democratic when they meted out punishment. A Sister did make a boy in my class lose control of his bodily functions in front of the whole class one day, so I know they could be tough. I see him in town from time to time 60 years on, and we have a chat. I doubt if he can remember the incident frankly but I do know he's had a relatively successful life and is always full of fun. But Nuns could also be quite attentive, if you were ill or were genuinely trying to understand something but couldn't. The standard of education was known to be high as one other person points out and I believe the 11 plus pass record was one of the best in Dorset at the time and particularly so amongst the boarders. That's what a school's about isn't it?
The building taken down in 2000 is sadly missed. I returned to live in Bridport, after a lifetime elsewhere, in 2005 and when I come down over Coneygar Hill, it still shocks me to see the houses there, even after 3 years. I feel a little bit of me went with that building and a lot of other people must feel the same way.
So no actually. I don't resent my time at the Convent indeed, quite the contrary. Clearly the boarders had it tougher because they were simply there longer but that was what a boarding school was expected to be like then. We have different standards today and generally, that's a good thing I suppose. But I wonder whether it's a better world in which a child can say to his teacher, as they do locally today "f off Miss". Try saying that to Sister Bernadine or Sister John Mary!
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I remember the nuns as being nasty.I always thought it was because I was not a catholic....maybe it was ???
I asked my mother why she sent me there....she said they thought it was the best for education at the time.
We did however make calendars at Christmas. We used needles, mounted on a piece of wood, to prick out sticky gummed paper shapes. When we took them home, we wrapped them in newspaper.
I remember being taken into the hay field , over the road. We had out play time over there in the summer.
Does anyone remember the abacus,s in boxes on the desks?
Our 1/3 ot. Of milk.....frozen in winter.....and put on the pipes to defrost !!! Health and safety !
I must have been unhappy, because I ran away, up Coneygar hill. When I turned around, the nuns were in hot persuit, robes and crucifixes flapping in the wind.
I didn't like the school, or the nuns.
We went in by bus from Beaminster, Our constant companions were the Richmond sisters Madeleine and Christine, and Michael Runyard. Christine Elizabeth I first learnt joined up writing. We learnt about Fram and Fridjof Nansen - the whole country did for some reason. There was a large speaker in the window and we tuned in for singing lessons and various other things
My last year was in Sr Bernadine's class - we did wigwams and native Indian culture and learnt Hiawatha. Sr B wrote the class play and wrote out all the parts for the children by hand.- My line was 'see it shoots up like a rocket' as I strike a match and start a fire, to Rosemary Wylde who was in my class. Siblings Veronica and Johnny were above and below me. Other in the class were Peter Hangar and Fish, Gunter Teichler, and Glynn O'Hare. Michael Runyard opposite us in Hogshill st in Beaminster, Rita Best, Anne Hill, Gloria Bennett. Godber sisters were also in attendance.
We were all day boys and girls - there was a boarding section and we were segregated from them. They wore overalls and played in a different part of the playground. The elder boys played outside Sr Dominics class
In the very hot summer of 1959 - soft fruit ripe by May 1st. - the farmer allowed us to lunch al fresco in his field which was very early on turned into a housing estate.
I was probably happiest there compared to later schools
but our parents didnt send us to school to be happy - did they ?
tell modern children, the adults used to hit us - and they go pale
but so long as it was meted out to everyone in equal measure, no one felt abused.
We were aware when it happened, that a teacher may have 'had it in for' one pupil
The school on the whole ‘did their best with the materials they had’. I know I was a real trial and probably disappointment to Sr. Mary ‘Burnt Beans’ , and especially Sr. Mary Dominic. However there are many aspect to school life there that I hold with affection in my memory. Others still make me shudder with rage at the injustices which were allowed to happen. I am still in touch with Gloria who lives in Canada, since she contacted me through Friends Reunited a number of years ago. The only one sadly. I remember being hauled up in front of Mother Superior for blowing pepper at people, just as in the Mother’s Pride advert. What an idiot. I remember the beatings I took from Peter Hangar and David Huxter, because I was (am) German. I remember getting the cane for climbing onto the school roof to retrieve the football at playtime. I remember making Geoffrey Spicer cry as he was the only boy in our year who had not been caned so we called him names. I remember Jean Morton who I was ‘in love with’, for years afterwards. Mr. Greening who took us for football on the field across the road, but I never made the team.
All these memories have hopefully made me a better person. I have a sympathy for and empathy with people who are different. I try to support those who are vulnerable. I have (had) a passion for sports and a fidelity towards true friends and family.
The Visitation Convent was where I learned about true friendship and cruelty. I have few regrets about my time there, but as a retired primary school teacher, I have to say, the school taught me that to be a better person I needed to not repeat the actions that had put me down and to do well those things that would help my students thrive.