Laleham Abbey

A Memory of Laleham.

I was at the school from 1945 to 1947. Names which spring to mind, on the spur of the moment, are Shirley Anne Blyth, Maitland Bond, Penelope Bovill, Hilary Cunningham, Anne Elliot, Faith Fabian, Jennifer Jeffries, Brigid Baverstock-Moran, Angela Pierce, Mary Riches, Sylvia Ryland, Britt Walker, Catherine White, Julia and Margaret Winterbottom, and Rowena (I still have the cards which she gave me on my birthday in 1946). Also Sister Bride and Margaret Butler. We had to drink senna pods every week - the trick was to stand at the open side of the cloister and tip it over the low wall! There was a tortoise in a house in the centre of the cloistered area. Britt was only about 3 years old and had been left there during the Second World War. My mother had to work at an aircraft factory during the war and lived at Colnbrook Hostel. She had a lot of Irish friends, at least from Lambourn, hence my arrival at the convent. Many of the girls were the daughters of racing personnel at Lambourn. Those girls liked to play a game known as horses. What I loved was playing houses - there were plenty of pine needles under the cedar trees with which to mark out rooms. Some of us also enjoyed rolling down the grassy bank! This led to us getting bits in our hair and the sisters thought we had bugs and treated us accordingly. On one occasion I fumbled with the communal mug in the bathroom. With being so short, I did not quite manage to reach the hook and the mug fell into the basin, of course the mug survived the drop and it was the basin which was smashed into many pieces. The staircase was educational, having the names of various countries stuck on the wall. Chile was one of them. The winter of 1947 was bad. I had terrible chilblains and sores on my legs and was confined to bed, with nowhere to deposit the dreaded senna pods! We went for regular walks along the banks of the Thames and we really needed our Wellington boots that year! (I believe that they were rowing through the streets of Reading at that time, in floods). On our birthdays we had candles at our places on the meal table. We also visited Mother Superior and were given religious text cards. For church and chapel we had to wear veils. These were lots of handkerchiefs with tape ties sewn on. These were kept in a communal box and there was always a mad rush to try to grab the prettiest ones. Likewise at mealtimes, you had to try to get the spoons with the shields on the back. Haircuts were also part of life. How I hated the clippers up the back of the neck! Some of the girls had bunches and did not have to suffer this, so I managed to get permission to grow my hair into bunches and then into plaits. We each had to take one blanket and mine is still in use today. Utility brand goods wer made to last. Our school uniform mainly consisted of an old-style gym tunic with a saxe-blue girlde and saxe-blue knickers. I probably still have the girdle, in one my many trunks, along with my reports. So more names be become available. Was Sally Frost at that school? I must rummage through the cases when it gets warmer! I hope these memories are all correct and are of some interest. If I remembr anything else I will try to add it. Already, I recall something else. A woman used to attend the main chapel with her little boy. They sat over on the left-hand side. Several schools later, I found myself at a mixed boarding school where the outgoing post was placed in a glass-fronted containter and I noticed items addressed to Abbey Drive, Laleham, and spoke to the sender about it. He of course jogged my memory about the mother and son and told me that he was that little boy of about seven years ago.