Rosary Priory 1958 Ish To 1961ish

A Memory of Bushey Heath.

I was at Rosary Priory in the late 50 from age 5 until I was 9, I think. We lived in Elstree and were picked up in a double-decker each day. I remember Sr Dympna in the ‘kindergarten’ class and the boxes of grey plasticine that used to come out every afternoon it seemed. I had recorder lessons (6 shillings and 8 pence a term) with Sr Irene who had such thin fingers that her ring used to roll off along the piano keys as she accompanied us! We used to do various needlework projects using binca fabric - I loved the pencil case that I made which, once I had done all the lines of stitches, got taken away by the nun and returned as a fully-lined pencil case with a popper fastening. We used to do a writing competition every year which was sponsored by Cadbury’s which meant that we got given several boxes of the miniatures which are no longer around. We had confession every week and I could never really think of anything to say and just made things up but I think the nuns thought I might be destined for the religious life as for some reason they moved me to R E lessons with an older class and being confused that they all knew that your guardian angel was always hovering by your right shoulder. We had been asked to gesture to the correct position and, being a newbie, I had no idea! I did like all the holy medals and Knick-knacks we could buy in the shop. I loved my green luminous statue of Mary which I kept by my bed. Wonder what happened to it! In ‘transition’ we were in a hut by the sports pavilion where I remember a lot of time spent learning tables which, to be fair, has been a useful skill. There was a fancy dress competition one year held in the tennis courts and I went as a carrot in a bright orange dress made by my mum which has parsley sewn round the hem to represent the foliage. We had country dancing lessons which I loved and ‘music and movement’ which once had a wonderful magic carpet theme. I was frequently ill with bad asthma and often fainted in assemblies which caused havoc as for some reason we were usually standing up in lines. I don’t remember many names apart from Richard Hartley who I thought was absolutely gorgeous when I was 6 or 7, a boy called Nicholas who was a bit ‘naughty’ and was locked in a cupboard by one of the nuns, and my best friend Judith Hazeldene (not sure about the surname) with whom I was reunited when we both ended up at Loreto. I left Rosary Priory was I was 9 or 10 as my family moved to Berkhamsted. I mostly enjoyed my time at the school but my sister had a terrible time with the nuns who always wanted me to report her offences to my parents (like lying on the floor to see if nuns wore knickers!) which I never did but did make me feel rather anxious a lot of the time. I also damaged my knee with a life-time injury when someone unexpectedly pulled me down a slope one day. We had the film ‘Bambi’ in the afternoon and I remember crying with a combination of sadness and pain.

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