The attention paid to school uniform by Copthall County Grammar School in
the 1950s was probably typical of the attention paid to school uniform by most
British grammar schools at that time. School uniform was deemed particularly
important for outdoor wear, because of the public seeing it, and we girls were
expected to give a good impression. In fact, failure to wear the school beret
on a journey to and from school was a common way to get a
detention - if of course
a teacher happened to spot it.
The school colours were navy blue, green and white.
The school outfitter came to the school regularly to take orders for new
items.
winter uniform
If you have a photo which illustrates the uniform
of Copthall County Grammar School in the 1950s, I would very much appreciate
a copy.
Coats had to be navy blue gabardine, a tough, tightly woven twill fabric,
which was reasonably shower-proof. Such coats - or macs as they were called
- were widely popular for children and I seem to remember that the school allowed
them to be bought anywhere. The same went for the navy blue gloves, white socks
and sensible brown shoes. Scarves and berets, though, had to be bought from
the school outfitter because they were unique to the school. The scarves were
close knitted navy blue wool with a band of green at each end, sandwiched between
narrower bands of white, and the berets had the school badge at the front. I
am wearing the beret in the top right photo.
This photo was taken on a school outing of probably
unusual weather, as it shows the blouse and tie of the winter uniform worn
with a school blazer and school beret - courtesy of Christine Tolton (formerly Christine
Culley).
Not quite as much attention seemed to be paid to the uniform that we wore
underneath our outdoor clothes, probably because the public didn't normally
see it. Everyone wore a navy pinafore dress / tunic, a white blouse and a green
tie, but only the tie had to be bought at the official outfitters. It was quite
a feature. It was a shiny green, and as there were little or no man-made fabrics,
I suppose that it must have been made of silk. What, in my view, rather detracted
from the appearance of the indoor uniforms was that the cardigans could come
from anywhere as long as they were navy blue. People were still suffering from
the austerity of the war years and many of the cardigans were hand-knitted to
different patterns in different wool thicknesses and in colours that illustrated
the wide range of tints that could just be called navy blue.
Because man-made fibres were yet to come into common use, the pinafore dresses
and cardigans were made of wool. Wool, at that time, shrunk when washed. So
the pinafore dresses and cardigans had to be sent to the dry cleaners. This
was expensive and time-consuming. So it was not uncommon for it to happen three
times a year, in the school holidays. Between times, marks were simply sponged
off. Fortunately the navy blue didn't easily look grubby, and the underwear
and blouses were washed as often then as they would be today.
Girls in the sixth form were allowed to wear navy skirts instead of pinafore
dresses, and I rather think that they were also allowed to leave off their berets
out of doors, but I am not sure of this.
All clothes had to be marked with the owner's name. The standard way was
to sew in Cash's name tapes. There were regular inspections.
Watches were forbidden, but at that time they were very expensive, being
clockwork rather than digital. So perhaps it was understandable.
summer uniform
Another thing that rather detracted from the uniformity of the uniform was
that the school dresses for summer could be red, blue or green stripe on a white
background. They did, though, all have to be the same material and style, which
meant that either the dresses themselves or the material for making them had
to come from the school outfitter.
Prefect's blazer - taken from a
school photo - identifiable
by the pale green silk cord along the edges.
A striped summer dress worn with the school
blazer.
The school blazer worn with a striped summer
dress.
Hover to enlarge to see the stripes and badge more clearly.
Details of photos courtesy of Sally Lawson(formerly Sally Porte).
My mother, like many mothers in those years of austerity, always made my
summer dresses, but it was a difficult task because the required material was
moygashel which frayed very badly indeed. Numerous mothers must have
complained, as in later years the fabric was changed to a lighter weight cotton.
The three colours, though, were still allowed, which did strike me as strange.
On the journeys to and from school, we were encouraged to wear our navy blue
school blazers. These showed the school badge on the front pockets. The blazers
really did look smart and they were the same on all the girls because they also
had to come from the school outfitter. When it was too hot for blazers, though,
those non-identical cardigans came out for all to see.
About 1963 the summer uniform changed into dresses
with three different coloured stripes on white: pale green, beige and another
colour I can't remember. The fabric, I would imagine, was non-iron and washable.
Quite wishy-washy really and not as smart as the earlier ones, I felt. From
then on the uniform was bought over the counter from John Barnes in St.
John's Wood. I think this may have happened when
'Daisy' left the school
and we got a new Headmistress.
Julie Vanstone
In the 1980s the Copthall school uniform that my oldest
sister had was a yellow and white checked cheesecloth shirt and brown skirt.
In about 1997, just before my other sister started, it became what is the
now the current uniform that I wore, ie a black watch kilt, mint green blouse
and navy blue v neck jumper with a green V around the neck. It was really
lovely to read from your website how strict the uniform rules were and you'll
be pleased to hear they barely changed, although they did relax quite a
bit towards the end of my time. However, navy blue coats were strictly enforced!
Lizzi Hollis
For the current (2011) school uniform with photographs see half way
down www.mkd.co.uk/jane
Uniform for games and gym
PE school uniform: a green aertex blouse and navy
shorts. Photo courtesy of Sally Lawson (formerly Sally Porte),.
For games, we had shirts of the same green as the ties, and - I think - navy
blue shorts, which were really more like divided shirts. It is interesting,
though, that I don't remember this well, as games
was far from being a favourite subject of mine!
For PE/gym we had the same green shirts and navy blue knickers.
School uniform and purses
The school had a strange requirement for where we were to keep our money.
It is understandable that money should be kept on our persons, but the means
of so doing was rather bizarre. We were supposed to have an elastic belt inside
our dresses or tunics and from it suspend our purses on a tape.
When the new
first year girls arrived at the school, they were duly kitted out with such
purses, as required. However, it didn't last long. Can you imagine having to
lift your skirt to get out your money or season ticket on a bus to and from
school! So I suppose we just kept our purses in our satchels and hoped for the
best. I never knew of any money going missing. Neither did I know of the purses
rule ever being reinforced. I suppose it was just to cover the school's back
if money ever did go missing.
Heavy leather school satchel, worn like a rucksack.
Larger objects than money were carried between home and school in a school
satchel. This was rather like a small, but extra wide rucksack, and was worn
in the same way. In the early years of my time at Copthall, satchels were made
of leather and were very heavy. Later, though, there were lighter ones made
of canvas, still of the same shape.
