'The House' at Timaru Girls High celebrates 100 Years
words: Gilly Oppenheim photos: Supplied
Affectionately known as ‘The House’, the boarding hostel is turning 100 in 2021 and is calling Old Girls to celebrate from April 16th-18th 2021.
Opening in 1880 as a co-education facility, the Timaru High School was divided into two separate schools after a major fire in 1898, separating- Boys and Girls with a very high fence in between them! In 1913 the Boys moved to North Street where their own Boarding House was established, but it took until 1916 to firstly rent accommodation off-site in North street for the Girls, and to finally open ‘The House’ on-site in Feb 1921.
Two Old Girls recently shared their boarding school experiences with me. Joy Slade was a boarder at TGHS from 1955 -1959. In 1955 there were approximately 160 boarders in the House. Jo Goodhew attended from 1974 -1978. There were 180 boarders in 1974 and 36 in the third form. Jo was so excited to be going to boarding school that she had her bags packed by the Xmas before school started and she loved almost every minute of her boarding school life.
Both Joy and Jo said that one of the best things about being a boarder was making such wonderful long lasting friends. There was always someone to talk to and to share confidences and problems. They both spoke of sharing long weekends and holidays with hostel friends, often going by train or bus. They really enjoyed dancing classes with TBHS boys, and they had film evenings together once a month. Both enjoyed the hostel food, especially the Sunday roasts with ice cream and caramel sauce for dessert.
There were also a few bad experiences! Joy was ‘gated’ from attending the TBHS Ball in her second last year because she had skipped tea. She had to phone Thomas House and explain to her partner that she couldn’t go to the Ball that very evening! Jo was suspended in the fifth form for letting a friend’s boyfriend into the hostel via the fire escape. The worst part was that her father was on the Board at the time and she had to spend a week out of the hostel living with an elderly family friend.
Typical hijinks were often around food – midnight feasts, ‘pinching’ bread for extra toast, or getting day girls to sneak in food, such as fish n’ chips and sweets. Experimenting with smoking behind the swimming pool, DIY ear piercing, Saturday morning hair washing, cutting and colouring sessions, and Sunday visits from Rectory boys in the summer, sitting out on the lawn on rugs were laughed about.
Other memories included going by ‘crocodile’ to church every Sunday, singing “Now is the Hour’ whenever a girl left school and having baths on a roster. Junior girls were only allowed 20 minute baths three times a week! The senior girls took it in turns to be their ‘dorm mum’. These girls were kind and fun and helped the younger girls deal with homesickness. Most girls played Saturday sport and attended music lessons.
They also had Deportment classes, encouraged through marching and gymnastics, and they enjoyed sharing each other’s mufti clothes. Jo remembered the 1975 storm when Matron and the Headmistress (who both lived in hostel) came through to the dormitories to calm them down, wearing their dressing gowns and with rollers in their hair! Joy said it was a safe place to try new things. She felt she grew in confidence and she knows that her boarding experience added great value to her life.