|
 There’s
not a lot been written about the new ablution block that was built
during my time while I was at Goldings. How many remember the old
Ablution block and what they were like? The place for washing
consisted of two long wooden troughs with a pipe that let more cold
water come to the fore than hot water, boy when it was hot it was
hot when it was cold it was cold. You did have some control on and
off.
I know of many boys
who dreaded going to the washhouse at 7am in the morning I used to
wait until the dorm work was all finished by 7.45 am of course all
the hot water had long gone. In this block was the toilets oh dear
what a site to behold we had no doors on them in my day, if you went
for a No 2 as we called it you would have to walk along the line
until you found an empty trap, that was one treat to give a miss,
better to go up top field out of the way in the fresh air, boy did
those toilets stink, mind you one could have a drag in there mixed
up with the other smells no-one could tell the difference, only the
masters who dare go in their at there peril to check we were washing
and behaving ourselves. Mind you I have seen a few Masters
come out of that place worse for wear I bet they wished they had
been given a different duty.
Now we come on to
those things called showers what a performance. Each house had what
we called bath night; not a bath but a shower if that makes sense,
the best way to one can describe this little task would be an Oliver
Twist tale. It was that bad, it had four rows of showerheads, if you
could call them that, not one of them worked properly. Picture this
if you can, the whole house had to stand under these showerheads in
your birthday suit and wait for it to happen, and happen it did
believe me. The shower heads consisted of bits of tin fixed into a
water pipe so it was just like a running tap, when it was hot you
could not stand under it, if you moved away a perfect would try and
push you back under, once again after about a minute out came the
cold water if you moved out of the way a perfect would push you back
under again, during the shower one could be hit by a lump of
carbolic soap that had been aimed at some other lad and missed, so
it hit you. With the place full of steam you just picked it up and
bunged it at some-one else, boy that soap hurt if it hit you. Then
it was the time of the wet towels, now that did hurt. The fun we
had.
This ablution block
was knocked down in about 1948 and new one was quickly re-built
within three months and they were the start of the getting soft
brigade and another story.
You tell the kids
today; and they won't believe you.
Johnny Leach
Aberdeen House 1947 to 1951 |