Some HBC readers have provided us brief accounts of their school uniforms and boyhood clothes. These interesting accounts have useful information for HBC, but is not sufficent for an entire new page. Often readers who provide us brief smmaries latter send along more detailed information. We will then provide links to the expanded pages.
I was thinking about how much school uniforms in Britain have changed over the past 50 years. I, as a fifteen-year-old currently attending a British comprehensive school, am required to wear a sweatshirt, shirt, tie, LONG trousers or a skirt (I think not!) and black shoes. A far cry indeed from my father's school uniform during the 1950s. His primary school specified a blazer, cap and short trousers as part of the uniform, as did many secondary schools of the period. My dad, incidentally, hated the shorts and got out of them as soon as possible; his secondary school required no uniform. It is interesting to note, I think, the fact that although shorts were still the norm in the 1950s, any pupil at my school who turned up wearing short trousers would probably be sent straight home again!
I have been reliably informed by a former pupil of my school that during the 1970s, not long after its opening, the uniform consisted of a blazer, shirt, tie, v-neck pullover, trousers and shoes, with a compulsory skirt for the girls. The compulsory skirt has now been replaced by the option of trousers, and all that differs between the girls and the boys now is the length of hair (long for most girls, practically bald for most boys) style of trousers and amount of make-up! Personally, I would prefer the 1950s uniform, which is rather bizarre on two counts; firstly, most self-respecting 21st Century teenagers wouldn't be seen dead in grey flannel shorts and a school cap, and secondly, I have one big disadvantage over even those boys who would like to wear the uniform; I am a girl!