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#1: Luggage Author: Caty, Location: New Zealand

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:18 am
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I was thinking about ski-ing this morning and began to wonder how the CS girls got their skis to school, which lead to thinking about all they had to bring to Switzerland. I know they sent trunks, but how much of this would fit in a truck?
Clothes
Books
Skis
Instruments (Cello for example Shocked

)
Hockey Sticks
Lacrosse Sticks
Tennis rackets
Walking sticks
Pets?

of course they did bring their umbrellas with them on the train. Smile

Maybe EBD realised it was unrealistic, as it's never discussed.

#2: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:49 am
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I expect skis were obtained locally. That would be much more sensible than every girl's parents trying to get skis in Britain, when they wouldn't really know what to buy and there weren't the winter sports shops that there are now. The school could have had an arrangement with a supplier in Interlaken, perhaps. Then they'd know that every girl would have the right equipment.

Hockey sticks, etc., I think were carried as hand luggage; I think I recall them being strapped up with travelling rugs.

#3: Author: Torri, Location: Connecticut

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 3:38 am
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Musical instruments went with the girls as hand luggage too... or at least they did when they were in England (Wales!) with Gay having to go and check on Cerita in the guard's van.

#4: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 8:56 am
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I would imagine that they got their skis locally, but it must still have been a nightmare getting all the other stuff halfway across Europe, or even just on the train to Armiford or St Briavel's. It's bad enough packing for a 2 week holiday Laughing

, especially if you're going in the winter and need to take thick clothes which take up a lot of room. Sports equipment was presumably taken separately or strapped on to cases.

Maybe that's why they always had to go by train even when cheaper flights became available - imagine trying to get all that lot on a plane!

#5: Author: miss_maeve, Location: Buckinghamshire, UK

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 8:01 pm
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I always thought the skis were provided by the School.
Maybe I's all wrong though.....

#6: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 9:45 pm
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The trunks would have been sent on in advance, probably 2 or 3 days before the end of the holidays, and 24 hours or so before the end of term.

Books, other than privately-owned reading-books, would have been left at school during the holidays, as would exercise-books and so on. At my school, one of the last things one did at the end of term was pack the contents of one's desk into a bag (identical to our laundry-bags and gym-bags) which was then solemnly unpacked again on the first day of the following term.

They may have kept their hockey and lacrosse sticks at school, too - I know some descriptions of journeys have them carrying them, but not all!

#7: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:12 pm
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It probably depends what stage of the school year it was. They'd take everything home at the end of the school year, but leave most things over the Christmas and Easter holidays, when they'd be coming back to the same house/dormy/form room/common room - unless it was stuff they would need or want at home over the holidays.

And they wouldn't have hockey or lacrosse sticks with them when they were returning for the summer term. (Should have tennis racquets then, though!)

#8: Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:51 pm
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They wouldn't take their sheets/pilloow cases/towels and stuff backwards & forwards either. Mine stayed at school till I left.

#9: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:45 am
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I'd imaging things like lacrosse sticks or tennis rackets would be left at school unless they had gotten a new one. Musical instruments - hand luggage, as you don't really trust them to shipping, but most girls who studied took piano or voice, which wouldn't require an instrument.

School books seem to be gotten at school, and would probably be left there, as would skiis. I would image that they might pass things like skiis or lacrosse sticks down to younger siblings as they grew out of them.

I think they also had a lot fewer clothes than we do now - say two or three each of summer and winter uniforms, a summer and a winter coat, a fancy dress, two nightgowns and a dressing gown, underwear, gym tunic, skiing, swimming and scrambling outfits, a sweater, hat and gloves, shoes. Packing that into a trunk, plus a few personal books and photos, a few items for hobbies (stamp album, knitting equipment, a camera) and some odds and ends of personal items isn't that far fetched. It'd be a pretty heavy trunk, though.

Plus, they'd wear a uniform plus a coat and shoes and hat on the trip, and have their indoor shoes, toiletries and night clothing in their carry-on bags.

#10: Author: Caty, Location: New Zealand

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 12:39 pm
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Even so, newcomers must have had an awful lot of stuff. How did the trunks so ahead? That's something I never quite figured out. How were they collected and brought together? Most people wouldn't have had cars.

#11: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:01 pm
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Sending heavy luggage in advance used to be common practice. You could send anything by road or rail. Carter Paterson and Pickfords (who are still in business) were the two best known carrying companies. They'd collect whatever it was from your house and deliver it at the other end. Or the railway company would do the collecting and delivering, if you were sending by rail.

You can read about the carrying trade in the Victorian period here:
http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications6/horse-03.htm
And Pickfords have an interesting site here:
http://www.pickfords.co.uk/html/about/index.htm

#12: Author: JackieP, Location: Kingston upon Hull

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:02 pm
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jennifer wrote:

but most girls who studied took piano or voice, which wouldn't require an instrument.

Or smaller instruments. The violinist/violists (is that right for a viola player...) and most of the wind instrument players would have cases that weren't overly difficult to manage.

JackieP

#13: Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:37 pm
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JayB wrote:

Sending heavy luggage in advance used to be common practice. You could send anything by road or rail. Carter Paterson and Pickfords (who are still in business) were the two best known carrying companies. They'd collect whatever it was from your house and deliver it at the other end. Or the railway company would do the collecting and delivering, if you were sending by rail.

You can read about the carrying trade in the Victorian period here:
http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications6/horse-03.htm
And Pickfords have an interesting site here:
http://www.pickfords.co.uk/html/about/index.htm

My trunk went 'luggage in advance'. If you were travelling by rail you coyuld send heavy stuff in advance. It was a door-to-door service too.

#14: Author: Elder in Ontario, Location: Ontario, Canada

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:59 pm
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Anyone who travelled to and from my school by train sent their trunks 'luggage in advance' - I was taken and collected by car, because it was a lot quicker than a very roundabout train journey, so mine went with me.

I do remember lots of references to the heavy luggage going in advance in EBD's books, but not whether we are ever told what went home each time and what stayed at school. The only instance I recall at this minute is when Jessica Wayne was called home early because Rosamund was dying, she took a case with essentials only with her, and left everything else to come on in her trunk.

#15: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 6:10 pm
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Elder in Ontario wrote:

The only instance I recall at this minute is when Jessica Wayne was called home early because Rosamund was dying, she took a case with essentials only with her, and left everything else to come on in her trunk.

And that was near the end of the summer term, so the assumption was that Jessica wouldn't return until September. In any other term, she probably wouldn't even have thought of taking her trunk.

Do we get the whole unpacking routine at the beginning of any term other than the autumn one?

#16: Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:15 pm
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Yes - every term pretty much I think.

#17: Author: CBW, Location: Kent

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:44 pm
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The Alistair Simm film The Happiest Days of Your Life has a bit about trunks and tuck boxes coming in by train to be collected by the school.

I think the girls were carrying laccross sticks and suitcases when they arrived but I'm not certain of that.

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