"The 1903 group known as Set 1 considered themselves a very small, individual set of students. For many of them the day they arrived at college was the first time they had worn a long skirt or put up their hair. Most students from this early era remembered themselves as Victorian in outlook, very young and immature. Many had never been away from home before. Mary Pettit who later became a member of staff had bought a pair of boned corsets to help her through this great adventure. The student's strict regime was reflected in their daily timetable. Lessons called for discipline, hard work and a grim desire to get a good” 31. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A typical college day between 1903 and 1918 started with the morning gong at 6:30am and breakfast at 7:45. Lessons from 8.30 to 1:30, with a 15-minute break for milk and biscuits consisted of gym and medical work, physiology, teaching dancing and anatomy. Lunch was followed at 2:30 by games lesson until 4 o'clock when there was an hour break for changing and tea. After teaching practise and vaulting there was 10 minutes to change for dinner, which occupied an hour. After dinner on 2 nights there was dancing practise for an hour but on the other nights the girls studied in their rooms until bedtime at 10:30.  

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In addition, the scholars took classes in local schools. The college quickly became responsible for all physical education teaching in Bedford. Students had to fit their lessons into the ordinary college timetable, which involved rushing to and fro by bicycle with perhaps a little time for lunch in between. Their reception at schools in the pre-war period ranged from admiration and respect to being treated as junior dogsbodies. Some school staff and pupils had never seen anyone in a gym tunic before. The affectionate nickname Stannys’ Stues soon became popular among staff, pupils and parents.  

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On Saturday mornings, selected students would undergo the Crit Class which was supposed to be a chance for students to show the discipline, integrity and achievement that the college had given them. The students in the presence of other students and staff, gave a lesson in the college gym to a class from one of the elementary schools. Once completed the children were loaned gym shoes or given a penny as reward. The ordeal was only just beginning for the student, whose work was then cut to pieces by members of staff and such of her contemporaries as were called on to offer a criticism. The Crit Class survived until the 1940s and represented the climax of discipline and professional training students were expected to attain and survive. 

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This perception and discipline was also required on the playing field. A student explained to Miss Stanfeld that “she did try” was dismissed with, “well don't try, go back and do it” 32. Another was told “I don't mind it if your legs turn blue with cold and drop off, you are not going to wear your combinations below your knees” 33. 

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When the college began playing netball in 1907, some inhabitants of Bedford thought the girls who were playing association football and were horrified. Swimming lessons were taken at the town bath, then part of the river. Students were taught to swim by being attached to the “pig”, a long pole with a rope at the end. The student had the rope buckled around her and then was slowly drawn through the water by Mr Setchell the instructor. Those who mastered the pig were passed onto Charlie, the assistant instructor, for further unaided efforts. 

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At Bedford, physiology lectures could be a frightening experience but not for Farr (Bedford, 1920) who remembers that, 'Some were frightened by Stan in lectures, ‘You, answer this question!’  I would answer, others were petrified. Lectures were terrifying. I respected it and did learn an awful lot!” 34. 

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Those who were good at physiology, like Farr and Scott (Bedford, 1907) could enjoy it more. Scott comments on her experience, “Then there was physiology once a week taken by Miss Stansfeld and the thrill of those lectures is never to be forgotten that I confess that being one who quite often knew the answers, I perhaps enjoyed those hours more than some did.” 35. 

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Some like Wicksteed (Bedford, 1907) were inspired, “We were fortunate in having lectures in physiology from Miss Stansfeld and those lectures were sheer joy, she had a real gift for impressing the important points and of making us laugh at our own stupid mistakes” 36. 

Miss Stansfeld's teaching ability and idiosyncrasies are remembered in a number of further anecdotes. Scott (Bedford 1907) reports:  

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“Once I grew sleepy during a lecture and woke to hear Miss Stansfeld say 'Miss Scott, will you come and draw that for us on the blackboard?' I went to the board picked up a piece of chalk and said 'what exactly was it you wanted me to draw?' But Miss Stansfeld did not let me get away with it, I was advised to go to bed early” 37. 

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And:

 

“Stan brilliant and wonderful. In physiology she had lovely wit. She saw the fun of life. A student drew a 'puss.' Stan ignored it and drew lungs with a black cat in the cavity. Surely a very uncomfortable condition. All that fun in her. Straight faced with witty remarks, a twinkle in her eyes” 38. 

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Colwill (Bedford, 1915) adds that “Everything she taught was vivid and full of life, and what might have been a comparatively dull lesson became in her hands a thing of absorbing interest and delight” 39. 

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Other students made comments summing her up like: 

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“She was also a mother-figure" 

 “Her's was the reserved, if not daunting manner” 

“just but beneficent ruler, commanding obedience to impersonal laws” 

 “exceptional moral stature”  

“She had a wonderful inward light”  

“She wasn't religious, but to me, she was the most religious person that I've ever met”. 

 “She was a good woman.” 

 “The strength and vitality in her face made everything else quite secondary” 

Fletcher neatly sums up the importance of Stansfeld, 'It would be difficult to overstate the college's dependence on her over forty years” 40.