Young (Bedford, 1905) had the advantage of knowing some of the other new students and states, “When I arrived, I found two or three students including two from Bedford High School who I knew well” 41. Seeing familiar faces at college must have made the first few days easier compared to those who knew no one. Young, comments on how the presenting culture and indeed Miss Stansfeld's approach to her was different [Young had been taught when a pupil by Miss Stansfeld at Bedford High School], in that “It was strange and rather discomforting to be called Miss Young by Miss Stansfeld to whom I had been Freda for the last three years” 42. Miss Stansfeld then gave a talk aimed at making clear what was required by the intake to meet college organisational acceptance. She stressed “the importance of our attitude to the work, our general behaviour, for on us depended the future of college” 43.  

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Miss Stansfeld took the former geographic location of students into account when matching them up: Scott (Bedford, 1907) comments, “I came from Sutton Scorney and so did Margaret Bomford and we shared a room all through our training” 44. The choice of room-mate was made in advance by the college principal. It appears that the principal retained the right to choose who roomed with who throughout the period.  

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Wicksteed (Bedford, 1907) felt naturally apprehensive about her future room-mate, "'I am putting you to share a room with a Miss Hall from Heidelberg’ - So ran Miss Stansfeld's letter and the picture of a tall domineering woman educated on the continent was added to my other fears.'"  

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All students were anxious to have a room- mate who they could relate to, and feel relaxed with, given that they were going to live together in close proximity for at least a year, if not two. Wicksteed's fears got worse:  

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“On arrival, Miss Stansfeld personally conducted me from '37' the senior house to '29' the junior house, she remarked 'I hope you are not a nervous person?' With my knees knocking together at the thought of Miss Hall, I refrained from answering and was much relieved to find that the question referred merely to sleeping in a ground floor room and not to meeting an ogre. When we entered the room and I was confronted with a bright-eyed mouse-like youngster, standing, nay almost hiding, behind a huge wicker chair, I prayed fervently that my other fears might prove equally groundless. They did not!” 45. 

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Wicksteed, who was one of the older students, found that she "rubbed along very comfortably'' with her room-mate, throughout the junior year.  

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Some students found their new room-mates did not last long. Farr (Bedford, 1918) remembered, “I was very tired and scared as it was the first time, I'd been amongst the English . . . I was taken to ‘29’ ‘Bobs’ (Miss Roberts) house and found I was sharing with a Liverpudlian with an even more awful accent than mine. She was very unhappy and we did not have anything in common - She left after three weeks” 46.  

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Hodson (Liverpool 1918) jokes that her room-mate got an initial shock when finding out Hodson was to be her room-mate: “I travelled in the train from Euston with about half a dozen other Freshers who were coming to college at the same time, and on that journey one of them took a violent dislike to one of the others and was quite devastated to find when she got to college that she had been put to sleep in the same room - I think it was No. 14. The reason she disliked this woman so much was because her voice was rather loud. She got over it - She has been my friend ever since and she's here today, Miss Walmsley.” 47. 

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A shared room might seem to have been an improvement on the complete lack of privacy experienced in the public-school dormitories. The students' experience of room life at college had a big impact on their psyche. The good luck of having a compatible partner could provide much comfort during the good and bad times of college life. It would seem probable that the room-mate may have been the single most important person at the college for providing mutual support and sympathy. They provided an important experience of female companionship within the larger more impersonal community.  

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Edwards considers that “students who had never been away from home before, found the camaraderie of the dormitory more comfortable than the lonely freedom of a room to themselves. Moreover, dormitories were prominent in the culture of the upper-middle class boarding school” 49. However, she contrasts this view by stating, “A room of one's own was one of the crucial experiences for the enhancement of feminine ideology which college could offer.” Commenting on her work on teacher training college students, she states, “Students were not only able to use their rooms for private study and to entertain fellow students, but they were able to express their femininity by the individual arrangement of their possessions and treasures.” 

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Rowlatt (Bedford, 1910) was a non-residential student who “did not want to sleep in college because She lived so close, but lived in college all day from breakfast until bed time" 50. This suggests that Rowlatt herself decided that she would sleep at home. Miss Stansfeld may have been agreeable because it brought in fees from a good student (she went on to become a member of staff) while allowing an extra boarder to take her place in residence. Rowlatt still spent most of her working hours at college and was therefore still largely under the social control of the college hierarchy.  

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Squire (Bedford, 1917) knew her housemaid by her first name: “Ethel, the tall red-haired housemaid who looked after our rooms” 51. Students were not expected therefore to see to all their own domestic needs. Even so, students made their own beds, sometimes under staff supervision. Colwill (Bedford, 1915) "was taught to mitre the bottom of the sheets and make sure they were sloping boldly. She remembers Miss Stansfeld watching her performance, and saying, 'Miss Colwill turn that down again, it's not mitred properly!'" 52. Again, this would be similar to what many students would do in their middle-class homes. This experience of living in a residential college allowed the students to feel part of a family experience. 

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Meal times were not times of relaxation. The college operated the following on procedure where students would move around the tables for each meal until they ended up sitting next to members of staff who they would have to engage in small talk with. Even in later years this could be a terrible experience.  

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Bowen-West (Bedford, 1946) remembers how students would dread to sit next to one member of staff who had strong likes and dislikes, “God help the poor students. She would crush the students. ‘What do I want to hear about that for?’ She was very cruel” 53. 

Swallow (Bedford, 1936) felt inadequate, Miss Stansfeld liked sparkling conversation but Swallow “dried up, with not a thing to say to her. . . She wanted me to be able to talk in any society, she said ‘Entertain me, show me you can talk!’” 54. 

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One of the dining rooms at Bedford taken from 1923 prospectus. 

Bedford Physical Education Archive. University of Bedfordshire Special Collections. Further reproduction or copying of this image is not permitted without the consent of  the University of Bedfordshire Library and BPEOS Association.

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Eventually "following on" was formally reduced to dinner times only, but with the reminder that it is important that the dining room should be a social place and that, everyone should make an effort to make following successful. 

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An extremely informal meal did occur at Bedford: Hadley (Bedford, 1905) states that “On one occasion she [Miss Stansfeld] heard a noise in the night: thinking it was a burglar, she came downstairs to find Mary Tempest, an Irish student, raiding the kitchen. Instead of scolding her, Miss Stansfeld set to and helped her get herself a meal" 55. 

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This unusual occurrence must have given the student a shock at being discovered by the principal. Tempest was breaking residential rules by being out of her room and helping herself to food. Miss Stansfeld however was lenient and used the meeting to create an informal one to one situation, which must have created interest amongst students. 

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It was not till after Margaret Stansfeld's death, and during the 1950s, that the rules and regulations of meal times began to break down, “I remember the feeling of a battle won when we were actually allowed permission to leave dinner early once a week if we were going to the cinema - and Sunday breakfast became optional” 56. The Bedford Physical Training College Students' Association Report, 1978, p. 33, states that it was even later before the 'following on' ritual finally began to break down. 

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 A change in the time of lunch to one o'clock was reluctantly agreed by staff but, “not if the ‘dignity of the dining room’ was disturbed by latecomers” 57. In the early 1960's, wearing a dress was compulsory if you were 'on coffee' after dinner and no coloured stockings could be worn at meals. 58. 

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Inside Bedford college when more informal wear was allowed inspections still occurred: Colwill (Bedford, 1915) remembers an event with Miss Stansfeld, "’Miss Colwill, that blouse you're wearing, is it a bought blouse or home-made?’ [Colwill's reply], (Faltering voice), ‘I made it myself.’ [Miss Stansfeld], ‘Yes, yes I thought so it looks like it yes.’ That was the end of blouse it hadn't passed muster” 59. 

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Uniforms were expected to be well treated and kept hung up:  Wicksteed comments: ''We were never allowed to go into the road without a skirt over our tunics even and we had to wear a hat - so we used to hold our hats over our heads so as not to spoil our hair do.”    

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“Shirts down to our ankles always had to be worn - only on under our tunics - to pass from 29-37 Lansdowne Road. A distance which in our time covered the range of official residences. Hats must be worn ... We thought these hats very smart and we liked to wear them and show where we belonged. Hard sailor hats with the college hat band round them, the wider the brim the smarter the hat and we each had our own views on the correct angle for wear - the whole range didn't cover more than about ten degrees and we wore them in season and out” 60. 

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Haldane (Bedford 1908); “In our days, legs were indecent things to show, and when coming from No. 29 to 37, we had to put a skirt on. Our trouble was: shall I put the skirt over my tunic and spoil the pleats or do I put it under my tunic and look a sight!” 61.  

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 Colwill, (Bedford 1915). states “The said skirts were confiscated by Miss Roberts if found on the floor of the cloakroom and put in the drawing room waste paper basket. I know my skirt had spent many a quiet hour in that W. P. T. B. [Women's Physical Training Basket]” 62. 

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Many soldiers were billeted in Bedford during the war. The new college gym was built in 1910 and the old gym now the medical room was used to house some of the 51st Highland Division. Miss Stansfield and the students gave support to the war effort by collecting linen from old students and knitting helmet socks and scarves. Former students would never forget how to make and serve porridge in large quantities. One student remembered driving down to the Corn Exchange on a Sunday evening in a Growler with a large bowl of porridge on the floor of the camp for the soldiers and piles of sandwiches for the troops at the drill hall. Other students served in local hospitals during the holidays.

 

Next: Student Success and Failure

Previous: The student experience