While seven decades have passed since they spent the school days together, the Blanchelande Old Girls – or Blogs – have not let even that length of time diminish their friendship.
Comprised of the cohorts who passed through the school between 1946 and 1958, the group meets together casually on a monthly basis, additionally attending a formal alumni reunion earlier this year.
‘This reunion was arranged by the Blanchelande Alumni Association, which was re-formed in the last few years,’ said alumni association member Anne Thomas.
‘They see each other pretty often. It’s a real testament to the friendship they built over the years.’
The association organised the reunion to feature a display of many of the pictures of the group from their time at the school and into the years beyond, including a large black-and-white photograph taken of all the schoolgirls in 1953, the late Queen’s coronation year, and an array of pictures captured at sports days, school events, and earlier reunions.
‘I was there from 1946 to 1956 – I left when the nuns changed,’ said Adriana Wilcocks.
‘I remember, because it was just after the war, that the meals were absolutely dreadful! Just dreadful. But it was a very happy school, and I think we were very lucky.
‘I think everyone was taught to be kind, and I think that’s why we’ve stayed together and been friends for so long.’
The school, at the time, was located on the cliffs in St Martin’s – its building now transformed into Blanchelande Park Nursing Home.
At the time of the Blogs beginning at the school, it was run by a convent of French nuns of the Order of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, before it was taken over by the Sisters of Mercy in 1956.
‘I boarded there, and I was an only child so I absolutely loved it,’ said Jill Bougourd.
‘It was such fun. On the weekend I’d go home, and I’d come back with a bunch of goodies that I’d share with the girl opposite me, and all of a sudden the curtains would fly open, and it would be one of the nuns! You never heard them walk.
‘There was one nun – a Spanish nun, Madam Carmen Pillar – who was so lovely. In the evenings, she’d teach us boarders how to sew and embroider, how to do the edging on a tablecloth. I just had such happy memories of her.’
While many thousands of evening have now passed since those spent embroidering tablecloths and sharing sweets in secret, the Blanchelande girls have kept their friendship alive with regular meetings at Le Friquet.
‘We meet on the first Tuesday of every month, and we also have a Christmas get-together,’ said Adriana.
‘We’re all friends, and we never stopped talking. Any of the others who didn’t know about us are welcome too. We just turn up some time between 2.30 and 3.30pm – it’s all very casual, we just have a laugh and complain about the men. Although, I’m not sure many of us have husbands anymore.’
While not having completely fallen out of touch, the group began their regular monthly meetings back in 2013, following Jill’s loss of her own husband, and they have been going strong ever since then.
‘I’m just hopeful that girls now will come together when they’re older and remember all the good times the way we have,’ Adriana said.
