Houses & Uniform
The Quantock School Uniform
The main colour of the Quantock School was what can be described as a teal or sea green - like the main colour scheme of this website. This colour was the distinctive feature of the school uniform, although this general appearance gradually changed during the late 1980s.
The Quantock School teal colour was reflected most strikingly in the school blazer, a high-quality garment which carried the traditional red, gold and black crest of the school on the top left breast pocket. While a number of Quantock pupils were to wear the school blazer for everyday use, one could also wear a grey suit jacket as an alternative. Under the jacket or blazer was worn the standard school sleeveless V-necked "tank-top" style slipover, the "V" being woven in Quantock School green. During the summer months, the jacket was optional, but one still had to wear the school slipover.
The school tie, like the blazer, was the standard Quantock School teal green, and came in two variants - plain and crested. I myself saw no differences in how these ties were actually worn; one can only assume that at the beginning the crested tie was worn with the plain suit jacket and the plain tie was work with the crested blazer, but in practice it became more of a mix and match affair. My personal uniform choice for example amounted to what could be described as school crest overkill, consisting of the crested tie and blazer.
Above: A group of junior pupils taken in front of the arched gate during the early 1980s. Every pupil is wearing either the traditional teal green school blazer or grey suit jacket with the standard issue grey v-neck pullover.
In the 1980s, the uniform was extended to include a dark green sweatshirt with the School crest and the words "Quantock School" in bold lettering. This new item of Quantock School uniform was worn instead of the slipover and jacket/blazer, and by the late 1980s those who chose to wear the blazer for everyday school activity became something of a minority. Shirts were grey, although seniors could wear white, and by the late 1980s seniors could also wear black trousers.
Above: A group of junior pupils taken during the summer of 1990. The entire group are kitted out in the green school sweatshirt, with the exception of the girl in the front row whose uniform follows the traditional Quantock School style. The only thing that probably hasn't changed are the chairs the children are sitting on.
When Quantock School became co-educational in 1986, uniform requirements for girls consisted of a white blouse with standard tie, school blazer or sweatshirt, and grey knee-length skirt. The fact that non-senior girls could wear white blouses might have assisted in reducing the dress code demarcations for the boys still further, in that there is photographic evidence to suggest that junior boys were also wearing white shirts rather than the standard grey by the early 1990s.
Above: Quantock School uniforms in the early 1990s. This group of senior pupils are all wearing white shirts/blouses; the girls are wearing regulation grey knee-length skirts, while the two boys in the centre of the group are wearing black trousers. The boy to the left is wearing 'standard' grey. Both the girl in the centre and the boy to the right are wearing the crested version of the Quantock school tie, while their three colleagues are all wearing the plain variant.
Simply observing photographs taken during the period suggests that the standard 'look' of the Quantock pupil changed radically over what was a very short period; the wearing of the school blazer in particular plummeted dramatically over the course of less than five years. In the annual school photograph from 1986, nearly every pupil was dressed to the nine in either a blazer or suit jacket; the photograph taken in 1990 tells a completely different story, with less than a handful of pupils dressed in the traditional garb.
Quantock School uniforms were ordered from the now almost legendary school outfitter, the Bristol-based T. C. Marsh & Co. Ltd. - whose shop has been described by some former Quantockians as being akin to the Grace Brothers' store in the 1970s comedy series Are You Being Served?
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