Hafodunos Hall School
Memories by Merrill Bayley

The Ghost

"No I never saw her but spoke to someone who had! She was supposedly Myra Sandbach and wore white and glided about on the old wing! But it was the thought that if one went to the loo in the night one might come across her in the darkness this was scary stuff so one definitely avoided going to the loo down the long corridor after a scary night time story. Yes sometimes just before lights out we would tell yarns (bear in mind we were not allowed radios nor allowed to read in bed). I always used to tell the story of Prince Llywelyn and his dog Gelert of course (I am half Welsh) and I would be disappointed if I did not get at least one girl in tears by the end! My voice is not geared to whispering so if my story went on after lights out (this meant silence) and a Prefect or Monitor heard me there would be a fierce call of “Merrill I can hear you talking” come and stand on the landing! Sometimes they would ask who is talking and I actually used to own up and consequently get my marching orders. Head of my dorm would indicate for me take my dressing gown as it was jolly cold at night on the landing as I think the heating went off at lights off and I could be out there for a long time. In fact once I was forgotten and my dormitory head came to fetch this small quivering crying wretch and let me go to bed – poor me!"

School Songs and Rhymes

"Build a bonfire, build a bonfire
Put the teachers on the top
Put the prefects in the middle
And we’ll burn the bloody lot"

"The more I learn the more I forget
The more I forget the less I know
The less I know the less I forget
The less I forget the more I know
So why learn?"