The Secret of Crickley Hall

[RiaOverTheRainbow]

Did anyone else watch this? Thoroughly creeped out.

Flipping heck it was 1987!!!

Not only that but it wasn't made a criminal offence until 1996 here in Ireland where I am now. Crazy.

I recall my granddad telling me that they were made to go out and choose, and cut off the switch they would be beaten with, from a tree in his school

butisthismyname What a cruel thing to do to a child :(.

What does "the slipper" mean anyway? I'm guessing it's not the softish indoor shoes you wear at home as that's not going to hurt?

And OT, but do people really go and enrol in a school when they go away somewhere for two months? Seems like a lot of faff - buying new uniforms, settling into the routine of a new school, getting used to different style of teaching etc. and then it's time to go back to your old school. We did trips like that at school age because of DF's job and just had a break from school when younger and self-study when older.

Old slippers had leather soles and were sturdier but flexible so could give quite a whack. (I've not experienced this personally!).

I started Bottom Infants () in 1985 and was hit once! I was bit of a whyer and not in the usual sense of children! I still am and have one myself so I can understand how I drove my teacher mad! My teacher came out of school looking for Mum crying, a mix of having to answer my questions all day bringing her to the end of her tether and guilt at having hit me. Mum said that it had only just gone out which is why it had still been her instinct.

Corporal punishment may have been normal practice in schools in the 1940's - but would it really have been normal practice for a teacher to keep a punishment book detailing every caning? Writing it all down seems a bit bizarre, to say the least.

Don't see how Nancy can be alive if she got dropped down a well while unconscious.

And all this about the fingers - I can't work it out. I've paused on shots where the mum is going on about having special fingers, and they look perfectly ordinary to me. Can anyone explain this?

purpletinsel - I've sinced paused it on the fingers bit as I too couldn't see what was what. and to be fair I couldn't tell even when paused!

But the mum and cam are both supposed to have a shorter little finger on one hand, which is why she claims they are linked and she could hear his voice in her head etc before he went missing.

Punishment books were definitely part of corporal punishment and schools often have copies of old ones if they are old buildings etc. I worked in a 100+ yr old school and we used to study the history of the school and had the old log book and punishment book. Part of the punishment presumably would be that it was written down and you knew what you would be getting

Aagh phone playing up and posted too soon!

We had corporal punishment when I was at school. Secondary school in the 80s; the head was quite free with it, although I was a good girl and didn't get any myself polite children thought good. Girls got the ruler (several strapped together) or if really bad the slipper (football boot) and boys got the slipper (football boot) or if really bad the cane. After I left there was an outcry from some girls who had been hit with several rulers strapped together, I think after 1986 too.

This was a highly desirable state school too. If you weren't lippy you could get away with most things, though.

I said the same about the fingers. Look normal to me

Ooh, just had a thought!

We haven't really been told anything about Nancy's hand, except it doesn't work well and Magda commented it would help her understand Cribben (or something). There's got to be some significance / point to it beyond that, though? Maybe one of her fingers is shorter too, and she's somehow connected to Eve (reincarnation?) who has been brought back to Crickley Hall to help the orphans find peace?

Families

That gave me goosebumps...

I was hit with a ruler in 1983 for crying when another child bit me. I was four years old and it marked my hand. I was so convinced that I must have done something wicked to deserve it that I didn't tell my mother for years.

Happily, the vicious bitch teacher is still alive so no need to worry when my pipes clatter in the middle of the night.

I looked at the fingers again and one was definitely a bit shorter...it's almost imperceptible though. Families you're right! Arm...hand....there must be a link! Maybe the house that the family have in London was connected to Nancy somehow....bombs and all that.

They are supposed to have shorter fingers as that is probably in the story, but i suppose they couldn't really make the actors' fingers shorter for the series?

I remember the head of our Infants in the 70s having a plimsoll on her piano, saying she was going to use it like the head of the juniors did so she didn't hurt her hand. (She gave hidings with her hand in assembly.) I know if i'd gone on to the secondary school next door they still had the cane there. Happily for me i went to a different girls' school where they didn't have it. I avoided it in primary school by being good and in secondary by not being so good, but going to a school that didn't have it. Was smacked/hit plenty at home though, so didnt totally get away with it!

Yes Toffee but people are saying the fingers look the same length....they don't if you look carefully...they've used another persons fingers for those shots.

little fingers are always smaller anyway - thats why they are called little fingers pmsl

No! ONE of her little fingers is shorter than the OTHER!

hmmmmmmm, will study

ok, cams little left finger is a tad smaller then his right

'blondes peers at screen'

tbh why have parents made such a big deal about it, enough to give the kid a complex about it

most people wouldnt say anything

I didn't get the whole fingers thing but thought the whole "We can hear each other" was weird. Didn't Cam say "Goodbye Mummy" very obviously in an "I'm off now" sort of way?

There must be some connection between the family and the people in/around Crickley Hall. Surely Cam can't be the only psychic 6 yo in the country?

yes he did Fiderer....I thought that....all sad and knowing he was.

Oh my gosh, I am three quarters of the way through the book and it is so wierd. It's different, but similar (!) to the series but also flipping well unputdownable - where are my children again I don't know whether to finish it before Sunday or not!

I'm resisting the temptation to buy the book (walked past it in the shop today), as I don't think I'd be able to stop myself from reading the ending before Sunday night. And I think that might spoil Sunday's episode for me.

Just been watching the first episode because I keep missing the fingers bit. The little finger on one hand is dumpy, the other side is normal.

Also, I thought it was interesting that Cam says "Let's play bombs!" and then drops a ball onto a lego house.