{"id":11402,"date":"2023-09-21T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T08:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/?p=11402"},"modified":"2023-09-21T08:56:47","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T08:56:47","slug":"halls-in-the-70s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/09\/21\/halls-in-the-70s\/","title":{"rendered":"Halls In the 70s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gill Griffin and Liz Vincent became firm friends when they met at Wantage Hall in 1978. They share their memories of what Wantage was like in the 1970s and the importance of friendship in adjusting to living at university.<\/span><\/p>\n

Life in Wantage<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Gill Griffin, n\u00e9e Tinworth, now a retired civil servant, and Liz Vincent, n\u00e9e Spurway, a science teacher, recall what life was like at Wantage Hall when they arrived in 1978 and how they felt adjusting to their new home for three years.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Wantage ‘new block’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gill said: \u201cWe both arrived at the University of Reading in October 1978 and were assigned to the Wantage \u2018new block\u2019. To be honest, life there was a real shock. There were no private washing facilities at all and bathrooms at the corner of the corridors were mixed, with little or no privacy. I recall having hand basins in our room in the third year, so there were a lot of strip washes to avoid those dreaded communal bathrooms! There was also a laundry room with a couple of washers and dryers. I don\u2019t think either of us ever really came to terms with such communal living.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Wantage
Students at a Wantage Hall formal dinner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Liz said: \u201cWantage was fully catered when we lived there and there were formal dinners every term in the lovely dining hall. Although I recall that a group of us used to cook Sunday supper each week \u2013 certainly in the third year when we were \u2018promoted\u2019 to the beautiful old part of Wantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the dining hall was the JCR [Junior Common Room] and it had one of the first Space Invader machines and a snooker table. Occasional concerts were held there and I remember British rock band, Mungo Jerry, playing there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gill added: \u201cPhone calls home were once a week from one of a couple of pay phones. Two and ten pences had to be collected all week to facilitate the calls. How I wish mobile phones had been a thing then.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cOpposite the porter\u2019s lodge was a beautiful old wooden letter rack where we each had our own numbered pigeon hole. Letters from home, from old school friends and university notifications were deposited here.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Wantage
Wantage Hall in the snow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe main gates were locked at 10.30pm or thereabouts, but a little door within the main door allowed later arrivals and departures. Overnight guests were allowed but names had to be logged with the porters in case of a fire. My fianc\u00e9 often stayed over and pretty much became an honorary member of Wantage, and Liz met her now husband in her faculty and he obtained his PhD at Reading.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could keep our belongings in our rooms over the Christmas break, but for Easter and summer a store room to the right of the main entrance was used for storage as our rooms were used for private functions and conferences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The importance of a friend<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\"Gill
Liz and Gill in student bedroom before their final ball<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gill and Liz share how important it was to make friends in the early days of university to help with the adjustment to living in halls.<\/p>\n

Gill said: \u201cIt took both of us a while to find our feet and life massively improved once we got to know each other. Liz was reading Soil Science and I was reading Combined Social Sciences so were it not for Wantage we wouldn\u2019t have met. We have remained close friends ever since, attending each other\u2019s weddings and then our daughters\u2019 weddings. Our young toddler grandsons, Arthur and Gus, have met a couple of times too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liz said: \u201cI think life at university was hard to adjust to at first because Gill and I came from a different world to many of Wantage\u2019s other residents. Gill studied at an all girls\u2019 state school and I came from a Sixth Form College, whereas Wantage had a lot of students from public school. Despite coming from a very different world from us, they were always friendly and kind. We both remember one of the girls and her gorgeous yellow TR7 \u2013 a very coveted sports car back in the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gill added:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cLife wasn\u2019t perfect at Wantage but once you made some friends it became home. Liz and I visited it recently and loved seeing it again. On the outside little seemed to have changed and we reverted to feeling like 20 year olds with ease!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Gill
Gill (left), Liz (right) and their friend Martha (middle) on graduation day 4th July 1981<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gill's
Gill’s mum and aunt with her on graduation day in front of Wantage gate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/h4>\n

Share your memories<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Would you like to share your memories of living in halls or studying at Reading? Please email alumni@reading.ac.uk<\/a> to share them with us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gill Griffin and Liz Vincent became firm friends when they met at Wantage Hall in 1978. They share their memories of what Wantage was like in the 1970s and the importance of friendship in adjusting to living at university. Life in Wantage Gill Griffin, n\u00e9e Tinworth, now a retired civil servant, and Liz Vincent, n\u00e9e […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":11466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[185,54,195,125,87],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHalls In the 70s - Connected<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gill Griffin and Liz Vincent share their memories of what Wantage Hall was like in the 1970s with CONNECTED.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/09\/21\/halls-in-the-70s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Halls In the 70s - Connected\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gill Griffin and Liz Vincent share their memories of what Wantage Hall was like in the 1970s with CONNECTED.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/09\/21\/halls-in-the-70s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Connected\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-21T08:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-21T08:56:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/09\/shutterstock_image-2023-09-20T100304.902.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"juliasmalley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"juliasmalley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/09\/21\/halls-in-the-70s\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/09\/21\/halls-in-the-70s\/\",\"name\":\"Halls In the 70s - 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