In an earlier life I used to help with refreshments at a folk festival and the venue was a hut where deck chairs were normally kept. It was dark, cramped, grimy, damp and cobwebs everywhere, including hanging above the paper cups of orange juice and coffee, and there was a low concrete beam (unpadded) in the drinks preparation area. By the time you'd cracked your head a couple of times on the concrete beam, you automatically ducked when passing under it But it was a great venue for folk concerts, loads of atmosphere

Eventually they condemned it and knocked it down - can't think why


Anyone else recollect things that Health & Safety have put a stop to???

Almost all food, whether cooked on site or made at home to be sold, is banned from kindy and school fairs here these days (especially since a vengeful Mum did in half her home town by dumping poison in the communal pot of curry !).

When food for general consumption IS prepared onsite these days, all mother volunteers have to submit a stool sample for testing a week in advance ! (You didn't want to know that, did you!)

Son Airman has been the health and safety monitor for his high school fair a couple of times...but last year he had such a heavy cold that he was judged to be a health and safety risk himself and ordered to stay away!

Our candlelit Christmas concert is under threat this year.
Can't think why in this case either; we've only ever had one person go on fire in the past...He was fine, but his jacket didn't make it through the ordeal. The person behind him in the audience kindly dealt with the situation without interrupting the soloist of the moment.

It was probably full of asbestos. Best demolished in that case...

H&S should put a stop to threads that damage your health through sheer banality...

Mr C, you remind me so much of a former forum member when you say things like that

last year a school fayre banned home-made cakes etc, didn't they? Rather odd considering that the mums who made them would probably serve them to their children at home anyway!

no candles at candle-lit services of course....

pathetic to be quite so pc surely?

Conker fights!!!

ah yes, Norwich City Council threatened to cut down horse chestnut trees because of the risk of youngsters running into the road to get the conkers... which of course, is clearly the fault of the trees

I used to love having conker fights as a kid (and probably would now as a big kid!!). One of my other nieces' is a teacher and the kids in her school can play conkers provided they are wearing safety goggles, "just in case" a piece flies up and hits them in the eye. We never wore them...and there weren't many one eyed children in my school.

I always played conkers in primary school - it wasn't that long ago! Are they banned now? I still see primary school kids at the same tree my brother and I always used to go to - so as far as I know they're still doing it!

It's part of the compensation culture, sadly. If they are playing conkers out of school premises, then what happens to them is of no (legal) concern to the school. It's while they are in the playground (at least of my nieces' school. Others may be different of course) that goggles need to be worn. Silly innit?

I agree, it is silly. I was thinking that it might have been over-protective mums getting the schools to ban it (which is quite likely to happen round here). Actually my brother once got a black eye because a friend of his decided to see if it would hurt him to swing a conker at his face - but it's still ridiculous to ban the whole thing - I mean if kids are going to be that stupid, they're going to find a way to be that stupid with or without conkers. You could do the same thing with a skipping rope!

at some schools snowballs are banned aren't they?
anyone else know of cases?

and one primary school stopped children making daisy chains....

Somehow or other two kids ran into a wall at my children's primary school in the one week, so running in the playground was banned. However it sort of fell by the wayside because it turned out to be impossible to stop them from running - thankfully!

I think that was because we only want One Unique and Wonderful Daisy Chain...
that has to be the reason

I am very pleased to report that one of our local schools is running a Conker Competition - a long standing tradition with a proper league table as I recall!

Down with Health and Safety nonsense!

From my experience, it hurts if you get hit in the face with a conker, and icy snowballs can draw blood, but does it really matter? If you get a black eye from playing conkers, you live with it and get on with life!!

At my old school, they had some really good trees for climbing, but you're not allowed near them because if you fall out, it's supposedly the school's fault Surely it's your own stupid fault for falling out the tree!

Don't get me started on food tech lessons...

I remember as a 9 year old schoolboy in 1945, a bomber (I think it was a halifax) crashed onto a pair of semi-detached houses in Nunthorpe Grove, York. People were killed, everything was reduced to rubble and the remains of the aircraft, and the area was cordoned off. Being nosey, I went past the cordons for a close look at the wreckage and, instead of being cleared off, was given a bucket and told to look for bullets and put them in the bucket! I think I found a few before someone more senior did clear me off!

hear hear !!

I would love to hold a concert at Christmas lit by candles only but we can't. Skunks to Health and Safety (mostly).

The new head at my youngest daughter's school banned snow ball fights. The old head used to organize them
One winter not long ago, Barry was taking Jen to school, and lobbed one at the only male teacher there, who being a man just had to respond. The glare that followed was enought to freeze anyone to death.
He left soon after He was the only musical person there
Bloomin health and safety
Bev.