Figure 1.--We notice quite a few prepsaratory schools in the 1980s with solid-colored ties. At these schools, striped ties were sometimes used to desgnate prefects are children who had won their school colors. We're not sure how common the solid-colored ties were at oher schools.

Neckties appeared at British schools in the late 19th century and increasingly became standard in the early 20th century, especially as the Eton collar declined in popularity. We note both solid color and stripped ties. The striped ties were both horizontal and diagonal. The two types of striped ties were cut diagonlly. The diagonal striped ties were adopted from the ties worn by sports clubs. The horizontal stripes began to decline in popularity after World war II, especially after the 1950s. At modern British schools the children wear mostly the solid colored ties or the diagonal stripes. Most girls schools adopted the diagonal striped ties.

Horizontal Stripes

Early club ties - worn for cricket, for example - were often narrow, parallel-sided, and square-ended, and it was this form that was adopted by many schools. They persisted as schoolwear long after club ties had been changed to the tapered form with pointed end. These early ties were sometimes of a single colour but more often they were banded or striped horizontally in school colours. The horizontal bands might be equal in size and about an inch broad. In other cases they would be unequal, in effect consisting of narrow stripes of a quarter inch or less in one colour against a background in a contrasting colour. Occasionally, the horizontal stripes might show a slightly more complex arrangement of different widths, or three colours might be combined in the tie. Ties of this sort were still much in evidence in preparatory and some state junior schools in the 1960s, though they have since largely disappeared. A few schools retain them, and they are also common, anachronistically, in cartoon or comic-strip representations of schoolboys. A good example of the horizontal ties are the O'Connor boys in 1960.

Diagonal Stripes

What superseded them was the type with tapering sides and pointed end. Again they may be of a single colour but much more often they are striped diagonally in two or more school colours. As with the earlier type, the stripes might be bands of equal width, narrow stripes against a contrasting background, or a more complex arrangement. My own Luton Grammar School tie, for example, had red and yellow diagonal stripes of three different widths in an interpenetrating pattern. The tie of Rochester Mathematical School, Kent has alternating broad diagonal stripes in black and blue separated by thin yellow stripes. The tie of the former Cambridge Grammar School for Boys was unusual in that whilst the basic school colour was black, with red dominant in the blazer and cap badge, the tie had diagonal bands of equal width in light brown and pale blue. (Both these colours appeared in the blazer and cap badge, but not conspicuously.) An interesting case, also, as it happens, involving brown and pale blue is that of Dunstable Grammar School, Beds. About 1960 the school blazer and cap were changed from brown with a pale blue badge to black with a rather more elaborate badge (and with a pale blue band round the back of the cap). The new school tie was also black, but maintained a link with the older uniform by including thin diagonal stripes in brown and pale blue, the colours of the older school tie.

Mixed Types

Schools have sometimes changed from one type to another. At Dartford Grammar School for Boys, Kent, for example, the earliest tie was of the thin square-ended type, with equal-width bands in maroon and yellow. This was later superseded by the tapering type with diagonal bands of equal width, and then in due course by a maroon tie with thin diagonal yellow stripes. Usually, schools would allow a transitional period, with ties of both types being worn by different boys for a year or two. This was the case at a junior school where I worked briefly as an unqualified teacher between grammar school and university. Both types, narrow with horizontal bands and tapering with diagonal bands, were in blue and yellow.

School Badge

Less frequently, the school badge might appear on the tie, as, for example, on that of Holmshill Secondary School, Boreham Wood, Herts., which had a single block capital H on the plain school tie. (The blazer and cap badge was a larger seriffed capital H.) At Icknield Secondary School, Luton, the black tie has a thin red diagonal stripe alternating with small printed versions of the school badge of a bee - worn larger on the blazer pocket and, at one time, on the front of the black and red school cap. In other cases, ties displaying the school badge might be reserved for more senior boys.

Solid Color Ties

We noted quite a few preparatory schools where the children wore solid color ties during the 1980s. I'm not sure when this trend began. At these schools, striped ties were sometimes used to desgnate prefects are children who had won their school colors. We're not sure how common the solid-colored ties were at oher schools.

Gender Trends

Most girls schools adopted the diagonal striped ties. This is, however, just an initial assessment.

HBC-SU