The Old School

The story of schooling in upper Skelmorlie is a fascinating journey through time, and it all began long before the red sandstone landmark many of us still remember was even built! The first formal place of learning for the village was actually a modest, detached schoolhouse located on The Lane, right near the junction with Skelmorlie Castle Road. This original “little school” was a characterful building with original exposed beams and a vaulted ceiling. However, as the village expanded with grand new villas in the early 1870s, it quickly became clear that this small schoolhouse could no longer accommodate all the local children. By 1873, plans were already in motion for a larger replacement, and the old building was eventually repurposed as the Skelmorlie Mission Hall. It even served as an emergency rest centre during WWII and, remarkably, still stands today as a beautiful private home!

In 1876, the community moved into the substantial new school on Castle Road (the building pictured here). Built from that iconic, rich local red sandstone, it would serve as the heart of the village’s education for a hundred years. As the population continued to boom, the school underwent its most famous transformation between 1894 and 1896. The Skelmorlie School Board commissioned the world-renowned Glasgow architects John Honeyman & Keppie for a major expansion. The project was a massive undertaking:

• The Bill: Total costs recorded in the firm’s job book reached £1,097 10s 2d.

• The Work: The expansion added new classrooms, involved extensive mason and joiner work, and saw the purchase of modern “dual desks”.

• Layout: It formalised the separate entrances and playgrounds for the boys and girls to accommodate up to 170 pupils.

One thing the high-end architects didn’t change, however, was the famous outside toilets, which stayed in use throughout the building’s entire century-long history!

The final chapter for this landmark arrived in April 1976 when the school bell rang for the very last time on Castle Road. As the pupils moved to the current site on Innes Park Road. For a while, the old red sandstone building housed the local youth club amongst other things before it was sadly demolished to make way for the residential housing we see there today. It may be gone, but with the “new” school turning 50 in April 2026, it’s the perfect time to remember the generations of Skelmorlie folk who started their journeys within those old sandstone walls!

My Memoirs of Skelmorlie Primary School playground in the 1970s. It was written some 20 years ago.

There was always a game of knockout going on at playtimes on the wall on the right hand side of the above picture. To the right of this wall there was a gap through to the girls’ playground. The windows hidden to the left of this were the staff room Underneath the two roof skylights). There was a big game and a wee game of football. The goals for the big game were up at the top of the sloped playground to the right of the picture, beside the outbuilding which started off as a classroom before being the gym hall (and then later, the scout hall). The lower goals for the big game were down by the end window of the boys’ cloakroom (the left side of the photo) Behind these goals was the “wee game”. As well as sloping up and down the big game also sloped sideways. It had its upper side bordering the rockery and its lower side bordering the school building (mainly the kitchen which is the three big windows). The rockery consisted of exactly the type of landscape required to host games of “British and Gerries” and echoed to the sound of imitation machine gun fire and loud shouting for most of the break times. There were a lot of cuts, scrapes and bumps and a modern day playground couldn’t compare in levels of danger. At the top end of the rockery was a flagpole. In days long gone by it had been full length but during my time had been reduced to a mere fifteen or so feet high. Keeping the flagpole vertical were four equally spaced inch thick steel guyropes which stretched to the top from four sides and served as apparatus for any budding gymnasts. Directly over the wall on the other side of The Lane was a donkey field where Suzi and Sammy the two donkeys lived.

At the lower end of the rockery slope there was The Lane entrance to the school. The traffic at this gate was almost non-existent and so no lolly-pop person was required. The entrance to boys urinals behind the shed was here too. I say urinals but in actual fact it was a non-roofed square walled room with slate slabbed walls to pee against. A lot of the time the slate was ignored as regular competitions to pee the highest and furthest were held in there.

Through the wall was the shed. Both playgrounds had a large shed for when it rained. While the girls’ shed served as a place to skip, the boys eminated a racket which would rival an old firm game! There was a bench along the back wall. (Technically it was two benches as there was a gap where there was an outside store where Mr Curry the janitor kept brushes and things) the bench was painted burgundy/red and easily held the weight of thirty boys standing on it as they cheered on the games of “heedy fitba” . The front of the shed was open and faced both games of football and the school. The shed roof on this open side was supported by two eight foot long and eight inch thick cast iron poles painted in the same burgundy/red. These were quite difficult to climb.

Heady football was only cancelled in the event of downpours which brought to the shed all of the wee game, the big game, the British and German soldiers, the knockout players and gymnasts from the rockery. Those not deemed skilled/fast/old enough for the big game would play in what was coined “The Wee Game”

The wee game was also on a slope to the left of the photo, the upper end had its goals backing into the entrance to the three boys toilet cubicles behind the Slaven’s end of the shed. Down the left side of the wee game was the gate through to Mr and Mrs Curry’s house and down the right hand side was the boys cloakroom windows. (All windows were meshed) the bottom goals were where one would loiter if they wanted to beg Mr Curry to ring the big, brass bell at the end of playtime. At least three times a week a football would end up on the roof of the building and in my time the allocated schoolboy with permission to go up and fetch the ball down was Graham “Monkey” Jackson. Also at the top of the playground behind the big game goals was another storeroom for Mr Curry. It was at the back of the gym hall with a big outside door painted in the same burgundy/red. There was a mesh bin in one corner of the playground and in the summertime it had loads of wasps swarming around it. We used to wipe our hands with ice-lolly wrappers to see who get the most wasps on our hands. I cannot remember anyone getting stung. when the weather was bad we were allowed to stand in the cloakrooms at the intervals. In there was a drinking-well which all used for drinks of tap water. The two windows at the left side of the photo were the boys’ cloakroom. The bigger boys used to climb up and stand on the big old radiators. They would often get shouted at if a teacher saw them. I remember once that someone was standing on the radiator shaking the water pipe which went from the radiator to the ceiling and loads of plaster fell off the ceiling on top of all the people in the boys’ cloakroom. When I think back, this incident probably contributed to the council’s decision to build your school and knock this one down!

The girls playground was a mystery full of alien beings as far as I was concerned at that age.

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