The Parish School
Although little is known about the education of the young in pre-reformation Scotland, certainly nothing concerning Dundonald, there is no doubt that education was given a kick-start by the reformed church. It was John Knox’s ambition to see a school in every parish and by 1646 this became an enactment of the Scottish Parliament. As far as Dundonald is concerned the earliest recorded attempt to set up a school occurs in 1605. The session minute for 9th June opens as follows; (The old Scots wording has been updated.)
“Which day the session ordained the minister publicly to warn from the pulpit all such as would have their bairns teachit, to convene on Tuesday next at ten hours to advise thereupon.”
No mention is made of the outcome of the meeting but in November 1606 John Allasoun is appointed to teach children at Dundonald and at Corsbie, which was then in the parish.
There is no mention of a school building until 1634 when the session decided to build a school “for education of the youth in learning and virtue.” The ground allocated for the building was at the east end of the churchyard, presumably somewhere close to the present manse. The ground was given to the parish, specifically and only for a school, by John Fullarton of Dreghorn.
This school building served the parish for around 170 years, until sometime just before 1800 when the old school was taken down and a new one, with a schoolhouse, was built just to the north of the churchyard. This new building in its turn served for another 100 years until the old red sandstone school (recently demolished) was built in 1896. The old school beside the churchyard, with some modification, then became the Montgomerie Hall that is still used today. It is hard to believe that, at its closure in 1896, it housed a school roll of 200! The schoolmasters of Dundonald are mentioned throughout the minutes and their names are listed in Gillespie. Up until the 1930s they all doubled as session clerk.
Over the years the parish also operated schools at Crosbie, at Darley, at Loans, at Old Rome and at Drybridge Loans school was built in 1877 and continued well into the 20th century. The building still exists but is now a private house. Drybridge school was built in 1878 to alleviate overcrowding at Dundonald and remained open until the new school was built in Dundonald in 1896. The building was demolished just a few years ago to be replaced by a house.
For the earliest school in Dundonald the session laid down a set of rules and these are entered in the minutes in 1640. They make interesting reading for today’s generation. Here are just a few to give a flavour, transferred into modern English.
The master shall attend at all times when the children are in the school and not suffer himself to be withdrawn by drinking, playing or any other avocation.
Let the children in the winter months meet at sunrise and be dismissed at sunset, except some younger ones or those who live furthest from the school. For the rest of the year let the hour of gathering be seven o’clock and the hour of skailing be six.
And finally, as without discipline no company can be kept in order least of all unbridled youth therefore it shall be necessary that there shall be in the school a common censor who shall remark all faults and declare them to the master.
With attendance required six days a week the hours of attendance are excessive, especially when homework is obligatory. The children were also required to attend church on Sunday and sit quietly with the master, and to be sure they listened they were expected to answer questions on the sermon on Monday. When were they expected to play; not on Sunday afternoon, that was disallowed. Tough times!
Means of discipline were also defined. “According to the quality of the faults the master shall inflict punishment, striking some on the hand with a birch wand, belt or pair of tawse, others on the hips as their fault deserves. But none at any time or in any case on the head or cheeks.”