Figure 1.--Here are the children at the Kirkmichael School in 1911. As can be seen in the background, they had a very substantial school building. Many of the boys wear suits with stiff Eton collars to school. One boy wears a sailor suit. The girls wear dresses, a few with large lace collars. Some wear white or colored pinafores. Many girls have hairbows. Many of the boys, at least the younger boys, are barefoot, even the boys wearing Eton collars are barefoot. We do not know if the girls also came to school barefoot. Image courtesy of the Maybole Community Website.

We do not know a great deal about the Kirkmichael. It is located near Maybole. We do not know when the school was founded, but we know it was operating in the early 19th century. A 1911 image shows many of the boys wearing suits with stiff Eton collars to school. One boy wears a sailor suit. The girls wear dresses, a few with large lace collars. Some wear white or colored pinafores. Many girls have hairbows. Most of the boys, at least the younger boys, are barefoot, even the boys wearing Eton collars are barefoot. A 1939 image shows the children well dressed and hosting other children that had been evacuated from Glasgow when World War II began.

Background

The Kirkmichael school is located in Maybole. We have only limited information on the Kirkmichael school at this time. The school could be quite old. Kirk means church in Scotland. Thus it is quite likely that the school was originally founded by the Kirk (parish church) in Maybole. Why it is called Kirkmichael and just who Michael was, we do not know. We do know that in the early 17th century that Scotland had a fairly well developed system of schools financed largely by the church parishes. Kirkmichael may have been one of them. This system appears to have declined with the advent of the Industrial Revolution in Scotland. We have collected some basic information about Scottish education in the 19th century. Thus by the time we view the school in 1911 it was presumably a state primary school. The school had a sizeable building which can be seen in the background. Later when we see the school in 1939 it is being referred to as the Old Kirkmichael School.

Location

Kirkmichael is located near Maybole in Ayrshire.

Chronology

We have some interesting information on the school and images over a wide spread of time.

The 1800s

Catherine Czerkawska, a writer and resident of Kirkmichael, has found a few pages from a notebook or "commonplace book" of Kirkmichael which provide some insight on the school and other insights on parish life in the early 19th century. The book provides insights on charity, or perhaps the limitations of in the Kirkmichael Parish. One widow whose husband died at Waterloo (1815) applies for charity. The earliest item dates to 1809. Other items date from the 1810s and 20s. It shows how the parish aided a businessman whose machienery had been burned. Czerkawska explains, "Some deal with Kirkmichael school finances. The running of the school including the master�s salary was obviously paid for by contributions from surrounding farms and some contributed more than others. Did this depend on children or wealth or land area or some calculation involving all three I wonder? Why for instance, would Tranew contribute 5 shillings and 10 pence, whereas Barskelly only paid 3 shillings and 7 pence three farthings?" [Czerkawska] The school appears to have taught sience, or a least there is a referrence to a "perpetual motion machine" using a wheel and quicksilver (mercury). Interestingly there are also travel permits. Apparently individuals could not travel freely around Scotland without a permt from their parish. There is also a detailed list of contributions collected from the children on New Years Day. It is not clear what the money was used for. Apparently it was used to pay the teacher's salary. The researcher tells us that the money would have gone to pay the teacher's wages and other school expenses like fuel for the fire etc. "That was how teachers got paid in Scotland in those days. They were always very interested in education, long before the same could be said of England, and small groups of people or whole communities would club together to employ a teacher. I think if the community was poor, the kirk would chip in and so would the local landowner. It was interesting to see that this was so variable however, and I'm not sure if it varied according to numbers of children from one family, or - more likely - according to the wealth or otherwise of a particular farm. A very worthy enterprise though! (Just as an aside, this was how poet Robert Burns got his early excellent education - farmers clubbing together to employ a good teacher for their children.)" [Czerkawska, E-mail.] We hope that the amount contributed dod not affect how the teacher treated the children, but suspect that in some cases it did. Apparently the children had to come to school on New Years to make the donations.

The 1910s

A 1911 image shows the children at Kirkmichael school. As can be seen in the background, they had a very substantial school building. Many of the boys wear suits with stiff Eton collars to school (figure 1). One boy wears a sailor suit. The girls wear dresses, a few with large lace collars. Some wear white or colored pinafores. Many girls have hairbows. Many of the boys, at least the younger boys, are barefoot, even the boys wearing Eton collars are barefoot. We do not know if the girls also came to school barefoot.

The 1930s

A 1939 image shows the children well dressed and hosting other children that had been evacuated from Glasgow when World War II began. The school portrait was taken shortly after the start of World War II (September 3, 1939) after the British conducted a massive evacuation of children from the cities. There is still no school uniform. Many of the boys are still wearing suits. As far as we can tell they are all short pants suits. The boys all have shoes which they wear with various colors and styles of kneesocks. Many of the girls wear school uniform-style gym tunics. These look to be some of the older children at the school, perhaps about 12 years old.

Sources

Czerkawska, Catherine. From Kirkmichael School, Almost 200 Years Ago, website accessed September 12, 2004.

Czerkawska, Catherine. E-mail message, September 14-15, 2004.

Pettit, Rich. Webmaster. Maybole Community Website. The images of Kirtmichael are courtesy of the Maybole Community Website.

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Created: 5:30 PM 9/12/04
Last updated: 7:01 PM 9/15/2004