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Here we have a scene from St. Rollox school in Glasgow. It was a state school, but given the name may have been Catholic. Quite a number of Irish immigrants lived in Glasgow and thus there were Catholic schools. Here we see a woodworking class in 1916. While girls were instructed in cookery or needlework, the boys were instructed in "manual skills". The school had a well-equipped carpentry shop. I'm not sure about what type of school this was, but it may have been a primary school. Primay schools at the time had programs for children up to 13-14 years of age. Most primary schools, however, did not have facilities like this. A reader writes, "Wonderful picture, but such an unusual (and unlikely) name. One suggestion is that St Rollox may have come from St Roche / St Roch Loch."
Here we have a scene from St. Rollox school in Glasgow. It was a state school, but given the name may have been Catholic. I'm not sure about what type of school this was, but it may have been a primary school. Primay schools at the time had programs for children up to 13-14 years of age. Most primary schools, however, did not have facilities like this. The community built the Church of St Roche near Garngad (1506).
The original Royston Primary School was named for St. Rollox. It was built by the Tennant Family near the chemical works at Springburn Rd. The school later moved to Garngad Rd. One local historian writes, "In my youth the school was known as ‘Donald’ school after a much-respected head master, and is now Royston Primary." Mr. McGrath, headmaster of St Roch’s Advanced (now Secondary) school promoted a campaign to change the name of the school to ‘Royston’ (1942).
Quite a number of Irish immigrants lived in Glasgow and thus there were Catholic schools. The Irish tended to be yhe poorest community in the city and some of the neighborhoods where they lived were terrible slums.
The school was located in the Garngad & Royston section of Glasgow.
The name Garngad apparently comes from the Gaelic word ‘Garn’ which meant rough ground. The Gad Burn is located on some very old maps between High Balornuck Farm to the old Barnhill Poorhouse.
Here we see a woodworking class in 1916. While girls were instructed in cookery or needlework, the boys were instructed in "manual skills". The school had a well-equipped carpentry shop. One thing which rather surprises me about this phoyograph is that the boys do not wear any protective clothes. Clothing was relatively more expensive at the time than is the case today. You would think the school would have had protective aprons of some kind.
A reader writes, "Wonderful picture, but such an unusual (and unlikely) name. One suggestion is that St Rollox may have come from St Roche / St Roch Loch." St Roch or Rocue or Rollox has been stronly associated with the area since Medieval era. The name is most commonly spelled Saint Roch. He was was born in Montpellier, France (1295). He made a pilgrimage to Rome during which time he visited a hospital careing for plague victims. At the time careing for plague victims was a virtual death sentence. He assisted in the care of the patients and miracles were attributed to him. Thus the belief spread that a town with a church dedicated to St. Rollox might be spared the plague or the worst effects of it.
In Glasgow. St Rollox is a district in northeastern Glasgow, mainly noted for having once had a major railway works. A reader writes, "It was very much an industrial area, then, but not, I suspect, of the poorest income levels. Whether it was largely populated by Catholics or Protestants I've no idea - but Glasgow was divided on sectarian lines in those days, so probably one or the other! Anyway, I expect that St Rollox School is simply the local school, taking its name from the district and probably having no connection with either the Catholics or Church of Scotland." Good point. In America and Britain, a school named after a saint generally means that it is a Catholic, Anglica, or other religious schools. But in this case the neighborhood was named after a saint. Thus our reader may be correct that it could be a state school.
A reader writes, "When I was growing up both parents and schools were concerned about keeping the school uniform as clean as possible because appearance predominated. You can see the difference from this Glasgow school in that while one boy does have highly polished boots another has no boots or stockings at all. It reflects the (on the whole) more affluent nature of the 1960s/70s in Britain. My primary school was mixed as far as the economic background of the children were concerned but all had the required uniform - including shoes and socks.Social differences would stand out more back in 1916 as this picture shows by what different boys wore. One of the major arguments in favour of school uniforms was to conceal such differences - and today those parents who cannot afford a uniform can get a grant to buy one. My Mum always made sure that we had the correct uniform as did most parents - and of course these days uniforms are relatively cheaper - both the "standards" (shirts,trousers,shoes etc) and expensive blazers have given way to sweatshirts at least at primary level and in many State secondaries too."
Friel, James. "Garngad & Royston," Roystod Road Project, internet site accessed July 14, 2006.
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