Buckets for the drips

“As a native of the Scotlandwell area, I was interested in the recent Traces Through Time feature,” writes Anne Macgregor.

“I attended the school on the left for all of my primary education and went on to secondary school in Perth in 1952. At that time only two of the three classrooms were used, but due to a slight increase in the parish (Portmoak) population the third class room and another teacher were brought into use.

“In my time there we had open coal fires in the rooms and additional paraffin heaters in really cold weather. Sharpening your pencil into the fire was a good excuse for a heat on a cold day. Oh, and the roof leaked so we had strategically placed buckets to catch the drips.

“On painting days we had to wear gym shoes to keep the noise down as we trotted out for each brushful of poster paint from the collection of jars on a table at the front of the desks.

“If you didn’t have gym shoes you helped yourself to a pair from a big box of khaki coloured gym shoes, each with a large size number inked on the upper as they were not tied in pairs!

“This school, now a private dwelling house, was replaced in the 1960s, I think, by a more up-to-date building in the neighbouring village of Kinnesswood.

“A few villagers still collected water from the well for domestic use in the 1950s and we schoolchildren played around it at ‘dinner time’.”