WISHAW MEMORIES Campaign to mark historic school stone
Plaque for spot where kids used to sharpen pencils
A campaign has been launched to keep alive the memories of children’s school days at a former Wishaw primary.
Central Wishaw Community Council have agreed to fund a plaque for a stone in the old playground of Wishaw Public School.
During the Victorian era at the school, pupils used the stone to sharpen their pencils so that they could write on a slate in the classroom.
The plaque will be erected at a wall on the former playground which is now part of Lidl’s car park.
And organisers met on Sunday with Mrs Carol Anne Foley, chairman of the community council and councillor Sam Love, a former pupil at the school to finalise the wording for the plaque.
Mrs Foley said: “The Public School started in the 1860s or 1870s and the pencils were sharpened there to write on slates while on their way to school. It is a great story and will generate a huge talking point in the town as a lot of people attended Wishaw Public School.
“It is of huge historical value to Wishaw and it will be something for future generations to look at.
“They can go and see where their grandparents or great grandparents went to sharpen their pencils.
“We could always ask the public to get their photographs taken beside the new plaque.”
Robert McMillan, organiser of the Wishaw Memories Facebook page, is behind the campaign.
He said: “I’d like to thank the community council for their generosity and also thank Mrs Foley for doing so much in preserving Wishaw history for future generation.”
And he posted on the Wishaw Memories Facebook page; “A great bit of history still surviving but I think there should be a plaque of some kind explaining what it was used for.”