FIFE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY
"OLD KINGHORN"
Picture and text reproduced by kind permission of
Stenlake Publishing
Kinghorn Parish School (1905)
The first Parish school in Kinghorn was established
in 1575. From the early eighteenth century at least, it was the town
and not the church who paid the wages of the schoolmaster and
provided him with a house. In 1829 the town clerk, a Mr.Barclay,
offered to put up the £850 needed to build a new school from his
own pocket and at his own risk. The burgh later reimbursed him
£500 when they adopted the school. It was built in 1829 to a
design by Edinburgh architect Thomas Hamilton. The infant department
in the background of this 1905 picture was added in 1888. It was
needed to cope with the increased demands placed on the school in the
wake of the 1872 Education Act, which introduced compulsory education
between the ages of five and thirteen. The old school was closed in
1986 and subsequently adapted for use as a library, with a large
extension behind housing a community centre. The infant department is
currently disused and boarded up.
(Text by Eric Eunson)