Spier's School (NS352533), at Beith, in North Ayrshire, Scotland was opened in 1888 and closed in 1972. The school, now demolished, was built using Ballochmyle red sandstone and was reminiscent of the ancient Glasgow University. The school motto was 'Quod verum tutum' (What is true is safe).Spiers School. 1888 - 1968. The gardens and woodlands are open to the public at all times.
Sustrans National Route 7 at Kilbirnie Lochside is the nearest cycle-route access. The Barrmill Road entrance is on the bus route from Beith to Barrmill.
Marshalland
In 1686, John Shedden, ancestor of the Sheddens of Morrishill in Beith, obtained the 14 shilling Lands of "Marsheland" from Hugh and John Lyle. He also obtained the 32 Penny Land of Erestoun's Mailling or "Burnside of Marsheland".James Dobie, Memoir of William Wilson of Crummock (Edinburgh, privately printed, MDCCCXVI ), p. 191 Margaret, a daughter of Matthew Montgomerie of Bogston, married John Shedden about 1700.James Paterson, History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton. IV. - I - Cunninghame (Edinburgh: J. Stillie, 1863-66), p. 82
Roy's map of 1747 refers to the site of the later school as "Marchland" and shows the property lying on the boundary (or march) of the Barony of Broadstone, within the Lordship of Giffen, and the Barony of Beith, the physical boundary being formed at this point by the Powgree Burn,Douglas, p. 109 which is also recorded as the Powgreen or Marshyland burn. Marshalland lay within the Barony of Broadstone.James Dobie, Cuninghame topographised by Timothy Pont (Edinburgh: J. Tweed, 1876), p. 214 Later maps call the area "Marshyland" and "Marshalland". A Marshall family were blacksmiths in Gateside for many generations, however no direct connection has been shown to exist.
John Shedden of Marsheland, born on 25 April 1756, was locally known as 'Jack the Marsheland'. He was known as a poacher of hares, at a time when the game laws were very strict. Jack had various brushes with the law, and as a result he had to leave the area for a while and became a game-keeper, his local nickname adapting itself to become 'Jack the Gem-Keeper.' When he died, he had a friend fire a shotgun over his grave, much to the surprise and consternation of the minister.Porterfield, S. (1925). Rambles Round Beith. P. 31.
Robert Service bought Marsheland and passed it on to his son Robert. In 1816-17, the younger Robert Service sold it to Robert Spier, father of John Spier.Dobie (1816), p. 194 In 1820, the part of "the Marshal-land" held by Robert Spier had a rent value of £58 18s 2d, while another part held by a Mrs Gibson was valued at £20 0s 0d.George Robertson, A Topographical Description of Ayrshire; more particularly of Cunninghame (Irvine: Cunninghame Press, 1820) Aitken's map of 1829 shows an R. Spier, Esquire, as resident at "Marsheyland".Robert Aitken, The Parish Atlas of Ayrshire - Cunninghame (Edinburgh: W. Ballantine 1829) Andrew Spier, John's brother, is called "of Marshalland" and may have lived there until his untimely death.B. W. Cochran-Patrick of Ladyland & Woodside, "Dedication Speech of the Spier School", 28 April 1887
Robert Spier owned the Cuff estate, and through his marriage to Margaret Gibson acquired the estate of Marshalland. John Spier was the son of Robert Spier, described as a Writer and bank agent in Beith, owner of the Marshalland and Cuff estates, which included Bogstone, Bellcraig, Eastend of Shutterflat, and Lugton Ridge farms. Robert was descended from the Spiers of Kersland Mill, which he bought from his elder brother. Through good business acumen, he accumulated a considerable fortune of £40,000 in land and money,Spier's School Magazine, No.1, December 1888. p. 2 .
In a map of 1858, the land on which the school was later built shows only the presence of two wells and the fields of the Marshalland farm, with its tree-lined hedgerows. Tom Paterson and his sister farmed Marshalland in the 1950s, and the last people to live at Marshalland were David and Mary Kerr, before the fine house and associated farm buildings were demolished in the early 1960s.
Foundation of the school
Margaret Gibson or Spier, of Whang House, the widow of Robert Spier of Marshalland and Cuff, was herself from a local family, and she had sons who predeceased her. John Spier of Cuff died in 1858 at the age of 28 in Largs, and his brother Andrew Spier of Marshalland had died before him. Before he died, John expressed a wish for a school to be founded with the inheritance which would have been his.Reid (2001), Page 96 By a disposition and settlement dated 19 March 1869, Margaret Gibson Spier put money in trust for the founding of a "ragged" or charitable school near Glasgow, and gave instructions that construction was to begin within a year of her death. She stipulated that the school should provide places for 24 children, who were not to have pauper or tradesmen parents and were to be of any religious denomination except for Roman Catholicism. Teachers and other staff were to be dismissed if they married, were to retire at sixty with no pension from the trust, and if sick were to pay for a teacher to cover their duties. No Roman Catholics were to be employed, and the Presbyterian minister of Beith was to make weekly visits of inspection.
When Margaret Spier died on 17 February 1870,The High Church, Beith. An Illustrated Historical Guide (1983), Appendix 2, p. 51 perhaps as the result of a carriage accident,Thomas & Grace Gilbert Windyhouse Farm (2010) there was £12,000 for the erection of the intended school.Francis H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (London: Caxton, 1903), p. 138David Pride A History of the Parish of Neilston (Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1910), pp. 132–133. She had also bought the lands of Bogston and Corshole from Charlotte Decker or Montgomerie in 1848, and these were part of the foundation endowment of Spier's School.Dobie (1816) She also left money for other charitable purposes, as recorded in the vestibule of Beith Kirk. In addition to the money for the school, she charged her lands of Cuff with a yearly payment of £25 to the Ministers of Beith Kirk to provide warm clothing and coals to the deserving poor of the town and parish. Locally Margaret Spier was known as 'Lady' Spier. She also appears to have wanted to build a hospital, however funds were not available from her estates for such a costly enterprise. After her death, Whang House was bought by a Thomas Miller.
John Thomas Rochead of Glasgow was to have been the architect of the school, and a very specific requirement was that 'Binny' stone for Edinburgh was to be used in the school's construction, so far as possible. William Brodie was to be the sculptor of the Spier memorial statues and an Italian sculpture of the 'Graces and two cupids', favourite of John Spier, was to be permanently housed in the Spier's school board room.
John Spier, Margaret's eldest surviving son, had the task of carrying out her wishes, and had different ideas. He seems to have intended that the school should also serve as a memorial to himself, and decided to site it in the parish of Beith.Spier's Trust. However, this led to disputes and delays, and an investigation by a Royal Commission, and a final plan emerged from that for a co-educational day school at Beith which would be equipped to take a small number of boarders. B. W. Cochran-Patrick of Ladyland & Woodside delivered his "Dedication Speech of the Spier School" on 28 April 1887, and in September 1887 the school's foundation stone was laid on site, in the presence of more than a thousand guests.Dane Love, Lost Ayrshire. Ayrshire's Lost Architectural Heritage (Birlinn Ltd. 2005, ) p. 171
School history
The school opened on 22 September 1888, with 140 pupils, mostly from North Ayrshire, and with Robert Bruce Lockhart, previously head of Waid Academy, as the first headmaster. Fees were charged, but free education was available to local children who passed a qualifying examination and were recommended by their schoolteachers.
The school administration was in the hands of the Lord Lieutenant of the County, seven representatives of the school boards, and the existing trustees as life governors, to be replaced by two heritors of the parish of Beith in due course.
The boarders were always a minor element, never more than fourteen. They lived in the Head Master's house and wore kilts on weekdays and Eton suits and hats on Sundays. Fees were 50 guineas for full-time boarders; 40 for weekly boarders; and 6 guineas per annum for day-scholars.Reid, Donald L. & Monahan, Isobel F. (1999). Yesterday's Beith. A Pictorial Guide. Beith : Duke of Edinburgh Award. . P. 79. The First World War of 1914 to 1918 and the shortage of domestic staff resulted in boarding at the school coming to an end for the duration of the war.
The boys were taught separately from the girls until 1893, when the extra costs of this forced a more liberal approach to emerge. In 1895, Dr J. A. Third took over from Lockhart as head. The school motto was "Quod verum, tutum", meaning What is true is safe. An initiation tradition for new boys at the senior school was to be thrown into the pond and then over the wall into Marshalland, known as being 'Ducked and Tossed'.
The murder of Mary Speir Gunn happened at Northbank Cottage, Portencross, in 1913. She was a granddaughter of Margaret Gibson Spier, and the murder remains unsolved to this day.
Dr Third retired in 1919, and later headmasters of the school and was succeeded briefly by Alexander Emslie (1919–1921) and then by Gilbert R. Mair (1921–1937).Reid, Donald L. (2000). Old Beith. Ochiltree : Stenlake. p. 31
The number on the school roll was 310 in 1933, and it reached a high point of over 350 after new classrooms were added. By 1932, however, the school was in financial difficulties, and in 1936, after a prolonged campaign, the county education authority took over the school.Reid, Donald L. & Monahan, Isobel F. (1999). Yesterday's Beith. A Pictorial Guide. Beith : Duke of Edinburgh Award. . P. 91.
In 1937, soon after the takeover by Ayrshire, a new headmaster, Robert R. Fairley, was appointed, and he remained in post until 1963, when he was succeeded by the school's last head, David K. Conn. In 1968, there were nineteen full-time staff and four itinerant teachers in the secondary department, and two in the junior school. The senior school had three houses, to which pupils belonged, Cuff, Spier's, and Marshalland.Gardner, Margaret (2008). Oral information from an ex pupil. Eglinton Archive.
The school closed on 30 June 1972, at the end of the summer term, due to the imminent opening of Garnock Academy at Kilbirnie, which took over the secondary pupils from Spier's, Kilbirnie Central, and Dalry High School. The Spier's School buildings became derelict and were eventually demolished in the 1980s.
Some of the ornamental stonework was recovered after demolition and lay near the staff car park at Garnock Academy, Kilbirnie; some of the stones were built into a commemorative seat. The Spier's school rector's table and chairs, together with a stained glass window and the John Spier statue, were also at Garnock Academy. In 2016, Garnock Academy also closed, to be replaced by the Garnock Community Campus at Longbar. Some of the Spier's stones have been moved to the Spier's School grounds.
The school buildings
The Barrmill Road entrance is stylistically of 17th century style, comparable to those at Moray House of 1628 in the Canongate, Edinburgh. The entrance is a C Listed structure, as are the boundary walls and the two other gates. The total length of the boundary walls is 937 metres.