16th June 1962
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26th May 1962
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The letter below is reproduced as "What we think it says".
If you can decipher more, please send us corrections.
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Schoolhouse
Dunphail
25 - 8 - 55
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My dear Mrs. Fraser
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I really don't know how to explain, to think that
I would "let down" a parent so exemplary and as cooperative
as you have always been fills me with shame. I can only think
that I have not yet got back to school I don't think I have ever forgot
to grant a favour before.
I certainly did tell Edith and Jamie in the morning that they would get
off. I asked what time you wanted them, and I am almost sure I
told them to remind me. I nearly always say to the children watch
the time --( ?????? ???? ??? )-- I forget.
Naturally with so many classes and so much to do, my eyes are seldom on the
clock, and often it is quite a shock to me to realise that it is 4pm.
I worried about my omission all evening and hoped against hope that the lady
---( whole paragraph is unreadable )---
Jamie stood at the front of the ---( ???? )---
why he did not remind me as he has always done so, is a mystery to me
- as insofar as the fact that " nothing registered " in me!
but that's that, and I can only repeat that I am very sorry -
thank goodness it's my first offence!
I am glad to learn from the children that "Dad" is getting on so well,
and feeling quite fit they say. The
---( ???? )--- will be rather a problem I daresay, we always
want what we can't get.
What awful weather we are having! but the weather forecast gave promise
of improvement - here's hoping.
With kind regards
yours sincerely
Mrs. G Milne.
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Notes from pupils.
Ray Henley.
I attended Dunphail School during and just after the war
years. My mother ( Christina Russell) was born in Dunphail and is the fifth child
from the left in the middle row in the photo 'Happy days in a little Moray School'.
Her sister Eve (late of Tillyglens) is standing with Mr Cranstons hand on
her shoulder. They were sisters of John, Bobby and Eric (Frederick)
Russell who are in the class of 1928 photo.
My mother moved to London to work (as did three
other sisters, Alice, Meg and Emily) and later married and lived in Ascot,
Berkshire. John, Bob and Frederick also settled in Ascot after demob from
the armed services at the end of the war.
My father was killed in 1940 during a bombing raid. After this, my mother and I
spent extended period in Dunphail with my grand parents who lived in the Station
Cottages. I was put to school in Dunphail during these periods.
I have fond memories of being taught to knit a pair of slippers in school. This was
a bit strange for a young English boy!. The girls had to knit socks for the war
effort to be sent to the troops.
At assembly we had to sing hymns and invariably a Scottish song. The one I remember
most is 'A Hundred Pipers and all'. I think in the last verse there is a line where
the 'English run awa awa'. At this point every one would turn and point at me.
My grandfather had worked on the railway and I just loved to play on the station
platform. (Only five trains a day, four passenger and one goods). I remember placing
old pennies on the line just before a train pulled in. After the train had pulled
out we would retrieve them and they would now be twice the size.
Ray Henley, Ascot. 12th Jan. 2009
Janet McCarraher (nee Mackay).
I have just been introduced to the Dunphail website by Jane Mcpherson
now Yeadon.
She was our neighbour at Tombain her mother Elizabeth McPherson and Dod.
In 1950, Jane, Elizabeth and I walked daily to school having no transport where Miss Milne was
head teacher. Her sister used to bring in hot cocoa to put on the stove in the centre of
the room for us at playtime. The outside toilets were cold! The lunches cooked in the little
kitchen outside were always warm and filling. The boys used to dig the garden for Miss Milne
while we did sewing.
I remember her coming in the day the KIng died having changed from
her normal wear to full black when she told us of his death and then listening to the funeral
service on the radio which was transmitted from her house attached to the school.
Education was good - we learned our tables and helped the little ones younger than ourselves.
Miss Milne could wield the strap and I think poor Jimmy Coutts felt it quite frequently.
By the way Jimmy was an excellent knitter and knitted lovely Fairisle.
On our walk home we used to stop on the way for a piece and jam at a cottage just down from our
house and I cannot remember the lady's name but the piece and jam was good! We used to play
all the way home and I remember getting into trouble because we took so long.
In the snow sometimes we got a lift in a lorry or passing road mans truck!
Mr Pozzi was the stationmaster and it was good to be able to wait in the office for the train -
warm and to be able to pull the levers for the line and sometimes even to hold out the key for
the driver to collect. His daughter Doreen died in the hospital in Forres and I remember seeing
her there as I was suffering from pneumonia. My father used to play draughts with Mr Pozzi.
Mr Garden was the minister and my mother played the organ.
Janet McCarraher (Mackay) 22nd January 2018
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Edinkillie School, pre-1867
The portion sticking out on the right was the headmasters bedroom.
The original small classroom and cloakroom at the rear were demolished in 1929.
Edinkillie School, 'New' classroom completed in 1874
The original small classroom and cloakroom were demolished in 1929.
The bedroom and adjacent front porch were removed in 1934 when another class
room was added, which gave Dunphail School the outline it has today.
Note the stepped floor, pupils at the rear could see too.
There would have been much more light, but until central
heating was installed, a lot more difficult to heat.
Nowadays there is a second level above the 'Archway' porch.
I haven't been able to find out when it was added.
How many 6x6 inch slates on these roofs ? Was this the
inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne when he wrote 'The house of the seven gables' ?
Edinkillie School, a very old photograph.
This picture is the central portion of a photograph given to
me by Bette Murray a former resident of Dunphail, now living in Delta, British
Columbia. The original photo was taken by the late Charles M. Morrison, son of
the late Rev. John Morrison of Edinkillie Manse. (Interestingly enough, Isobel
Morrison, the youngest of four siblings, appears in the class photo 1928.)
I've done a bit of checking on the various building works that went on around
that time and I would estimate that photograph was taken no later than 1928.
The original classroom that extended to the rear was demolished in 1929 and a
new 2 floor extension was completed in April 1931. This had cloakrooms and sinks
on the ground floor a bathroom and bedroom on the upper floor.
Incidentally it was about this time that outside toilets along the railway wall,
were "modernised", they continued to be used into the mid 1950s.
In 1930 (I think) a second floor was added above the porch creating another
small bedroom.
In the period 1932 to June 1934, the bedroom on the ground floor was demolished
along with the entrance porch and a new larger classroom was built onto the
front of the 1867 classroom.
We can be sure of the completion dates of the constuction works because the builders drew
plaques on the roof beams listing the main workers and dates of the work.
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