Crossroads and Characters

20. HIGHER LEARNING.

Up the hill from Dunning on the way to Newton of Pitcairns is a little school complex where many a Dunning youngster got a first taste of education. On the right in this picture of 1914, is what is now often described in a delightful phrase as 'the old Infant School' built in 1838, with a schoolhouse attached. It began as a Girls' School (presumably boys were educated elsewhere, likely at the school in St. Serfs kirkyard). In 1847 the building on the left was constructed as the Free School. Until that time lessons had to be paid for. Later the Free School became the Industrial School at which cookery and woodworking were taught. Until after the Second War, this Cookery as it came to be called also served as a soup kitchen to which all pupils in the village used to come for hot lunches.