SCHOOLING IN BELHELVIE

Origins of the parish school:

The first Belhelvie parish school can be dated to 1628, before the first Act of Parliament. The first schoolmasters came to work before 1633, although we do not have their names. The school suffered during the Montrosian campaigns of 1644-5 and again in 1651 during the English invasion, as the unsettled times forced its closure on both occasions. The job of schoolmaster was not comfortable at the best of times. In 1637 Mr William Cheyne, who was not only the schoolmaster but also the reader and session clerk for the kirk, complained that he would not be able to continue his services unless his stipend was increased. Indeed it was decided that Cheyne would be provided with land and his annual salary would be increased by £70. The Belhelvie kirk session records reveal a genuine concern for the education of the parish children. The need for a schoolmaster who could teach 'grammar, musick and arithmetic' was noted on 14^th May 1676, and by the 21^st they had found such a teacher in John Gordon, master of arts, who promised to teach music as well as the other subjects.

Relations between the parish and their schoolmasters were not always smooth: in both 1699 and 1717, Belhelvie schoolmasters were dismissed for inefficiency or offences against morality! Later in the century, in 1778, the Reverend James Forsyth accused the schoolmaster, another John Gordon, of not earning his keep. Gordon had already served for 33 years and apparently the rest of the parishioners defended their schoolmaster vigorously. However, the situation led to a visit from the Presbytery, as education was the concern of the church, and Gordon agreed to an examination of the school, but protested against the questioning of his qualifications as he had been employed since 1745. Apparently the Act of Parliament allowing a Presbytery to examine a potential schoolmaster did not allow them to do so once he had been admitted to his position and started to draw a salary. Despite Forsyth’s accusation that Gordon did not undertake his teaching duties properly, he continued in his post until 1805 after some 60 years of service.

Belhelvie parish was once well-served for educational purposes. There were four schools in the parish at one time, with 120 students, where subjects such as Greek, Latin, Geography, Mathematics, Navigation, Arithmetic, Writing, Reading and English were offered. By the early 19^th century it was said that very few in the parish could not read, and many could write. The Presbytery inspected Balmedie school in 1802 and found 58 students, mostly studying English and writing skills, but also learning Latin and arithmetic. Just the next year the fee for Latin, writing and arithmetic was fixed at 5s. per quarter.

Reforms in the provision of schooling began in the early nineteenth century: in 1808 the minimum wage for a schoolmaster was fixed at £16 13s. and 4d, along with the provision of a house and a garden, although it appears that the Belhelvie master’s salary was raised from £7 4s. to £18. In 1825 the recipient of this sum was Mr Francis Hay, who had been appointed as the parish schoolmaster. The minutes of the kirk session reveal that over half of the salary was payable from the Belhelvie estates. These salaries continued to rise, from £25 13s. and 3 3/8d in 1829 (although Belhelvie schoolmasters received £27 or more), to £40 per annum in 1834 when a bill was passed to regulate and increase the availability of parochial schools as only one out of eleven children in Aberdeenshire was at school. In 1836 Belhelvie put out a notice seeking contractors to build a new school. Shortly before this another school in the parish was in serious disrepair as in 1828 the kirk treasurer noted that Ironrieves school was no longer safe for children to attend. However, there was no shortage of schools in the parish as the school at Whitecairns was opened in September 1853, and Belhelvie parish school was reopened the following month.

As with the often lengthy periods of service found amongst the parish ministers, Belhelvie schoolmasters sometimes lasted almost half a century in their positions. Apparently it was common for parish schoolmasters to also function as deacons, sextons, clerks and precentors for the church, and the poor salaries schoolmasters received often forced further employment. For example, William Cheyne was appointed schoolmaster, reader and session-clerk in 1635. John Gordon took over as schoolmaster in 1676. Three parish ministers had initially acted as schoolmasters for the parish. They were Reverend George Innes in the early seventeenth century, Reverend Thomas Ragg in the early eighteenth century, and Reverend William Thomson in the early nineteenth century. Yet another minister, Reverend Adam Smith, was a teacher for a short time in Belhelvie parish, before 1819. He was apparently also assistant-minister at New Deer. Reverend Francis Hay served 24 years as the Schoolmaster of Belhelvie until he died in 1846, and was buried in old Belhelvie kirkyard. He was succeeded by Mr John Jack of Lonmay who retired in 1893 after 48 years as headmaster at Balmedie.

In the early years of parish education, schooling was neither mandatory nor was it free. It was not until 1889 that free education was introduced to the public, although social pressures meant that most children did attend school before this point. Ties between kirk and school were well-established, and the kirk session was responsible for paying poor children’s fees. By the eighteenth century almost all Scottish parishes had at least one parish school, and so the schoolmaster’s house joined the manse and glebe as an integral feature of every parish. In the nineteenth century the General Assembly undertook an investigation into the Scottish education system and found that in some respects it was lacking, particularly as regards the salary of schoolmasters. This had been a sore point for most schoolmasters since the establishment of the parish school system – initially they had received as little as £5 11s. 1 and 1/3d. in the late seventeenth century, which was gradually upgraded to £70 by 1861. Already in 1854 the minister, Reverend Thomson, summoned all Belhelvie heritors of at least £100 Scots valued rent to agree on the amount of the salary to be valid for the next 25 years. On that occasion the three main heritors, Reverend Thomson, Colonel Lumsden and General Turner decided that £27 per annum was sufficient for the schoolmaster, albeit pending written consent from absent heritors.

One of the most important influences on education in Scotland was the provision of the Dick Bequest to supplement schoolmasters’ salaries in the Aberdeenshire area (it also applied to Banff and Moray). This Bequest was established by James Dick of Forres who had made his fortune in Jamaica, and left £4000 to be distributed annually for the assistance of parish schoolmasters. In order to receive this money schoolmasters were required to be examined for university-standard proficiency in Latin and Greek, and endure regular inspections by representatives of the Bequest. There was also the problem of elderly schoolmasters who did not want to give up the benefits of their position – a house and a garden – for fear of becoming homeless and being unable to support themselves. In 1841 the Kirk session records noted the unwillingness of Mr Hay, the retiring schoolmaster to give up his house to the incoming teacher. It was then decided that retiring masters would be allowed to keep some of their salary from the heritors and £12 from the Dick Bequest. The new incumbent got the fees, house and garden, an allowance from the Bequest and a minimum of £35 salary from the parish heritors where the parish only had one school, or £25 where there were two schools. By 1872 the Kirk of Scotland lost its control over education when it became a state-run concern. In 1877 there was one 'Board' school where John Jack was the schoolmaster, and one girls’ school with Elizabeth Forrest as the teacher for Belhelvie parish. It was around this time that school boards became compulsory and the regulation of parish schools became their concern, and by 1889 education began to become a free service.

Although Balmedie primary school is now the only local educational unit in the area, there had been four schools, accommodating between 80 and 133 pupils, until 1948. These were Menie, Craigie, Wester Hatton and Balmedie. During World War II these numbers were bolstered by evacuee children, such as the 17 Glasgow children admitted to Balmedie School in 1939. Menie School was the first to close, in 1949, due to a continuous decrease in enrolment. The remaining students were transferred to Foveran and Balmedie schools. Craigie and Wester Hatton primaries remained operational until the late 1950s, and the Wester Hatton premises have since become the Potterton Community Centre. The old Balmedie school had closed by 1975 when new premises were provided at the larger present school in Balmedie village. For secondary education students have the choice of travelling to Ellon or into Aberdeen to attend local academies.