st marys bishopbriggs re st marys industrial school.....

[AndrewP]

In the 1881 census, there is "Catholic Orphanage for Boys" at 72 Abercromby Street. On the list I see on Ancestry, there are about 100 inmates, plus a few staff. This is in registration district of Calton, Glasgow (644/4).

All the best,

AndrewP

[maceill]

Thanks for that, will look at the census for 1881, but my relative was a young girl ,the address on her death certificate was St Marys industrial school Abercromby street Glasgow, the informant was the head master . Another mystery to solve
once again thanks
maceill

[angusogg]

Angusogg here (in Australia.)

I noticed that there has been some traffic with regard to "The Marys" Bishopbriggs.

I have to confess that, I was sent there in 1951, evidently I was deemed by the existing society, at that time, to be" beyond parental control" (I constantly plunked the school): this was in the main, as a result of not having the "proper" school equipment, ie a Reeves 3b pencil for the use of (the one with the greyhound on the pencil)

The punishment for such lack of same, was to be given a taste of the Tawse each morning, for every day that I turned up without the pencil (which my family couldn't afford, (although I have to say that in hindsight, my father could visit the Kilicrankie pub each night, as he returned from his work , and also managed to have a bet on "the dogs, while so ensconced)
my answer to this daily abuse was, "bugger that" I aint going to attend the school(9 year old logic!!)

I was kept at St. Marys until my 15th birthday, Brother Paul was the head master at that time, a large and gentle, Irish man who in the main had the best interest of his charges in mind, but discipline was rigid, and a raw backside was often the only thing that you took to bed at night, the rest of the brothers all Irish to a man, were in the main, several sorts of maniacs.

We had to pick potatoes in the winter, and then up to the Smedley factory In Blairgowrie in the summer, not labouring at these events was not an option.

I would be curious to converse with any other "boy" who also had been incarcerated in this place.

I read with interest (in our local newspapers,) that the age of 'responsibility" in Scotland, has now been raised to 10 years of age, isn't "progress" a wonderful thing?

The memories which I "treasure" of the time I spent at "The Marys" were the old pipe Major, who taught us the pipes and drums, and the pipe band itself, also we had a fairly good boxing troupe.
Regards
AngusOgg

But it was, and still is, a sore point on my life's reflection, that a society, who was supposedly "cultured", had to resort to the virtual imprisonment of children, when it beggered the question, why was the Reeves 3b pencil set in such hard concrete

[maceill]

Thankyou for your info on St Marys and so sorry to hear the terrible things you have had to endure in that place. Know how you fell about not having the pens and other equipment[ that children of today take forgranted] , but i think it made me a stronger person and more tolerant of my fellow man
once again
thanks
maceill