Ashfield Primary School – Achnamara Village 1953 and 1963
The photograph is courtesy of Fiona Green and is thought to have been taken in 1953. Many of the children had moved to the village after 1951 when the building work of the timber Forestry Commission houses was completed.
Fiona recalls
“The older children travelled daily to Bellanoch about five miles away sometime after 1954 when the small primary school became overcrowded. A new primary school was built in Achnamara village about 1956/7”.
The people are named as follows:
1. Miss McVean
2. John Kavanagh
3. John Campbell
4. ?
5. Marjory Holmes
6. Rena Ferguson (aunt of No 14)
7. Jean Macdonald
8. Evelyn Peat
9. Samuel Doak
10. ? Begg
11. Alma Souden
12. Brenda Murie
13. Lily Macdonald
14. Joy Guthrie
15. Fiona Shaw
16. Mary Macdonald
17. Anne Graham
18. Ronnie Guthrie
19. Alistair Graham
20. ? Horrocks
21. Tommy Angus
22. ? Diver
23. Allan Morrison
24. ? Diver
Any missing names would be very welcome and also any name spelling corrections.
Fiona adds “There is a photograph in a book I have of the total number of primary pupils, seven, at old Ashfield school prior to Achnamara village completion and the influx of new primary pupils. No's 3, 5, 7 & 16 from the 1953/4 photograph above are also in this earlier school photo.
Marjory Holmes (No 5 above) wrote a book about her childhood and this is where the school photo of the seven children is located.
The MacDonald girls were sisters and lived very close to the school at the farm bungalow at Ashfield farm as their dad was a shepherd there”.
In addition to the above added in Oct 2015 is a school photograph taken in 1963 sent by Minnie MacDonald to Fiona Green and forwarded to here. The photo and names list can be seen in the attached PDF link below.
Fiona says:
"The girl on the extreme right, Minnie MacDonald is the person who sent the image to me. Her three older sisters, Jean, Lily and Mary MacDonald are in the 1953 Old Ashfield School photograph above. The school photograph taken in 1963 was of nearly all the children whose fathers worked in Knapdale forest and lived within the village apart from the three Livingston children, Jeffrey, James and Anne who lived at Seafield croft just less than a half mile before Achnamara village. Their father Jimmy did work on a winch in Knapdale forest with my husband for a few years. He worked full time in the forest and worked the croft in the evenings and weekends. Some older village lads would help him at haymaking at the weekend as he had grazing at Balure about a mile up behind Achnamara village.
The other boy not living in the village was Archie-John McVicar who lived at Garnagrenach croft about three miles before Achnamara village, beside the now famous beaver site. Archie-John's father worked with his own horses in the forest and latterly there was a store at Garnagrenach he managed.
There were eight Hepburn siblings, five of them in the 1963 photograph, their father worked at the sawmill at Cairnbaan. The family moved to Cairnbaan when a house became available".
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Groups of people