Cold Winters...
Susanne in Ottawa sent us "a photo, which my Mum sent to me, along
with others of my childhood in Ayr, of the River Ayr, FROZEN OVER
and what looks like quite a bit of snow on top of it.
It's a photo
of my Mother, brother Tom, (A Former Holmston Pupil), and myself
standing on the middle of the River Ayr.
I'm not sure which year
it would be but since I have a brother born in 1948, I would say it
is before then, else he would be in the photo also.
I'm sure some
of your older former pupils could come up with a date!!"
We'll be interested to hear... 1947 was a very cold winter in many
parts of Britain, so it may have been in that year.
All this is strange for people living in Ayr now. The River Ayr
hasn't frozen for quite a few years, probably because of Global Warming etc.
But other Former Pupils remember it happening more than once...
From 1935-41 - "I can well remember six of us, in a half circle, getting the belt from the Headmaster for daring to go down
to the 'Nether Mill' at the foot of the Mill Brae to watch the breaking up of the ice on the River Ayr,
after he had expressly forbade anyone to go near the Dam. Unfortunately we were 'cliped' by the 'Janny'.
He was quite right, of course, but we never spoke to the 'Janny' for weeks."
- Jim Fairlie, 1935-41.
From 1941 or later, perhaps at the same time as Susanne - "While growing up in Ayr, I wandered wide and freely and
found it a place of endless fascination. I often visited Burns
Cottage which in those days cost 6d to enter, spent hours at the
docks looking at the Irish coal ships, borrowed books from the
Carnegie Library, skated on the River Ayr in winter and generally
enjoyed myself. - David McRobbie, (evacuated to Holmston from Glasgow, 1941).