Going To Kinellar School

A Memory of Kinellar.

My family lived in Kinellar (Blackburn) before we emigrated to New Zealand in 1959. My sister and I went to Kinellar School, and my Dad, Bob Forbes, also attended the same school when he was a lad and has often talked about his schooldays there. I still have my Primary II report card and I remember my teacher Miss Brown and the Headmaster (or Dominie as it's called in that part of the world) was Mr Massie. We lived just a couple of doors away from school so it was just a quick walk from home. I was in the Kinellar Brownies as well, our Brown Owl was Hettie Kirkpatrick, and I remember my sister and I being presented with the gift of a bible by the Brownies when we left to start a new life on the other side of the world. My granny and grandad, John and Marjory (nee Beedie) Forbes lived just down the road and I used to love visiting them. My Granny was a wonderful cook. We lived across the road from the park and used to run across the road to go on the swings. I remember, too, going to visit Sandy and Lizzie Barrack at their farm at Doonbye. Kinellar has certainly changed over the years, it is so much more built up and busy but many landmarks remain, like the Leys Hotel, and of course the countryside is still as beautiful as it ever was; we used to love going up to Caskie Ben and running around, and catching tadpoles in the burn. Oh happy days!!

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