THE HISTORY
Greenmill Primary School was the main primary school of the small town of Cumnock in the deep dark depths of East Ayrshire. It also happened to be my former primary school so this was a very exciting explore for me and allowed me to share the spoken history of the building which often enough doesn't get covered by the books.
The current building was built in 2 phases on the site of Hillside House (1846), nothing remains of the old house bar the extensive playground which was where the gardens were and (possibly?) the walls facing onto the Strand which look a lot older than the school does. By the 20th century, a boom in Cumnock's population had resulted in overcrowding at the main Parish School, to rectify this Hillside House, directly across Barrhill Road from the Parish School, was bought in 1908 and renovated by the local school board then opened as 'Cumnock Higher Grade School' in 1911.
The former Hillside House of 1846
By the 1920s overcrowding had again became an issue so an annex was built in 1924 then opened in 1926. This annex is the oldest current part of the building and included a small gymnasium and a tiny swimming pool.
Then in 1927 the school board saw it fit to rename the school to 'Cumnock Academy' with a school rol of ~900 pupils.
The school after the first phase was built but still with the original Hillside House
The second phase was opened in 1939, forming a U-Plan across the former Hillside House and thus marked the final extension of the school it is not noticeably more modern than the first phase despite being built over a decade after it.
The school with both phases built
The last major change to the school was in 1969 when the original Cumnock Academy swapped buildings with the original Greenmill Primary School to it's (now demolished) site on Ayr Road. Thus the building became it's final incarnation as Greenmill Primary School for a further 50 years until 2022 when the building closed as a school with the opening of Lochnorris Primary School on Auchinleck Road.
Now for the meat and potatoes...
PHASE 1 (Opened 1926)
Starting at the main entrance (not how I got in) we see a pretty dire scene, unfortunately the local neds got in before me so there is a lot of vandalism across the school. Fortunately not enough that it's not a complete historical write off but enough that it detracts a bit from the immersion. Also absolutely no power so don't expect the best lighting in photos. The school only has boarded up windows on the bottom floor so it ends up balancing out anyways.
The classrooms on this floor all look generally like this with nice glazed windows looking into the main corridor. From my memory these classrooms were disused even when I was there in the late 00s/early 10s. Only used once to watch a massive old TV around 2010.
This dilapidated room was the nursery which I myself only have vague memories of, the classroom is much bigger than all the others in the first phase so I can only assume this was some kind of 'techy' workshop originally. Note also the 70s esque fibreglass ceiling, a lot of the older rooms had these and I can only assume it was because the hanging fluorescent lights which are common in the halls and other classrooms had a tendency to fall off. This happened on more than one ocasion that I personally remember.
The gymnasium (gym hall as we knew it) was in surprisingly decent knick, the changing and storage rooms too. I wasn't going to chance it on the monkey bars one last time but it was a really good to see it not completely slaughtered by vandals. The changing rooms I don't have as good of a memory of, they were always a sort of out of bounds area as a kid because no one ever used them to change (we would just do it in the classroom). The different looking door at the far end of the last photo is the entrance to the aforementioned swimming pool which will be covered next.
Here is the pretty pathetic swimming pool. I'm not old enough to know how this was even used for learning as it is simply so small, I'm going to assume this was closed in 1969 when the schools swapped but this is not grounded in any evidence. There was also a disturbing rumour that someone drowned in here in the 1930s and that's why it was closed however I again have no evidence for this in any newspaper articles from the time. Given that these were primary aged kids making these rumours I'd hazard a guess that this is just made up.
The first phase stairs are one of my most favourite places in the building, the cast iron railings are lovely and the checkered tiles add more to its aesthetics. The condition and lighting gets a lot better up here with no boarded windows and plenty of lovely original Interwar detailing. The little nook is directly behind the first photo and served as a small cloakroom for the classes on this floor.
This toilet was a surprise to find and was something I genuinely did not know existed, this room shows what the school generally would have looked like as built. The mirror is a simple yet lovely find too.
This is what the top first floor classrooms look like, there are 3 (iirc) all empty with their own cupboard. The chipping paint is also interesting, I think this was the original paint used in the years as Cumnock Academy as lots of old doors have a pastel blue paint under the coats of cream/green.
Also on this floor of phase 1 is the aptly named 'blue room'. This was used as a conference/meeting room and had a nice carpet and, now sadly gone, comfy seats around a huge table, it is one of two big rooms in phase 1 up here that weren't proper classrooms.
And with that we jump a decade forward up the stairs to 1939 in the phase 2 extension...
PHASE 2 (Opened 1939)
This section is noticeably darker as the corridors are now in the middle of the rooms and there are a lot more boarded up windows. The panneling has also changed to thicker boards and there is now some nice coving on the ceiling.
The building also changes to 3 stories at this point with a lower floor holding the canteen, kitchen and boiler room. The stairs have very nice brass handrails yet I still find the cast iron railings more appealing.
The main toilets were up on this floor I suspect as this is probably the most central location to the building. The toilets are (surprisingly?) the most modern part of the building having been modernised at some point before the late 00s to this condition. It's very easy to tell which one is which with the almost cartoonish panelling and it certainly adds a more childlike aura to the building which before I feel like had a very traditional aesthetic to it.
The classrooms along the straight edge here take this appearance with large windows along the edge facing towards the town and small skylight window on the edge facing out above the corridor. These are also smaller classrooms having no attached cupboard and being more of a square shape than rectangular.
This was the library when I went to Greenmill. The graffiti-esque mural always felt quite out of place, even with a lack of bookshelves. I'm unsure if this was the original library for the school.
Despite looking quite unasuming, I was very dissapointed with this dead end, there used to be a massive timber structure in the middle which formed the largest cloakroom in the building.
Here we see the largest classrooms in the phase 2 extension, they are also the largest classrooms in the school. These were known quite simply as the 'big classes' due to their size and that they were always used for the primary 6/7 classes and thus had the 'big people' in them. I don't know if there is a reason why these classes are so much bigger than the other classes but if I was to guess, it would be due to the large assembly hall underneath.
Greenmill Primary School was the main primary school of the small town of Cumnock in the deep dark depths of East Ayrshire. It also happened to be my former primary school so this was a very exciting explore for me and allowed me to share the spoken history of the building which often enough doesn't get covered by the books.
The current building was built in 2 phases on the site of Hillside House (1846), nothing remains of the old house bar the extensive playground which was where the gardens were and (possibly?) the walls facing onto the Strand which look a lot older than the school does. By the 20th century, a boom in Cumnock's population had resulted in overcrowding at the main Parish School, to rectify this Hillside House, directly across Barrhill Road from the Parish School, was bought in 1908 and renovated by the local school board then opened as 'Cumnock Higher Grade School' in 1911.
The former Hillside House of 1846
By the 1920s overcrowding had again became an issue so an annex was built in 1924 then opened in 1926. This annex is the oldest current part of the building and included a small gymnasium and a tiny swimming pool.
Then in 1927 the school board saw it fit to rename the school to 'Cumnock Academy' with a school rol of ~900 pupils.
The school after the first phase was built but still with the original Hillside House
The second phase was opened in 1939, forming a U-Plan across the former Hillside House and thus marked the final extension of the school it is not noticeably more modern than the first phase despite being built over a decade after it.
The school with both phases built
The last major change to the school was in 1969 when the original Cumnock Academy swapped buildings with the original Greenmill Primary School to it's (now demolished) site on Ayr Road. Thus the building became it's final incarnation as Greenmill Primary School for a further 50 years until 2022 when the building closed as a school with the opening of Lochnorris Primary School on Auchinleck Road.
Now for the meat and potatoes...
PHASE 1 (Opened 1926)
Starting at the main entrance (not how I got in) we see a pretty dire scene, unfortunately the local neds got in before me so there is a lot of vandalism across the school. Fortunately not enough that it's not a complete historical write off but enough that it detracts a bit from the immersion. Also absolutely no power so don't expect the best lighting in photos. The school only has boarded up windows on the bottom floor so it ends up balancing out anyways.
The classrooms on this floor all look generally like this with nice glazed windows looking into the main corridor. From my memory these classrooms were disused even when I was there in the late 00s/early 10s. Only used once to watch a massive old TV around 2010.
This dilapidated room was the nursery which I myself only have vague memories of, the classroom is much bigger than all the others in the first phase so I can only assume this was some kind of 'techy' workshop originally. Note also the 70s esque fibreglass ceiling, a lot of the older rooms had these and I can only assume it was because the hanging fluorescent lights which are common in the halls and other classrooms had a tendency to fall off. This happened on more than one ocasion that I personally remember.
The gymnasium (gym hall as we knew it) was in surprisingly decent knick, the changing and storage rooms too. I wasn't going to chance it on the monkey bars one last time but it was a really good to see it not completely slaughtered by vandals. The changing rooms I don't have as good of a memory of, they were always a sort of out of bounds area as a kid because no one ever used them to change (we would just do it in the classroom). The different looking door at the far end of the last photo is the entrance to the aforementioned swimming pool which will be covered next.
Here is the pretty pathetic swimming pool. I'm not old enough to know how this was even used for learning as it is simply so small, I'm going to assume this was closed in 1969 when the schools swapped but this is not grounded in any evidence. There was also a disturbing rumour that someone drowned in here in the 1930s and that's why it was closed however I again have no evidence for this in any newspaper articles from the time. Given that these were primary aged kids making these rumours I'd hazard a guess that this is just made up.
The first phase stairs are one of my most favourite places in the building, the cast iron railings are lovely and the checkered tiles add more to its aesthetics. The condition and lighting gets a lot better up here with no boarded windows and plenty of lovely original Interwar detailing. The little nook is directly behind the first photo and served as a small cloakroom for the classes on this floor.
This toilet was a surprise to find and was something I genuinely did not know existed, this room shows what the school generally would have looked like as built. The mirror is a simple yet lovely find too.
This is what the top first floor classrooms look like, there are 3 (iirc) all empty with their own cupboard. The chipping paint is also interesting, I think this was the original paint used in the years as Cumnock Academy as lots of old doors have a pastel blue paint under the coats of cream/green.
Also on this floor of phase 1 is the aptly named 'blue room'. This was used as a conference/meeting room and had a nice carpet and, now sadly gone, comfy seats around a huge table, it is one of two big rooms in phase 1 up here that weren't proper classrooms.
And with that we jump a decade forward up the stairs to 1939 in the phase 2 extension...
PHASE 2 (Opened 1939)
This section is noticeably darker as the corridors are now in the middle of the rooms and there are a lot more boarded up windows. The panneling has also changed to thicker boards and there is now some nice coving on the ceiling.
The building also changes to 3 stories at this point with a lower floor holding the canteen, kitchen and boiler room. The stairs have very nice brass handrails yet I still find the cast iron railings more appealing.
The main toilets were up on this floor I suspect as this is probably the most central location to the building. The toilets are (surprisingly?) the most modern part of the building having been modernised at some point before the late 00s to this condition. It's very easy to tell which one is which with the almost cartoonish panelling and it certainly adds a more childlike aura to the building which before I feel like had a very traditional aesthetic to it.
The classrooms along the straight edge here take this appearance with large windows along the edge facing towards the town and small skylight window on the edge facing out above the corridor. These are also smaller classrooms having no attached cupboard and being more of a square shape than rectangular.
This was the library when I went to Greenmill. The graffiti-esque mural always felt quite out of place, even with a lack of bookshelves. I'm unsure if this was the original library for the school.
Despite looking quite unasuming, I was very dissapointed with this dead end, there used to be a massive timber structure in the middle which formed the largest cloakroom in the building.
Here we see the largest classrooms in the phase 2 extension, they are also the largest classrooms in the school. These were known quite simply as the 'big classes' due to their size and that they were always used for the primary 6/7 classes and thus had the 'big people' in them. I don't know if there is a reason why these classes are so much bigger than the other classes but if I was to guess, it would be due to the large assembly hall underneath.
