St Joseph’s Church and School 1905

St. Joseph’s School situated in Glasgow Road opposite Stonefield Road. Built in 1878 and was used weekdays as a school and Sundays and Holy Days as a Chapel, replacing the Hall of Worship in Dixon’s Rows which was four house units converted into a church hall. The Church could accommodate 620 sittings.

The present-day St. Joseph’s R.C. Church was built next to the original in 1905 and can be seen in the background of this photo in relation to one another.

I was surprised that there are no more photos of the two buildings together. It was our friend William Ross, who pointed it out to me when I previously posted the ploughman photo.

From the left we have David Livingstone Memorial Church, St. Joseph’s R.C. Church and next, the St Joseph’s Church and School.

However, after a long and intensive search, I came across this unique photo.

Thomas Hamilton-Hailes: St Joseph’s was where I had my first day at school in 1959 … and I was a prod. It took till dinner time before the Police could calm my mother by saying they’d found me: I’d got fed up waiting for her to get ready and wandered off from Fernslea Avenue to the only school that I knew about; and where all my neighbourhood friends went to.

I still have a perfect recollection of that wonderful first morning at school … and of the two “Blantyr Polis” comin’ in to take me home to my frantic mammy.

After the term break, the catholic school started back a week before the prods and so there I was sitting outside the door in my wee Royal blue short trouser suit ready for my first day at school … which should have been the Nessies.

Probably thinking I was a big boy now that I was going to school, I joined my mates and walked off down to school with them. In their classroom the teacher wanted to know who I was and various answers such as “That’s wee Tom from downstairs frae us,” didn’t help her much.

A priest was brought in to help sort out who this strange wee boy was but he didn’t recognise me as one of his flock.

The desks were amazing; you could lift the desktop up and ,,, Lo … there was a wee blackboard with chalk: I’m loving this. We had to close our desks and put our heads down on our crossed arms on the desktop; to keep quite while the teacher and the priest left the classroom to try and sort this out with the head master … who might have been responsible in the end for getting in touch with the police.

I took me a long time to get used to the Ness’s … mainly because their wee desks didn’t have that great wee blackboard but rather a fixed top with a silly wee shelf under it. Always treasured my first day at school.

Dixon Street, Hall Street and Park Street made up the three Dixon’s Rows; My Grannie and my sister both lived on Dixon Street, but I never knew the origin of the “Hall” in Hall Street … till now.

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