Inverkeithing, Roods Road, Inverkeithing Junior Primary School

NT18SW 320 12965 83064

For co-located Senior Primary School (NT 12951 83011), see NT18SW 321.

Single storey, 10-bay, H-plan school. Squared coursed whinstone to E (principal elevation) and E end of N and S (side elevations); snecked rubble to N, S and W; droved ashlar quoins, rybats and dressings; ashlar basecourse; chamfered window openings; hoodmoulded windows and doors to E.

The Inverkeithing schools are a landmark set on a prominent site high above the burgh´s main street. A grammar school was established in Church Street, Inverkeithing in 1819 (demolished, now the site of war memorial). However, shortly after the 1872 Education Scotland Act, a new primary school was erected in Roods Road in 1874, after which time the grammar school was used for infant classes. The architect, Andrew Scobie was a relatively well-known architect to the Dunfermline area and had already completed a number of important commissions, including Bruce Street Hall (1866). Scobie was simultaneously awarded two school commissions in 1874 and as well as designing the modest school at Inverkeithing, he also produced a more overtly Gothic design for Milesmark Primary School, Rumblingwell, Dunfermline. Scobie specialised in public commissions and when his son joined him after the turn of the 20th century, their practice would continue to undertake more school commissions, including that at Brock Street, North Queensferry. However the commission to design the second school on the Roods Road site was granted to Glasgow architects, Brydon & Robertson who were specialists in providing large, functional commercial buildings including industrial works, schools and hospitals, including the Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital in Rottenrow (1903). Inverkeithing was a thriving burgh in the early part of the 20th century due to the development of Rosyth Dockyards, Caldwell's Papermill and the advent of the Forth Bridge. Therefore in 1911, a new primary school was necessary to provide for the rapidly increasing population. (Historic Scotland)