page_title: Spier's School
section_title: Foundation of the school
hierarchical_section_title: Spier's School / Foundation of the school
caption_attribution_description: English: Spier's Institution feu disposition - handwritten copy. 1887.
context_page_description: Spier's school, at Beith, in North Ayrshire, Scotland was opened in 1888 and closed in 1972. The school, now demolished, was built using Ballochmyle red sandstone and was reminiscent of the ancient Glasgow University. The school motto was 'Quod verum tutum'. The gardens and woodlands are open to the public at all times.
  Sustrans National Route 7 at Kilbirnie Lochside is the nearest cycle-route access. The Barrmill Road entrance is on the bus route from Beith to Barrmill.
context_section_description: Margaret Gibson or Spier, of Whang House, the widow of Robert Spier of Marshalland and Cuff, was herself from a local family, and she had sons who predeceased her. John Spier of Cuff died in 1858 at the age of 28 in Largs, and his brother Andrew Spier of Marshalland had died before him. Before he died, John expressed a wish for a school to be founded with the inheritance which would have been his. By a disposition and settlement dated 19 March 1869, Margaret Gibson Spier put money in trust for the founding of a "ragged" or charitable school near Glasgow, and gave instructions that construction was to begin within a year of her death. She stipulated that the school should provide places for 24 children, who were not to have pauper or tradesmen parents and were to be of any religious denomination except for Roman Catholicism. Teachers and other staff were to be dismissed if they married, were to retire at sixty with no pension from the trust, and if sick were to pay for a teacher to cover their duties. No Roman Catholics were to be employed, and the Presbyterian minister of Beith was to make weekly visits of inspection.
  When Margaret Spier died on 17 February 1870, perhaps as the result of a carriage accident, there was £12,000 for the erection of the intended school. She had also bought the lands of Bogston and Corshole from Charlotte Decker or Montgomerie in 1848, and these were part of the foundation endowment of Spier's School. She also left money for other charitable purposes, as recorded in the vestibule of Beith Kirk. In addition to the money for the school, she charged her lands of Cuff with a yearly payment of £25 to the Ministers of Beith Kirk to provide warm clothing and coals to the deserving poor of the town and parish. Locally Margaret Spier was known as 'Lady' Spier. She also appears to have wanted to build a hospital, however funds were not available from her estates for such a costly enterprise. After her death, Whang House was bought by a Thomas Miller.
  John Thomas Rochead of Glasgow was to have been the architect of the school, and a very specific requirement was that 'Binny' stone for Edinburgh was to be used in the school's construction, so far as possible. William Brodie was to be the sculptor of the Spier memorial statues and an Italian sculpture of the 'Graces and two cupids', favourite of John Spier, was to be permanently housed in the Spier's school board room.
  John Spier, Margaret's eldest surviving son, had the task of carrying out her wishes, and had different ideas. He seems to have intended that the school should also serve as a memorial to himself, and decided to site it in the parish of Beith. However, this led to disputes and delays, and an investigation by a Royal Commission, and a final plan emerged from that for a co-educational day school at Beith which would be equipped to take a small number of boarders. B. W. Cochran-Patrick of Ladyland & Woodside delivered his "Dedication Speech of the Spier School" on 28 April 1887, and in September 1887 the school's foundation stone was laid on site, in the presence of more than a thousand guests.
caption: The Spier's Institution Disposition of 1869
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