[88432] Quarrier's Village : School

Quarrier's Village, Kilmacolm, Inverclyde.

The Orphan Homes of Scotland.

The School & Schoolhouse, 1891.

Unlisted.

To the Glory of God and in loving memory of Sara Abercromby wife of William Houldsworth.

 

The village was founded as the Orphan Homes of Scotland in 1876 by Glasgow shoe-maker and philanthropist William Quarrier (1829-1903).

 

Quarrier was born in Greenock in 1829. After his father died, his family moved to Glasgow. Aged just seven, William began working as a pin maker, and at eight, he was an apprentice shoemaker. He went on to become a successful shoe merchant, owning several shops in Glasgow.

 

In 1876, William purchased land at Nittingshill Farm near Bridge of Weir. He worked with architect Robert Alexander Bryden (1841-1906) to plan the Orphan Homes, and building work on the first cottage began the following year. The Orphan Homes of Scotland opened on 17 September 1878, with two cottages and a central building which served as a school and church.

 

Work on the homes continued steadily, and the village grew to include almost 40 cottages, a school, workshops, Mount Zion Church and a training ship where boys could learn skills for a career in the navy.

 

William Quarrier died in October 1903, and his wife Isabella died the following year. Their loss was deeply mourned by everyone at the Orphan Homes, and they were buried in the churchyard at Mount Zion Church.

 

Each of the residential houses built in Quarrier's Village were to an individual design, with donors having a large influence in the style in which their cottages were cast, and also the buildings' names. As such, the village is an unusual mix of Gothic, French, Old English, Scottish baronial and Italian. The overall plan of the village is of a more English style than is typical in the area, with a parkland and village green-type layout. Only three houses in the village can be directly traced to traditional Scottish architecture.

 

Despite this mix of styles, one architect is responsible for virtually the entire village - Robert Bryden of the Clarke & Bell firm in Glasgow. Bryden worked free of charge on Quarrier's projects over a course of some twenty-eight years.

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