Monifieth High School
There are numerous colourful stories from the school’s early years in Melrose Terrace. The building had not been well maintained and there were particular problems with the old coal-fired boilers, as revealed in the detailed school log kept by our first Rector, Mr. Hector Low:
4 January 1979: “The staff all reported for duty but we found there was no heating……the school would be closed till Monday 8th.”
8 January 1979: “The pupils arrived only to be sent home at 11.00am & told not to report back until Thursday. The toilets were completely frozen & the inlet water pupils were all burst.”
8 January 1979: “The pupils arrived only to be sent home at 11.00am & told not to report back until Thursday. The toilets were completely frozen & the inlet water pupils were all burst.”
10 January 1979: “I sent the staff home at 2.00pm…..although we were burning fuel steadily no heat was coming through the pipes.”
11 January 1979: “Pupils returned….The toilets were finally working by 11.45am. There was a dispute in the boiler house between the Janitor and the heating engineers….the boiler flues [airways leading to the chimney] were chocked solid with ashes and dust. When these were opened, the boiler house filled with smoke.”
Hector Low was famous for his dry wit and his Rector’s Log goes on to describe being caught in the middle of a furious argument between the Janitor and the engineers while ashes and dust billowed around them in the depths of the stricken boiler house.
11 January 1979: “Pupils returned….The toilets were finally working by 11.45am. There was a dispute in the boiler house between the Janitor and the heating engineers….the boiler flues [airways leading to the chimney] were chocked solid with ashes and dust. When these were opened, the boiler house filled with smoke.”
Hector Low was famous for his dry wit and his Rector’s Log goes on to describe being caught in the middle of a furious argument between the Janitor and the engineers while ashes and dust billowed around them in the depths of the stricken boiler house.
The original bolierhouse chimney still stands today, though the Melrose Terrace building is now part of Dundee College and the coal-fired boiler has long since been replaced.
