The coming of the School - 1825
The School House at 28 Baberton Avenue, Juniper Green
Picture looking south showing east side of Baberton Avenue with the "wee" school house halfway down the street
In 1825, The Right Honorable Lady Mary Seaforth and her daughters, Elizabeth and Augusta, bought land from James Foulis of Woodhall in order to build a school. In 1841, The Honorable Misses MacKenzie (then residing in Linlithgow) sold the school for £150 to the Trustees of Juniper Green School. This was after an Act of Parliament was 'passed in the 5th year of Victoria's reign to afford further facilities of conveyance and endowment of sites for schools'.
The Trustees were
- Reverend Lewis Balfour, the minister of Colinton (in which parish Juniper Green then lay);
- Reverend William Thomson, the minister of the United Congregation in Slateford;
- William Foulis (younger) of Woodhall;
- Thomas Forrester, builder of Juniper Green;
- Robert Laing, papermaker at Woodhall Mill;
- Robert Christie, accountant of Juniper Green; and
- Andrew Grieve W.S.
As long as the ground and buildings thereon were used for education, than no feu duty was due. Other conditions stated that no trade or manufacture, offensive to neighbours, to be carried out on said ground and no dunghill to be accumulated thereupon or in front of.