Opening Ceremony Program & Ticket 1935

Original Classes & Inaugural Diary 1935

Timetable IVc 1945

Room 1 and Dining Hall

Room 12 and Home Economy

Art Room and Sports Field

Gym and Assembly Hall

Woodwork Class

Assembly Hall and pupils, 1950's

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IN the year 1931, a representative of the 'Evening Times' was permitted to join one of the few privileged parties viewing the interior of the almost completed Marr College, and he was amazed by the splendour, the lavish appointments, the magnificent and expensive decor and the countless new ideas with which this new school abounded. 

"The Marr College, Troon, situated about a mile inland and overlooking the town, is the most modern and certainly the most ambitious project ever taken in hand by any Scottish Education Committee. 

In addition to being an advert for this Ayrshire seaside resort, the College itself is calculated to make every other town in the country much more than somewhat envious. The school now in the last stages of construction was built at great cost through the generosity of a native of this port and is now in the hands of the Marr Trust, Education is to be entirely free, the only stipulation being that the parents of prospective pupils must be residents of even if not actually born in the town of Troon, in order to quality their offspring for entry; and education to meet every need will be available. 

For those of Academic bent, there will be a most comprehensive secondary education which will carry them to the sixth year of the Higher Grade of pre-University standard. In respect of other requirements there will be highly competent teaching skills, facilities, and amenities in technical subjects. Domestic Science, Commercial, Art, Music and Physical Education, commensurate with the talents and abilities of those so inclined, in many respects to meet the urgent needs of industry and craftsmanship, business, Haute Cuisine and personal expression. The Science labs and Art Rooms are beyond compare. 

Towering imposingly, high above the main entrance door, a huge dome gives impact and style to the centre of the school, with buildings stretching out symmetrically on either side; an idea of the enormous expense entailed being gathered from the fact that only natural stone has been used throughout. 

The interior beggars description and without doubt, suggests the ideal teaching establishment about which most teachers dream but never really expect to encounter. Several skilled gardeners, under the charge of Mr Hugh Murray of the Darley, have been working for the best part of a year to great effect. Close to the main gates is the Janitor’s house and adjacent to the school are four of the most up to date porous tennis courts. To the rear there is a commodious ultra‑modern cottage, to be used for girls’ housewifery. In the playground there is safe and protective accommodation for bicycles within a garage‑type structure. 

So much for the exterior. Pupils will enter from the sides, boys and girls being wings apart. Spacious cloakrooms lead off from the fine entrance halls, endowed with numbered pegs on lockers, all relating to a huge keyboard in the Janitor's care. Downstairs is the Domestic Science complex composed of a well-equipped laundry. The nearby Cooker rooms being fitted with electric and gas cookers, a Triplex Grate, and many roomy pantries. On the same level there is to be a Carpentry section and high above the main entrance hall, it was discovered that the dome was not merely ornamental it having been ingeniously fitted out as a library, entrance being gained via a superb oak staircase. 

In this palatial school there is also a live theatre, it being placed in the centre of the main building with seating for several hundred, a sloping floor a balcony and a film projecting apparatus in a fire‑proof box. The stage is on the grand scale with almost every form of lighting comparable even with 'Drury Lane'. Marr College has also been provided with an immaculate pipe organ, at a cost of two thousand pounds. 

Folding doors in the wings of the Theatre lead to the boys Gymnasium on one side with the girls Gym, opposite, both filled with every conceivable type of apparatus and under a balcony at the end of the area are the dressing rooms, complete with six spray baths. 

The main corridors are laid with Rubberoid silent tread and the extraordinary classrooms are three quarters panelled in wood with floors of parquetry; and each room has a telephone. The spacious dining room has a base which would do justice to the exponents of ‘Come Dancing’ and the adjoining kitchen facilities are beyond reproach. As for the extensive playing fields, laid with no less than a spirit level by Hugh Murray jnr., and his team of experts, these are peerless expanses of turf which would do justice to Murrayfield. They are situated beyond Darley Golf Course but a Right of Way has been granted to pupils and staff by the Town Council’.