Huge thanks to the P7 pupils at Strathblane Primary School for helping to launch the community's Heritage Trail. Strathblane Heritage co-chair, Anne Balfour, challenged the pupils to imagine what it was like to be a worker at the Blanefield Printworks in the 1860s when fifty children as young as eight worked there for 12 hours a day for around two shillings a week. (The information board in Station Road, Blanefield, is devoted to the huge printworks that once dominated the area.) The youngsters quizzed Anne about every aspect of the young workers' lives and then tried to turn the clock back and create word pictures of a world where a spoonful of jam in their breakfast porridge was a special treat and school was limited to eight hours a week. The results were very impressive! Read Maisie and Lilla's diaries in our Poetry, Song and Literature section: Life as a Child Worker at Blanefield Printworks
