A TREASURE trove of historical documents from Greenock Academy dating back more than 100 years have been uncovered in the same week a new era dawned for the school.

As TV show Waterloo Road moved in and began filming at the Madeira Street building, Gourock man David Boyce, 54, dug out yearbooks, certificates, reference letters and old pictures - some of which belonged to his granny Alexandrina Noble McGregor, who was a student at the old school building in Finnart Street between 1906-08.

David, far right, who was also a pupil at the Academy from 1973-75, delved into the school's illustrious past after seeing last week's report in the Tele about its new life.

Among some of the items he kindly shared with the Tele are handwritten letters composed by the school's longest-serving rector, Alexander Gemmell.

Mr Gemmell served for 37 years as the headmaster between 1893-1930.

In one of the letters he wrote a glowing reference for David's granny, who was applying for teaching posts at the time after completing her training.

There is also a certificate, dated 1911, of Alexandrina's completed studies at the school - an intermediate certificate - which is the equivalent of a modern day exam certificate for successfully passed standard grades.

David also has photos of the girls' school hockey team, the 1955 centenary year book and his yearbook from 1975.

He said: "I taught in James Watt College for 21 years on the old site of the original Greenock Academy so when I was sat writing references for students I was quite near to where Alexander Gemmell wrote references for his pupils.

"My granny would have attended the original Greenock Academy in Finnart Street - now James Watt College.

"These documents were never thrown out and passed on to me by my mother.

"I always knew I had them but when my mother passed away at the end of 2010 I went through them again and then when I saw the Waterloo Road article in the Telegraph the other day I revisited them.

"I thought a lot of people would be interested in some of this." A number of references in the documents interested David including the often bemoaned use of the word 'Scotch' instead of 'Scots' - a term which was commonplace in the 1900s.

David said: "Nowadays we don't like people calling things Scotch - we think that's just used for whisky.

"But before the First World War it was the official term." Earlier this week the Academy building on Madeira Street officially became the new home of award-winning BBC drama Waterloo Road as cast and crew began filming season eight of the popular programme - and David is pleased his old school has been saved from the scrapheap.

He said: "It's an interesting use for the building rather than seeing it instantly demolished.

"I've not been a regular watcher of Waterloo Road but I will watch it now to see what the building looks like."