Canmore Collection   http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1579039

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Now a listed building, the 1815 Newburn Church is described as follows:

Simple rectangular-plan Gothic church, with 2-stage square tower to east. Whin rubble, with yellow ashlar long and short dressings: upper stage of tower is ashlar; pointed and hood-moulded belfry opening to each face, corbelled and crenellated parapet and faceted spire. Symmetrical south elevation: glazed former doors to outer bays, low centrally placed piend-roofed projecting vestry, below 2 blind quatrefoil panels and flanked by 2 tall windows: all openings pointed-headed and hood-moulded with intersecting tracery. Piended slate roof with single central stack. North elevation: symmetry lost by insertion of 1 door and window, pointed window with intersecting tracery to each outer bay group of 4 symmetrical centre windows to ground and former gallery. Slated roof. 
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The 1815 Church replaced the Parish's earlier church (pictured above) which has a history dating back centuries. Part of the original structure was dedicated by Bishop Bernham in 1243. Newburn Old Parish Church was eventually considered too small and outdated, and fell out of use upon completion of the new building. The new church was much more commodious and was fitted out with many box pews (shown below in another image from the Canmore Collection). Upon its opening there were 180 people on the communion roll.
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The centre pews shown above had moveable divisions which were withdrawn for the celebration of the Sacrament - see photograph below from the book 'The Architecture of Scottish Post-Reformation Churches 1560-1843' by George Hay (1957). 
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The following week's Leven Mail reported on the "big turn-out" for the final service where the "pews were packed to capacity". While there would no longer be a church in Newburn Parish, the building itself would soon embark upon a new chapter and there will be more about that in the next post.
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​Crichton Place was the original name of the bay-windowed row of housing seen on the right of the images above. The top black and white image appeared on a postcard published by Upper Largo pharmacist James Bowie (who had taken over the business in 1917 from Peter Cowie). The postcard was posted in 1918. Crichton Place comprised eight dwellings across four semi-detached flatted villas. In recent decades they have been absorbed into Main Street, in terms of postal address. The development was named after the Crichton family who had taken over ownership of the Largo Estate in 1901, the year before its construction began.
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Above are two maps, showing the east end of Main Street, with and without the Crichton Place buildings (which are immediately to the east of the Simpson Institute).  The upper map dates to 1893 and shows the north side of the street ending at the Simpson Institute. The lower map is dated 1912 and shows Crichton Place to the right (east) of the Institute, along with an expanded range of leisure facilities adjacent (curling pond, bowling green and tennis court).
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​The first census taken following the building of Crichton Plan was in 1911. Records show that three dwellings were unoccupied but among the occupied homes, the tenants included: William Ritchie (a saddler), Margaret Potter (a knitting machinist), James Ferrier (grocer and provision merchant), James Balfour (retired farmer) and Robert Bell (platelayer with the North British Railway). Most of the dwellings had 2 or 3 residents but one had six. 

By 1915 there appears to have been an entirely different set of residents at Crichton Place, including a ploughman, a nurse, a chauffeur, a miner and a police constable (Alexander Webster). One of the flats became a police dwelling longer term. By the 1921 census police constable David Kinnear was in residence and his neighbours included John Cameron (a butcher who was employed by building proprietor William Simpson), Henry Probert (a chauffeur), William Simpson (a road surfaceman), Annie Anderson (who took in hand washing). 
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By 1925 Fife County Council took over the tenancy of one of the flats, formalising it as the official police residence. At that time police constable Thomas Moyes lived there. When William Bousie Simpson died in 1932, ownership of the Crichton Place properties passed to his widow Helen Simpson. Over the years the flats were gradually sold on to new private owners. The 1964 map below shows the development's layout in more detail. Further below is a view of the rear of the houses from the garden of the Simpson Institute. 
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Back in 1962 the inaugural 'Best Kept Village' competition was held across St Andrews District. Organised by the St Andrews District Council, the contest followed in the footsteps of Cupar District, where a successful event had been held the previous year (won by Strathmiglo).  Both districts were gifted trophies by J. & G. Innes Limited, proprietors of the Fife News and the St Andrews Citizen. By winning, Upper Largo became the first winners of the 'Citizen' trophy, represented in the sketch above. The nineteen competing villages had been visited on 25 June by the judges, who included the curator of St Andrews Botanical Gardens. 

Points were awarded for the appearance and condition of lands and buildings of a public nature, such as playing fields, open spaces, the village hall and surroundings, church and churchyard, bus shelter, war memorial and school. The cleanliness of verges, ponds and streams and the condition of hedges, fences and walls, the tidiness of flower and vegetable gardens, and the general appearance of the village were all taken into account. The suitability and orderliness of advertisements and notices, and the absence of litter and unsightly rubbish dumps also factored.

The following year, 1963, Strathkinness triumphed in the contest, which must have spurred on the community in Upper Largo, who won the trophy back in 1964 and again in 1965. When Upper Largo retained the title in 1965, they received 82 points from the judges, just pipping runners up Boarhills who scored 81. The photograph below appeared in the 5 August Leven Mail, showing the plaque mounted on an 8-foot pedestal. This was positioned prominently on the grassy area at the junction of Main Street and St Andrews Road, seen below, with Largo Law in the background. 

Councillor John Adamson (retired teacher and former headmaster of Lundin Mill Primary School) accepted the award and said how proud he was to see the village win again. He praised the hard work of the villagers, as well as their spirit of co-operation and civic pride. Some of the others featured in the photograph are detailed below.
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In fact, Upper Largo would go on to win the Best Kept Village title several more times over the years. The winners of subsequent years are listed below:

1966 - Upper Largo
1967 - Kingsbarns 
1968 - Kingsbarns
1969 - Upper Largo
1970 - Kingsbarns
1971 - Lower Largo
1972 - Kingsbarns
1973 - Upper Largo
1974 - Upper Largo

Note that Lower Largo also got in on the act - entering for the first time in 1967 and winning the crown in 1971 (beating Upper Largo into third place). Judges praised the new colour scheme of the Crusoe Hotel (shown below), the tidiness of the car parks at the Temple and the former railway station, as well as the well-kept gardens of the housing estates. They were less impressed with the general lack of litter bins around the village. The trophy on its tall pedestal was put up at Cellar Braes for the year. The 28 August 1971 St Andrews Citizen below provided the full report. John Adamson and Joseph Grassick were both present (as they had been in Upper Largo a few years before). As the list of winners above shows, however, before long the trophy was back in Upper Largo!
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Upper Largo's former bank was designed by the architect Archibald Scott. His plans for the building were first approved by the National Bank of Scotland in 1848, although their Largo branch did not open until some years later. The 1854 map of the village still shows the previous buildings on the site, which were loom shops associated with the once-thriving hand loom weaving industry.

Archibald Scott was born in 1796 in Dunbar, East Lothian. His architect practice was based at Teviot Row in Edinburgh. He became principal architect to the National Bank, and worked on many of their premises between approximately 1848 and 1860, including banks at Hawick, Castle Douglas, Grantown-on-Spey, Whithorn, Bathgate, Lochmaben and Dalkeith. Scott also designed the National Bank building at Elie, which was linked to the Largo branch and to which it bears some resemblance. The Largo and Elie banks are shown side-by-side below. Note their similar stonework and windows and the shared features such as carved stone shields towards to top of their gables and distinctive skew putts at the gable corners.
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The National Bank of Scotland was founded in 1825. Based in Edinburgh, it had national-level ambitions from the beginning. By 1850 it had 40 branches, growing to eventually to 137 branches. At its height it was second in size only to the Bank of Scotland. In 1959 a merger saw it become National Commercial Bank of Scotland and a decade later it was absorbed into the Royal Bank of Scotland. The bank's archives suggest that the Largo bank building cost £748.10 but that a later payment of £56 was made to Scott in connection with the building in 1860 (likely relating to alterations once operational). 
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The above notice appeared in the 12 March 1857 Fife Herald announcing that Alexander Robertson had been appointed as Bank Agent at Largo. This appears to mark the official beginning of the bank operation, as it is from that year that regular references to the Largo Bank can be found in the local newspapers. 1857 was also the year that William Robinson Ketchen came to Elie from Edinburgh to take charge of the National Bank there. Ketchen (pictured below from the Fife Illustrated News Almanac of 1902), along with other members of his family, would go on to feature prominently in the history of the Largo branch.

By 1858, William Ketchen's younger brother Thomas had become agent at Largo, effectively acting as assistant to William who had oversight of both branches. Thomas Ketchen remained in the role of agent at Largo for decades and is recorded as living in the bank house in four consecutive census records. In 1861 he was at the bank house along with his parents William and Harriet, as well as a servant. A decade later he was recorded with just his widower father and a servant. In 1881 it was only Thomas and a servant in residence but by the 1891 census Thomas had his retired brother Alexander and the latter's wife, living with him, plus a servant. 
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The extracts above from the 1866 Westwood's Directory show that there was also a Savings' Bank and Insurance Agency run by Thomas Ketchen. Below is a list of the various National Bank branch agents in the wider local area in 1858. Of course the agent was supported by a small team of bank clerks. In 1881, two teenage sons of Reverend David Malloch (John and David) were bank clerks at Largo. In 1884, Lundin Links born John Bremner came to work at the Largo branch. He was the younger brother of local postmistress Margaret Bremner and he would go on to manage the National Bank of Scotland at St Enoch Square in Glasgow for 25 years. In fact John Malloch went on to marry Ann Bremner (elder sister of John Bremner, his co-worker at the bank).
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In 1893, Henry Martin Ketchen, son of William Robinson Ketchen became joint-agent at Largo with his father. His uncles, Thomas and Alexander Ketchen, both died in 1894. Henry undertook legal work in the Largo area and was the Secretary of the Largo Granary Company. In 1897, W. R. Ketchen, now retired moved to Largo, where he took a great interest in public life and was elected to Largo County Council. He later moved back to Elie, where he died in 1901.

It was around that time that Ketchen's former apprentice, John More Dall, took over at Largo, remaining there until his retiral in 1930. The National Bank expanded its network of branches in the aftermath of the First World War and in 1921 the directors decided to open a branch at Lundin Links, as a sub-branch of Largo and to protect its business in the locality in the face of competition from the Commercial Bank of Scotland and the British Linen Bank. The sub-branch thrived and made a significant contribution to the profits of the Largo parent bank. During the 1930s there were three banks within the row of businesses on Leven Road, Lundin Links.

In 1930, Guy McConnell succeeded John More Dall, having moved to Largo from the chief office in Glasgow. He had previously worked in branches in Leven and Kirkcaldy. Like earlier bank agents, McConnell had a number of other roles within the community including auditor for the Largo Silver Band (see notice below from 7 Feb 1939 Leven Advertiser) and treasurer of the Largo and Newburn Nursing Association. He remained as Largo agent into the 1940s.

The Second World War had a huge impact on the National Bank of Scotland as a whole, and on the Largo branch in particular. Three members of staff from the Largo branch joined the war effort, one of whom was killed in action. Rival banks ended up closing their branches in Lundin Links, enabling the National Bank to take over the prominent corner site on Leven Road at Crescent Road. At the end of the war this branch was elevated to full branch status (and eventually would subsume the Upper Largo bank).
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​By 1950, Guy McConnell had left the Largo bank was living in Anstruther.  James M Johnston became agent at Largo but by now there had been a shift in the dynamics between Upper Largo and Lundin Links. The notice above appeared in the Leven Mail each week in May 1958, highlighting the imminent closure of the original branch. Its last day open was 31 May 1958, bringing a century of banking on the Upper Largo site to an end. The branch's business was transferred to the Lundin Links branch on Leven Road, pictured below. The bank building in Upper Largo became a private residence.
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