Rossini Place in Lundin Links, as it was in 1893, is highlighted on the map above in red. This section of Emsdorf Street comprised ten dwellings - a row of five on either side of a courtyard. For decades these dwellings were all owned by one individual and rented out. These buildings likely date back to the creation of the village of Emsdorf back around 1800.
Emsdorf village took its name from a battle that took place during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) - a struggle for world supremacy between Great Britain and France which is considered to be the first global conflict in history. Read about how that became connected to the Lundin Estate here.
Some of the Rossini Place dwellings can be seen on the far right of the 1890s photograph below, with the hand barrow on the pavement outside and the uneven-looking roof tiles. This image is looking east towards the old Pump Green with its stone wall, and to David Lindsay's grocer shop on the corner of Hillhead Street.
One of the early feuars of the new village of Emsdorf was James Crawford in 1802. It seems likely that his daughter was linked to the feu that became Rossini Place, as it is possible to trace ownership of the site back through the generations of just a couple of families over time from the early 1800s. The eldest child of James Crawford and his wife Margaret Simson was Betty Crawford, who went on to marry George Thyne or Thinn. George was a wright - who may well have had a role in making or maintaining the many hand looms in the village, among other things.
Ownership of the feu passed through them to their eldest son James Thinn, a stone mason. James's eldest son, also James and also a stone mason is listed on the Voter's List from 1839 onwards for Largo Parish (see below) as "proprietor houses and gardens, belonging to him, on the south side of the road leading eastward from the Lundinmill Toll to Drummochie, parish of Largo".
After the younger James Thinn's death in 1891, ownership of Rossini Place passed to his son John Thynn, until he in turn died in 1897 at the age of 47 years. Rossini Place then came into the ownership of George Clark, the Lundinmill-born stone mason mentioned in the previous post about Braemar. Below is an extract from the 1905 valuation roll for Largo Parish where the tenants of the ten properties are listed.
George Clark continued to own the properties at Rossini Place (shown above in the 1930s with an arrow pointing to the vennel access point to the rear properties) until his death in 1931, which occurred at the Rossini Place dwelling that he kept for his own use. This was not usual residence (which was in Leven) but it could have been a decision to return to the place of his birth at the very end of his life. The properties subsequently passed to his stepson William Brown, then a publican at the Crown Bar on Kirkcaldy's High Street. During the decade of Brown's ownership, the properties did undergo some renovation work as the 6 June 1936 Fife Free Press notice below informs us.
By 1950, however, the dwellings of Rossini Place were in decline. They remained under the ownership of the trustees of late William Brown (who died in 1940), and at this time, three of the dwellings were empty having been condemned. By 1960, the new owner of the properties was Mary K. Browning. In 1973, she received planning permission to create lock-up garages, with rear access from Links Road lane. The 24 October 1973 East Fife Mail reported that this was at a cost of £1,000. In recent years, there have been further alterations at the site.
The aerial image below shows the footprint of Rossini Place in recent times, marked by a dashed red line. One mystery remains - why was this place given the name Rossini? Answers, or even just theories, would be very welcome!
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