The church building that preceded the Largo St David's Church in Lower Largo was built in 1771 as the Largo Relief Church. As far as I am aware there is no photograph or painting depicting this original church, which was demolished and replaced a century after its completion. The old church was however sketched multiple times by the children of James Gillies in the 1850s. These sketches still exist in the St Andrews University Library Special Collection. Although these are the drawings of children, and there is quite a bit of variation between them, the do provide a sense of the basic features of the church.

All depict some form of tower or steeple, topped with a weathercock (a weather vane in the form of a cockerel). Each shows that there was an upper level to the building. There also seem to have been quoins (external corner stones) which would have added strength to the walls, which were made of inferior rubble, as well as providing some simple aesthetic detail. This all tallies with the written records of the building which suggest it was a simple rectangular structure with entrance porch and internal balcony or 'gallery'. This gallery was originally supported by wooden pillars, until those were replaced with iron pillars in 1852.

We know that the construction of the 1771 church was a community affair, from the account given in an 1884 letter written to the editor of the Dundee Courier, signed "A United Presbyterian Member", and published on 15th November:

"men, women and children were alike zealous, and when the masons towards the end of their day's labours left off their work for the want of material, they were often surprised next morning to find an abundant supply - the men with barrows, the women with their aprons, and children with creels, having procured it for them overnight from the beach which skirts the village."

The weather cock (as well as being ornamental) would have been valuable in showing the wind direction. Wind changes made a big difference to the activities of local farmers and fishermen. The tail would catch the wind and the beak would point towards the direction from which the wind was blowing. Such weather vanes had been placed on churches for centuries. I wonder who made this feature and what happened to it when the church was taken down. 

It was a vacancy at Largo Kirk in 1768 and subsequent controversial appointment of Reverend David Burn, that led to the establishment of Largo Relief Church. The portion of the congregation that were strongly opposed to this choice protested by leaving the church. These folk initially met in the open air to worship as an independent group but in 1770 they applied for (and were granted) pulpit supply from the Relief Church of Edinburgh. Soon afterwards, the newly formed congregation were given land from Mr Durham of Largo House upon which to erect a Church. The site was immediately to the east of the later Largo St David's Church.
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We also know that at least one person was buried within the old church building - that being it longstanding minister Reverend James Gardiner. It is probable that there was some form of memorial tablet within the church to remember him. Over the century that it existed, there would have been many baptisms, marriages and funerals held within the church. An example baptism is shown below. This is for William Rodger, one of the Rodger family of Lundin Mill. See the words "in the presence of the Relief Congregation at Nether Largo".

The Largo Relief Church would have been uncomplicated but it would likely have reflected the church architectural style of the time. Perhaps it wouldn't have been dissimilar to other nearby churches of the era. A comparable example is shown in the images below, just across the Forth in North Berwick. This was the St Andrew's Kirk Ports Church, the tower of which was also completed in 1771. Note the irregular rubble walls, the simple memorial plaque on the interior and the stone internal staircase which would have provided access to a gallery.
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A previous blog post covered the Rodgers of Lundin - a long-standing family of old Lundin Mill. One of the Rodgers, Margaret born 1863, married John Caseby in 1886, in Burnside House, where her family had lived for generations.  John Caseby was a boot maker, who would later have a shop in Bridge House (the building to the left in the photograph below - behind the bridge) above which the family lived. The painting above depicts John Caseby at work and is entitled "The Cobbler". It was painted by David Simpson Foggie R.S.A. (1878-1948), after the Caseby family had moved from Lundin Links to Balmullo.

Dundee-born, Foggie trained at Dundee College of Art, before continuing his studies in Antwerp, Paris and Florence. He returned to Scotland in 1904 and had a cottage built on Lucklaw Hill overlooking Leuchars and Balmullo, which is where he got to know the Casebys. Foggie enjoyed painting people who worked with their hands. Farmers, fishwives, miners, shipwrights and umbrella menders were among his subjects. John Caseby, who in the 1911 census was described as Bootmaker (Handsewn) was a natural subject for David Foggie. The artist died on 2 June 1948, aged 69, after a severe attack of asthma. The Scotsman described him as “a figure painter who found beauty in ordinary life and expressed it with honesty.”
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One of John and Maggie Caseby's sons was Reverend Alexander Caseby. Alexander was born in Bridge House in Lundin Links in 1898. Inspired to become a missionary at the age of eleven, Alexander went on to do just that in Livingstonia in Malawi. Returning to Scotland after a time of ill health, he and his wife Williamina lived at Ernest Cottage in Lundin Links for a spell. Their son Cyril was born in the cottage in October 1930 and was baptised by Reverend J. Stewart Rough, in Largo St David's Church on 19 December. The children are shown in the photograph above. They are, from left to right, Sandy, Cyril, Margaret and Grant. The two older boys were twins. The Caseby family are shown again below (from left to right, Sandy, Williamina, Cyril ,Margaret, Alexander and Grant). They moved to Newmills in 1933 but continued to have a great affection for the Largo area, visiting often. 

​Living in Ernest Cottage, the family were very close to Daniel Ramage's garage. Ramage operated a bus service and later ran the Upper Largo garage for a spell. In the image above, Sandy, Cyril and Grant Caseby can be seen in front of one of Ramage's buses inside the garage. Note the D. Ramage, Lundin Links written along the bus in small lettering below the larger ‘Ramages’ logo. Cyril kindly shared these family photographs, including the one below of his wife Gladys, daughter Alison and son Derek, standing in front of Ernest Cottage in 1971. 

I was delighted to receive an image recently, from a kind visitor to the blog, showing a paper bag from Turbayne's shop. Described as a "Grocer, Fruiterer and Confectioner", the shop stood at the corner of Hillhead Street and Emsdorf Crescent and was run by James Terras Turbayne. He was proprietor from 1920 into the 1950s and you can read more about his time running the shop here. Note that the small bag features a very fancy looking box of chocolates with the words "High-Class Confections" above it. There is also a footnote: "home and foreign fruits in their season".

Also notice the phone number for the shop at the time was a single digit. The very first phone lines in Lundin Links were as follows:
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This small bag survived because it contained a half-sovereign given to its owner in infancy (circa 1950). Her grandparents lived in Lundin Links. ​This is not the first image of a paper bag from a long-gone local shop that has appeared on this blog. Back in 2017, another reader shared an image of a bag from David Watson the baker - click here to read more about that. If you have a paper bag from an old local shop or a similar artefact, please do get in touch. Sometimes a seemingly insignificant little item can bring back memories, provide a glimpse of the past and help to preserve a little bit of local history. 
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In August 1984 a Largo Heritage Week was held, involving a range of events and exhibitions. The above photograph was taken at a Scots Night held on the lawn at Cardy House. Around 140 people took part in this particular event which featured highland dancing displays organised by local dance teacher Ida Ballingall. Ida can be seen in the centre of the photograph with her accordion, a portable source of backing music for the dancers. Other musical contributions to the night included harp-accompanied singing by Christine St Clair, who was there with her mother and well-known sister Isla St Clair.

The 1st Largo Brownies also played a part in the evening, under the leadership of Brown Owl, Joy Spence (standing second from far right in the photo). The Brownies served tea and some of their recent handiwork was also on display at the event. Organiser of the event, Ivy Jardine, can be seen to the left of the highland dancers, wearing a white blouse and long tartan skirt. Her eldest son Allan is on the extreme right of the picture, holding bagpipes. He played the pipes daily during the heritage week, and rounded off the Scots Night, piping from the roof of Cardy House next to the flagpole, which was flying the saltire. Below is another image from the evening, as printed in the East Fife Mail, showing the dancers in action and Ida in the right foreground, playing the accordion. 

A heritage photographic exhibition took place in the Durham Hall, attracting many visitors, with the ladies of the Largo St David's Women's Guild providing refreshments. This exhibition included entries for the joint East Fife Mail and Largo Heritage competition. The newspaper photograph above from the East Fife Mail shows the competition prize winners. 
The winner of the first prize was Margaret Smart of Durham Crescent, for her image of a friend examining an old milestone (see below). Second prize went to Craig Roberts for his close-up photograph of freshly caught fish, while the under-12 category winner was Catherine Kidd who had snapped fishing nets. With the 200th anniversary of the Crusoe Hotel building coming up next year, then the 350th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Selkirk in 2026, could another heritage week be a possibility? 

The above photograph was captured by John Patrick the Buckhaven-born photographer. The image dates to 1876, by which time Patrick had moved his photography business from Leven to Kirkcaldy. The photograph provides a visual indication of the boundary between the Lundin estate and the Largo estate. Drummochy to the left (west) of the Keil Burn fell within the Lundin estate. Note that at this time a couple of houses still featured thatched roofs.
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In the 'then and now' pair of images above, the half-thatched building to the right of Drummochy House (the tallest house with bay windows in the newer image) has been replaced with garages. For a time, the space where the old house once stood was a gap site. The photograph below shows that in that space there was a distinctive statue - the bust of a man on a plinth. 

Among the changes were the replacement of two ruinous cottages on feu number 40 with the detached villa 'Fernbank'. The photograph below shows the contrast between the remaining older houses at the lower level and the new villas of Woodlands Road at the top, and 'Fernbank' in the centre.
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Other lost buildings are the dark coloured ones to the left of centre in the background of the George Washington Wilson photograph below. Remains of the old walls of these structures can still be seen at the site on Cellar Brae by the benches. The tall building looks virtually identical Drummochy House being the same height, design and orientation. The modern day aerial image at the foot of this post shows the continued evolution of this area on both sides of the burn, with many old buildings replaced and gap sites filled, including some across the former path of the railway line, the old gas works and the former mill site.