The Robinson Crusoe Social Club evolved from the earlier 'Lundin Links and District Community Social Club' in 1946. The name change coincided with the club taking over the former Good Templar Hall (or Temperance Hall) on Mill Wynd, Lundin Links (pictured above). The hall had been built in 1886 for the Robinson Crusoe Lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars. Membership of the local I.O.G.T. Lodge had dwindled by the Second World War and ownership of the hall passed to the Grand Lodge of Scotland before coming into the ownership of the social club. 
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After a quarter century at its original location, the social club made the move into the temperance hall, giving them a much larger space for their varied activities. They changed their name in the process, to the Robsinson Crusoe Social Club, in tribute to the former Robinson Crusoe Lodge of the I.O.G.T.. The advert below for a Sale of Work (11 Feb 1948) shows that the hall on Mill Wynd was still initially known as the 'Club House' before becoming more commonly referred to as the Crusoe Hall. At this particular sale is was stated that the club had grown from eleven members in 1946 to over over eighty within a year and another fifty new members since then. The main object of the club was "the social welfare of the community" and membership was open to all "irrespective of age, sex, religion or politics".
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Below is the notice of the 1947 Children's Christmas Party (10 December Leven Mail) - the first one in the Crusoe Hall. Two weeks later the paper reported that the hall was filled to overflowing with more than 270 children. After music and games, tea and cakes were provided and "Santa Claus, taking time off from his arduous duties, then handed each child an orange and a gift from the beautifully lit and decorated Xmas tree".
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The Robinson Crusoe Social Club was wound up in 2015 and a bench has been placed on Emsdorf Road (close to the two club houses but in a more prominent location) in memory of the Club that was such a feature of the local community over many decades. If you have memories of the club, Christmas parties, whist drives, etc - please do comment and share your stories.
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The above artwork depicting the Old Manor Hotel appeared as part of an advert for hotel receptionist placed in the East Fife Mail of 24 April 1996 (below). This and the following other local references were found recently in newspapers used to wrap up a set of crockery. When unpacking a box untouched for a couple of decades, it was an unexpected pleasure to be able to leaf through some old pages of the local paper.
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​April brought the opening matches of the local bowling clubs and below is the photo taken of the Lundin Links club's first game. Do you recognise anyone in the photograph?

Another Springtime event was the Fife Point to Point at Balcormo. The advert below let readers know that it was coming up the following weekend. Traditionally held annually at Balcormo Mains (since 1910), the event has origins dating back to 1892, originally taking place at Bruntshiels Farm near Ceres. Lately there has been another chance of venue, which you can read more about here: https://balcormoraces.org/

​Finally, an other advert - this time for the Crusoe Hotel. Part of a full page feature on the 'High Tea Trail' around the East of Fife, the advert highlights high teas and bar meals - with "flambe and seafood a speciality"!
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Tucked in behind Church Place in Upper Largo, Broomfield Buildings (now Broomfield Gardens) was built circa 1895 by Broomfield the joiner. Containing four flatted dwellings, the building can be seen in the above aerial photograph to the right of the Church (with the grey roof and white walls). Below shows the other side of the building from ground level. The garden area associated with the flats can be accessed from a vennel at 10 Church Place. The vennel can also be seen on  the map further below.

Joiner Peter Broomfield was the son of a farmer, born in 1836 in Fala, Midlothian. As a young man, he had been one of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War, having enlisted in the famous cavalry regiment in his teens. He was wounded in the campaign and was invalided home. Later, Peter spent time working as a joiner in Edinburgh before moving to Upper Largo around 1873, with his wife Elizabeth Hogg and their three youngest children (none of whom survived childhood). The couple went on to have further children - Margaret in later in 1874, Agnew in 1876 and Christina in 1878. In 1878, Peter received the contract for the construction of Kirkton of Largo School which was completed the following year. Agnew followed his father into the joinery business. Elizabeth died in 1893 and Peter in 1898 (just a few years after the construction of the buildings named after him).

The family, who lived on South Feus, continued to own Broomfield Buildings for many years. At the time of the 1901 census, the tenants of the four flats were: a retired gardener and family; a postman and family (son of John E. Miller the cork cutter); a plumber and his family; and a retired lighthouse keeper (with his wife and two grandchildren). Some of these tenants (and others later) sublet their homes for the summer to visitors. Over the years, both births and deaths occurred in the buildings. One life that ended at Broomfield Gardens was that of William Mackie, a gardener at Largo House. He died in 1924 (see 16 September Leven Advertiser below) after becoming ill at work.
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The property was eventually sold by the Broomfield family. Below is a For Sale notice that appeared in the Leven Advertiser on 27 October 1936. Another more recent For Sale advert (26 Nov 1987 Courier) is further below. Agnew Broomfield, who was President of Largo Curling Club on more than one occasion, Vice-President of Largo Bowling Club and member of the Parish Council, died aged 89 in 1965.
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By 1871 John Miller was established as a cork cutter in Upper Largo, now with 7 children, 4 of whom were born in Largo. A decade later and he was still described as a 'cork top manufacturer' and had one further child. At some point, the Millers became involved with the Independent Order of Good Templars' Robinson Crusoe Lodge. John held various offices and appeared often in the newspaper archives as attending various meetings and events in connection with the movement. It's interesting that a bottle top maker, with connections to the brewing industry, went on to live by "total abstinence enforced by a life-long pledge, and the absolute prohibition of the manufacture, importation and sale of intoxicating drinks as beverages". The above programme for the local lodge from the "Good Templar Guide: North-East Fife District 1898-1904" notes John E. Miller as the Secretary at the time and shows that he and his wife were responsible for a number of the functions listed.

By 1891, John's occupation had evolved slightly to 'wood top manufacturer'. This was likely partly due to a general trend away from the use of cork to other materials for bottle closures but may also indicate that he wanted to cater for temperance drinks rather than alcohol. Below are images of a cork top (left) and a wood top (right). By this time, fellow cork cutter Edward Johnston had become bankrupt and had left Largo. John survived the changing fortunes of his trade but supplemented his income by having three boarders living in his household. Ten years later, aged 70, John Miller continued to host three boarders and was described as a 'wood top maker'. 
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John Edmonson Miller died on 19th June 1905 at Law Cottage, Upper Largo - his death registered by son James, who lived very close by at Broomfield's Buildings. As far as I can tell, this ended many decades of bottle top making in the Parish. Modern innovation had by then changed practices completely. Ebonite or Vulcanite screw stoppers (patented in 1880) were advertised as superior to corks due to the ease of opening by hand (no need for a corkscrew), robustness (won't break like a cork could), airtightness (contents won't go flat) and reusability (if used many times were a fraction of the cost of cork). India rubber was heated in a process called 'vulcanisation' to create a mouldable, durable material that was used for bottle stoppers for decades. The adverts below show these stoppers, which fitted into an internal screw thread in the bottle neck, in detail.

Hopefully many of you managed to watch 'Scotland's Scenic Railways' on Channel 4 the other evening, featuring Largo and Lundin Links stations, vintage railway footage and present day local scenes. For anyone that missed it, the programme is currently on All 4 catch-up here.  One of the content contributors, who appeared on the programme, was Robert Drysdale. Robert has kindly written up detailed memories of his many childhood holidays to Lower Largo and Lundin Links and has included several photographs in the attached PDF document. Among the images are pictures of both Largo and Lundin Links stations after the railway line closed and the tracks had been lifted, plus a view from the former road bridge over the line at the top of Drummochy Road.  

To access this evocative description of holidaying in Largo in the 1950s and 1960s, please click here and enjoy! Above is a picture of Robert (right) with his baby sister and mother in the garden of 'Kincraig' (number 15 the Temple). Below is a view of the closed Largo station with the tracks recently lifted, taken from the footbridge over the line. These and many more images appear in the document.

Back in the nineteenth century (and likely before then too), one of the occupations carried out in Largo was cork cutting. Among the men who described themselves as 'cork cutters' over the years were John Ballingall, Edward Johnston, Henry Kirk, John Edmonson Miller, Thomas Rankin and James Rodger. In addition, there were several boys employed to assist in this line of work.

Henry Kirk was a cork cutter based on the upper part of Kirkton of Largo's North Feus, shown in the above postcard image. At the time of the 1861 census Henry Kirk employed '1 man and 1 boy' in his cork cutting business. He was listed in the 1862 Westwood Directory (above) under 'miscellaneous'. It's likely that the cork cutters' main output would have been stoppers for bottles and other containers, such as the stoneware containers shown in the advert below for Henry Kennedy and Sons of Glasgow.

This increase in production could well be linked to the opening of Cardy Net Works in 1867. Floats would have been required for the edges of the nets and cork was the material of choice for that at the time. In 1876, the Johnston family moved to a property on the south side of Upper Largo's Main Street. They named their home 'Norwich House' after Edward's home town. The house (later changed to 'Norwich Cottage') is shown in the centre of the map below.