The Simpson Institute on Upper Largo's Main Street was built in 1891 in memory of George Simpson.  The announcement was made in the Fife Herald of 24 October 1888 that... 

"Great satisfaction has been caused throughout the parish by the announcement that under the trust settlement of the late Mrs Janet Simpson or Galloway, Edinburgh, the handsome sum of £4000 has been bequeathed for the purpose of building an Institute in Upper Largo in memory of her late father, Mr George Simpson, who resided and carried on business as tailor and clothier here.  The UP Church receives a further sum of £200". 

Mrs Galloway also left bequests to a wide range of hospitals, societies and other institutions, primarily in Edinburgh. The objective of The Simpson Institute was to be "the social and intellectual recreation and improvement of the town and neighbourhood." A competition was held for the design of the proposed institute, which was won by the Edinburgh architect Charles Edward Tweedie. The building would provide a reading-room and recreation hall and would eventually also have tennis courts and a bowling green within its grounds.  The Dundee Evening Telegraph provided sketches of the exterior and interior as well as the following description:

"The building is in the old Scotch style of architecture, having crow-stepped gables, and is surmounted on the main roof by a small turret, which is used for ventilation.  It contains a large hall, capable of accommodating 300 persons and there is also a library which will hold about 2000 volumes, which can be enlarged if required. Retiring rooms, lavatories, &c, are provided. The entrance hall has a ribbed plaster ceiling, with tiled dado and floor.  The stone used in the construction of the building is from Burntisland quarries, and the roof is covered with green slates from Coniston.  The red ridges give the Institute a simple but picturesque appearance.  The building will be lighted by oil lamp pendants."

The official opening ceremony took place on 8th May 1891 and the village was both festooned with decorations and bustling with people.  Just before two o'clock a procession was formed, accompanied by the Largoward Brass Band and the Colinsburgh Company of Volunteers, and was marched to the building.  There was loud cheering as Sheriff MacKay applied the key to the front door (Courier, 9 May). Following the opening ceremony and speeches there was a luncheon in the village's Commercial Hotel and later a well-attended soiree and dance.

The above image shows a plumber's business, located at Church Place, Upper Largo around the turn of the century.  The sign reads 'A. Wilson - Plumber, Tinsmith & Ironmonger'.  This was Alexander Wilson, who became a plumber and tinsmith around 1880, in his late teens.  His business later moved to the Main Street and he was joined in it by his sons. Before the days of pre-fabricated parts, many plumbers manufactured their own parts - hence the addition of 'tinsmith' and 'ironmonger' to the title was common.  However, plumbers were seen as much more highly skilled than someone who performed only the role of tinsmith.  In 1892, the Dundee Advertiser of 31 October reported on the question of registration for plumbers, designed to aid the "sifting of tinsmiths and other tradesmen from the genuine plumber trade" and spoke of the plumbers' "endeavour to maintain and elevate the position of their craft". The work of the Wilson firm will be evident in many local buildings.  Notably, Alexander Wilson acted as plumber on the building of the Simpson Institute, working alongside other local tradesmen, including Alexander Williamson the plasterer and Agnew Broomfield the joiner.  Details on the opening of the Simpson Institute to follow....

Above is an atmospheric shot of Largo Kirk, situated in Church Place, Upper Largo. There has been a Church on this site for many centuries.  The 'Largo Village Book' of 1932 states that "...the true history of the present Church begins on the 17th day of July, 1243, when it was consecrated by David de Bernham". However, the origins of Christianity in the area go back further.  The Largo Churches celebrated 1100 years of the coming of Christianity to the shores of Fife in 1985.  

The oldest parts of the current building (including the spire) date back to the 1620s but most of the building is early 19th century.  Of course there have been many alterations and renovations over the years. There are many points of interest inside and outside the church building - more of that some other time.  This particular view dates to around the turn of the century and contains some interesting detail.  For example, the young man fetching water from the water tap at the old drying green adds charm to the scene, as do the smoking chimneys and the cart wheel tracks on the road.

Thanks to the popularity of picture postcards over the last century or so, we are able to enjoy a wide range of images of our favourite places.  For a spell, particularly 1920s-1950s, the type of novelty postcards shown above were very popular. These would have a generic image on the front - often something colourful and designed to appeal to the masses (eg the rose or the kitten). The same front picture would be used for multiple locations, as the place name would be added on later, as would the internal concertinaed images.  There would be a flap cut into the front cover and when this was opened, a folded series of small images would pull out (see below).  Normally black and white, there would be around a dozen different views of the location in question. Quality of the images was variable but could be pretty good, so these cards were great value for money...shame they are not still around today.

John Patrick (the early photographer who took the image from the previous post) was born on 16 January 1831.  Initially, John became a baker in Buckhaven, the place of his birth, but, while still a young man, he changed direction to become a bookseller in Leven. In 1852 he married Jane Rutherford and by 1857 he had developed significant experience of the collodion photographic process. He wrote a detailed letter to the Photographic Journal in August 1857 proposing a modification to the developer within the process.  In 1860 Patrick's dual book-selling and photography business on Leven High Street was frequently advertised in local newspapers. However, as the 1866 notice in the Fife Herald of 17 May demonstrates, photography turned out to be John's vocation and the book-selling element of his work was dropped.  He moved to better premises at his own home, 'Photo Villa', at the Links in Leven.

In 1867, Patrick's photography business would move to Kirkcaldy and in 1884 on to Edinburgh.  Over the decades, he would capture many interesting subjects - events, places and people - including the Pictish symbols in the Wemyss Caves, the building of the Forth Rail Bridge, Scottish writer and philosopher Thomas Carlyle, Royal visits to Edinburgh and many postcard views of Edinburgh.  However, I find his very early work of Fife captivating and particularly cherish views around Largo and Lundin Links.  Below is a very busy scene at the Leven and Lundin Golfing Links. This scene was captured at the close of the 19th century. The course is crowded with spectators so it must have been a special event - if you have any suggestions as to what the event could have been - please comment.  It appears that fishing nets may be drying on poles by the beach on the right of the image.

John Patrick passed away at the age of 92, at the home of his daughter in Kennoway on 19 May 1923.  At that time the Fife Free Press reflected on the life of this well known "photographic artist", noting his "upright and genial character, his cultured mind, and his noteworthy artistic taste and accomplishments. He was successful with the brush as well as with the camera; and contributed landscape paintings to the Royal Scottish Academy and other exhibitions." Mr Patrick was survived by two sons and three daughters.

This very early photograph of the harbour area at Lower Largo dates from sometime during the 1860s or early 1870s and was taken by John Patrick, a Leven-based photographer.  Born in 1831, Patrick had an established book-selling and photography business by 1860 (see advert below from that year) and had contributed to the illustration of the 1860 book 'The Handy Guide to the Fife Coast' of the same year.  His original Calotype images were some of the earliest of Fife. In the next post - a bit more about this local pioneering photographer.

His Largo photo above gives a unique view of the harbour area at this time - not long after the building of the viaduct. Note the thatched roof on the house at the far left of the image and also on the house at the left end of the row of white houses on the Drummochy side of the foot bridge over the Keil Burn. A chimney from the Largo Oil and Cake Mill (former flax mill) can be seen rising up above the viaduct to the left. At the time of the taking of this image, the harbour would have been a busy place with many local boat owners.  The Cardy works opened in 1867, employing around 60 local women in the net manufacturing business - more on that another time...

As a follow-up to the previous post on Bridgend House, here are a couple of different perspectives on the house and its outbuildings.  Above is a c1900 view of the house tucked in next to the viaduct, with the wooden footbridge across the Keil Burn to the left and the Crusoe Hotel to the extreme right. The gable end of the Railway Tavern is obscuring much of Bridgend House itself.  This image shows a small, low outbuilding right next to the railway bridge, which has since been demolished.  Apparently, at one time fish was sold out of this little building.

The image below is a later one - certainly after 1914 when the road bridge over the Keil was built.  A row of carts is visible to the left of the stables between the road and rail bridges, waiting to be tethered to horses.  The road bridge pictured replaced the old wooden footbridge and greatly improved connections between Lundin Links and Lower Largo. I like this image because Bridgend House is nestled between 3 different bridges!

Unsurprisingly, Bridgend House in Lower Largo is located at the end of the railway viaduct. However, its name may pre-dates the 1857 viaduct, as it was opposite the earlier wooden footbridge over the Keil Burn. Probably built early in the 19th century, the house is made more characterful by the presence of its adjoining outbuildings.  Now used as garages and stores, these buildings were originally stables and a coach house (see Fife Herald advert below from 1 June 1871). In fact, the group of buildings look remarkably similar in style to the old inn and stables at Lundin Links (the forerunner of the Lundin Links Hotel).

By c1900, when the image above was captured, the group of buildings had been established for some time as James Elder's carting business and coach hire.  In the photograph above there are pigeon boxes just below the roof and it is clear that these are very much working buildings. The stable and coach house have undergone some structural changes over the decades. A second large opening for vehicles has been created, a new flat roof has been put on the lower building and a third smaller outbuilding which once adjoined to the left has been demolished completely (see image at foot of post).  But the fact that these relics of the past have survived so long beyond the end of the era of horse-based travel is wonderful.

The photo is entitled "Largo, from the Railway" (ref: GB 0231 MS 3792/B1475) and it was taken before 1904, when it featured in a catalogue of the George Washington Wilson & Co. The collection of GWW images held by the University of Aberdeen, is viewable on-line at this link:

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/historic/gww/index.htm

Thanks to University of Aberdeen for permission to share the image.
Photo © University of Aberdeen / Special Collections Centre

The image has a lot going on in it. In the background we see Largo Bay curving round to Elie Point.  There's a boat in the bay and another, with a tall mast, in the harbour.  A horse and cart wait outside the Crusoe Hotel.  There are a great number of rooftops and chimneys in the view, including the roof and bell-tower of the Largo St David's Church to the top left. The Bridge House, with its adjoining stable and coach house, can be clearly seen to the left below the Church. Some kind of construction work seems to be going on at the lower right corner of the shot.  A couple of these details are picked out below.  In the next post, we will look in more detail at the Bridge House and it associated outbuildings, which are preserved to this day, reminding us of a different way of life.

This very sharp photograph of the Lundin Golf Club House is another from the collection of images from the George Washington Wilson & Co. collection held by the University of Aberdeen, which is viewable on-line at this link:

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/historic/gww/index.htm

Thanks to University of Aberdeen for permission to share the image.
Photo © University of Aberdeen / Special Collections Centre

The photo is entitled "Golf House, Lundin Links" (ref: GB 0231 MS 3792/C2323) and it is from a glass plate negative registered on 11 August 1899 by James Ewing.  The detailed catalogue description notes that there are "players and caddies" congregated in the club house doorway but under close inspection this looks to me like a group of children, four boys on each side of the entrance (see detail image below). They may well have acted as caddies I suppose.

Another key point of interest in the main photograph is the little shop located behind the club house to the left. The name above the door is Alex. Patrick. He was one of a family of golf club makers, which began when Alex's father John Patrick made the switch from cabinetmaker to golf club maker in Leven in the mid-19th century. When John died suddenly in a cholera outbreak in 1866, Alex inherited the business and his brothers David , John and Nicol also went into club making.  Both Alex and David had a spell serving as golf professional at the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club in London before both returned to Fife to continue club making. Alex was primarily based in Leven but had this offshoot shop in Lundin Links for a time.  His brother David had a longer association with Lundin Links - living in the village and running his workshop and shop in Golf Road for many years. Alex died in 1932 aged 86, and David in 1948 aged 90.