The busy beach scene above has all the hallmarks of an "excursion party". In other words, it looks like a party of day-trippers, enjoying a much-anticipated visit to the beach. The location is the beach at Massney Braes, looking towards Largo Pier. Note the boat masts close to the pier in the background and the salmon stake nets in the sea to the far right. Dressed in their finery, this would have been an important social occasion and a special treat for the group. Their attire may look rather out of place to the modern-day eye, however, it was normal then for ladies to take to the sands in full length skirts and flamboyant hats, while the gents wore three-piece suits with ties. Children were a little less formal. Most boys appear to have on short trousers - perfect for paddling or being buried in sand. The party of at least fifty people included all ages. Close inspection shows a few donkeys are on the beach, giving the youngsters rides along the sand (see detail below). 
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Probably the group would have arrived by train at Lundin Links station and made their way over the iron bridge to the beach at Massney Braes, bringing a picnic with them. This could potentially be a church outing, or perhaps a society of some kind. The example below, mentioned in the 14 June 1906 Leven Advertiser, is of an excursion to Lundin Links by the Markinch Parish Church Sabbath School. Like the group in the photograph, they enjoyed games and races on the sands. In their case a 'special train' was laid on for the occasion, suggesting a sizeable group similar to the one shown. On occasion, a band would accompany these groups on their outing, to provide musical entertainment throughout the day.

Not all visiting groups arrived by train however. The 26 July 1907 East of Fife Record piece below describes how a picnic party a hundred strong from Colinsburgh United Free Church travelled to the seaside at Lundin Links in carts, in "delightful weather". Not all such trips were blessed with favourable weather conditions. Sometimes groups had to retreat into a suitable indoor venue at short notice. However, both the group in the image above, and a similar group shown in a different image below (at the same location but looking west), were fortunate.

On Wednesday 9 October 1968, a play was shown on BBC Television called The Lower Largo Sequence. The photograph above from 'Scotland on Air' shows the principal actors, Isobel Black and Patrick Allen, standing on Largo Pier with the Keil Burn and the houses of Drummochy in the background on a misty day. The play was described as "the wry story of the love between an ageing man played by Patrick Allen and a young girl Isobel Black. The man is tormented by the age gap, a torment which leads to turmoil in the relationship" The Stage (26 September 1968) . The fuller synopsis was as follows:

"The verse continues but the rumour finds its confirmation on the stones of Lower Largo on the east coast of Scotland, where the statue of Alexander Selkirk looks out over his birthplace. Defoe was there first to fictionalise him in Robinson Crusoe; the original sailor has been dead for more than two-and-a-half centuries, but the Crusoe-syndrome remains.
In The Lower Largo Sequence the central character is The Man, the island seeker. Which island? Any island. The island he has created within himself and which The Girl invades."

The script was written by Eddie Boyd. He had made an earlier visit to Lower Largo to do some writing, which resulted in a series of poems, which he named The Lower Largo Sequence. Some months later, he went back to work on them further and the result was a script. This was subsequently filmed and soon afterwards was screened on the BBC as a 'Wednesday Play'. Filming took place on location in Lower Largo in May 1968. If you recall the TV cameras rolling into the village for filming, please comment. The key cast members were:

• The Commercial Gent: Callum Mill
• Railway Official: David Kinnaird
• The Man: Patrick Allen
• The Girl: Isobel Black
• Conductress: Nancy Mitchell
• Landlord: Harry Walker
• The Lover: Michael Harrigan
• Traffic Warden: Ken Henderson​

The headline above appeared in the East Fife Mail the week after the play was screened (16 October 1968). Villagers were allegedly "up in arms" over how village life was portrayed. In addition to this article, the same paper published three letters of complaint about the show in its 'mailbag' feature. Remarks included that the play was "sleazy" and "a confused, distasteful and vulgar bit of third-rate drama" whose key ingredients were "drink, sex and violence". It was felt that it could have been set anywhere but had been "foisted upon" Lower Largo due to an obscure link to Alexander Selkirk and the quest for solitude.

As the presence of film crews and well-known actors in the village had caused so much interest, many families had allowed their children to stay up late to watch the play. Once the nature of the subject matter became clear, some took exception. A petition was promptly started to protest to the BBC. Soon eighty residents had signed it. In addition, the St Andrews District Council were called upon to act and they subsequently wrote a letter of complaint to the BBC. A later reply to them stated that the play had been praised by critics and that the sequences filmed in Lower Largo showed the village as it was. At least one resident agreed with the BBC, stating that "the locale was well-illustrated and the camera work was outstanding. The shots were well composed, particularly the night scenes".

Below is the full TV schedule for the day that the play was screened. The Lower Largo Sequence was shown between a party political broadcast and the Horse of the Year Show. It would be interesting to re-watch the play today but it seems that it is no longer part of the BBC's archive.

The pair of images above show Emsdorf Road in Lundin Links, looking towards the former grocer shop at the start of Hillhead Street. The top image dates to the early 1900s, while the colour photograph is recent. In over a century, the buildings have not altered much but several details have changed. The road surface has been modernised, bus stops have been introduced and the gardens have matured. The houses of "Emsdorf Place" as it was known (on the right) look newly-built in the older picture, with the plants yet to start growing in their gardens. 
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However, the most significant change is the loss of the old stone wall that once surrounded the old bleaching green (shown centrally in the image detail above). Known locally as Pump Green, this was once the hub of the village of Lundin Mill. This was where the communal water pump was situated that villagers would use on a daily basis. It was where linens and clothing were set out to dry. The green must surely have been connected with the linen hand loom weaving industry originally. When the village of Emsdorf was built around 1800, comprising mainly weavers' cottages, this facility would likely have been constructed as part of the development.

The best account of Pump Green was recorded in 1974 by Esther Menzies (nee Hunter), who was born in Rose Villa, Woodlands Road, in 1895. At the time that the new Lundin Mill Primary School was built, she shared her early memories, aiming to highlight how much life in the village had changed over the years. She was born just before the rapid expansion of Lundin Mill into Lundin Links. In her words, Pump Green was... 

"surrounded by a high stone wall following the line of the posts and chain there at present but protruding in an arc for several yards at the south end.  There was a gap of about four yards with an iron pump with a turning knob right opposite Laurel Bank. The washing was laid out to bleach in the curved end and we did not play on the green if the washing was there.  At other times it was a playground.  The grass patch beyond was near oblong.  It was crossed by paths - one leading round by the curved wall to Emsdorf Place Houses, another at the east edge in front of their doors and another from Woodlands Road cutting through to meet the one passing alongside the Pump Green wall and leading up to the Hillhead."

Pump Green was one of several local bleaching greens where linens were laid out to be dried and whitened by sunlight. I wonder whether the white smocks worn by the youngsters in the photo were dried on the green. The map below dates to the 1850s and shows the green's curved wall, pointing south, with the 'pump' marked at the top end. There are weavers' cottages in all directions - Hillhead Road to the north, Emsdorf Crescent to the east, Hatton Terrace (the old name for the terraced cottages on Emsdorf Road) to the south and Emsdorf Street to the west. 

Painting a further picture of life in Lundin Mill around the turn of the century, Esther Menzies said...

"This little patch brings back memories of a type of life entirely gone. Near the curved wall of the Pump Green the Punch and Judy man set up his show and we children stood or sat on the grass fascinated with the antics of the dog and the puppets. Here the tramps (we called them gangrels) squatted for their meal....Here too the organ grinder would rest with his barrel organ (hurdy-gurdy was the name then) after going round the streets. The men with their knife-sharpening machines rested there."

The green was scythed by Jimmie Brown from Hatton Law and the grass was carted away for his horse.
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A glimpse of the wall of Pump Green also appears in the photograph above, on the extreme lower left. The image was captured at the entrance to David Lindsay's grocer shop. He was the original proprietor of this shop, which then sold items such as bran, oatmeal, dried cod and salt herring from a barrel and parings. The stone wall was demolished soon after these images were taken, presumably to allow the easier passage of the increasing traffic. The water pump moved to corner of Woodlands Road, as the 1912 map below shows (marked W.T. for water tap). The former Pump Green was left as open space with undefined edges until post-1930s, when it was neatly edged and generally tidied up. The line of "posts and chain" mentioned by Esther Menzies are gone but the area remains a small attractive green space to this day.
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Pictured above is Stina, a two-masted 100-ton steel and timber schooner built by Bodewes at Martenshoek in the Netherlands in 1902. Incredibly, this vessel still sails the seas today and her story is a remarkable one. Stina was originally a sail-powered cargo ship, designed to carry heavy loads across the North Sea. She was described in the book 'Coastwise Sail' by John Anderson as "a very handy type of shallow draught coaster". Her visit to Largo took place very soon after her construction and certainly before 1905. A clue to what Stina may have been doing in Largo can be seen in the newspaper snippet below (30 May 1903 Edinburgh Evening News) when she arrived at Burntisland with a load of oil cake.

At this time there was an oil cake mill at Burntisland, owned by David Russell of Silverburn. Russell also owned the Largo Oil and Cake Mill (pictured further below). This former flax spinning mill had been modified around 1860 by Russell so that box presses could be used to extract oil from linseed, cottonseed, rapeseed, etc. The leftover material was then turned into 'cakes' (e.g. linseed cake and cotton cake) which could be used as animal feed). Some years later, David Russell acquired the old sugar mill at Burntisland and converted it for similar purposes. 
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In 1905 the Stina (a female forename popular in the Nordic countries) was sold and renamed Adolf. She traded across the Baltic and North seas under the German flag until the outbreak of World War One. During this conflict she was taken as a prize of war by the British Navy and turned into a Q-ship - in other words a decoy ship intended to lure enemy submarines into making surface attacks. Q-ships had concealed weaponry which could then be used to open fire. Such vessels formed a fleet to sail in front of the Merchant Fleet to protect them from being torpedoed.

Around 1922, the vessel was sold to Dalbeattie-based shipping company John Carswell and Sons. There in the Solway Firth, she had a paraffin engine fitted and was given the name Solway Lass. For years she transported all sorts of general cargoes across the Irish Sea, often calling at Liverpool. One typical cargo example was maize brought into the Solway Firth to be processed for use as animal feed. ​Carswell sold her in 1935 to Kristian Andersen, a Swede who had settled in Portmadoc in Wales.

Shortly after this sad incident, Andersen's widow sold Solway Lass to Peter Pedersen of Lemvig, Denmark. She was renamed Bent - a male forename of Danish origin which means 'blessed'. From there she once again carried cargo across the Baltic and North Seas. The Second World War interrupted her trading exploits. Some stories report that she was seized by the Germans, who then used her a supply ship. Her troubles continued beyond the end of the war. The book 'Coastwise Sail' states that "in 1946 she was struck by two mines and had to be beached in a sinking condition but was salved and repaired".

Around 1949 she was given yet another new name - Sundeved - and carried cargo for a Danish Shipping Company. Sundeved is an area on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in South Denmark. After a couple of decades, in late 1971, Dane Leif Brochmann took Sundeved on a voyage from Dover to Fiji, via Barbados, the Panama Canal and Tahiti. The vessel then remained in Fiji for many years, where she was rechristened Lawendua. She traded between the Fijian Islands and at some point appears to have been given another new name - Tui Na Savusavu.

In 1983, Sydney businessman Tim Lloyd found her in Fiji in a rundown state but still being used to transport cargo. He bought her, took her to Sydney, restored the name Solway Lass and embarked upon a full refit. During this lengthy and costly process, her cargo hold was fitted out in teak as a large dining room to seat 60. Below is an image of the refit which appeared in the 26 June 1986 Galloway News. Once restored, Solway Lass operated out of Sydney Harbour and was quite the tourist attraction as an historic tall ship. 

In a proud moment, in 1988, Solway Lass took part in Australia's bicentennial celebrations, participating in the First Fleet re-enactment. Several tall ships were chosen to follow part of the route of the First Fleet which sailed from Portsmouth in May 1787, arriving in Sydney in January 1788. The 18th century fleet of eleven ships carried around 1400 colonists, including 759 convicts, who founded modern Australia. The original route went from Portsmouth, via Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town. Solway Lass followed the last part of the route from Botany Bay to Sydney. The image of Solway Lass below appeared in the brochure for the event and was reproduced in the 9 January 1986 Galloway News.
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Having survived two world wars, almost becoming a wreck twice and having given many decades hard service around the globe (not to mention many name changes) the warm, calm waters of the Whitsundays seem a most fitting place for Solway Lass to enjoy her old age. Recent images of her are shown above (from Wikipedia) and below (from John Downie). Having celebrated her centenary in 2002, and had another major refit in 2018, she continues to be an important and iconic ship. ​Her present life is certainly a world away from carrying oil cakes along the Fife coast.