The pair of images of Largo Kirk and Church Place above show that, while the appearance of the area is little changed in over a century, the way that this space is used has altered quite significantly. The green in front of the church was once a hub of village life, with its communal water pump and drying green. Theses features stand out in the foreground of the 1890s photograph, captured by Lady Henrietta Gilmour of Montrave, one of Scotland's earliest women photographers. Her photographic collection is now held by St Andrews University and the image is courtesy of University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums.
The buildings of Church Place were not just dwellings, as they are today. There are signs clearly legible on two of the buildings in the older photograph. One advertises A. Baird Butcher Carriages for Hire, and another A. Wilson Plumber, Tinsmith and Ironmonger. A number of buildings in the vicinity contained businesses (and smelly, noisy ones at that). The engraving below, drawn by James Stewart and engraved by Joseph Swan for the ‘History of the County of Fife’, by John Leighton 1840, also gives an impression of a bustling area where people carried out their occupations as well as lived. The village green hosted cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks.
One of the enterprises featured in the 1890s photograph was Andrew Baird's butcher (and carriages for hire). Andrew was born around 1848, as he is noted as aged 3 in the 1851 census. He was the illegitimate son of John Baird (a Methil based flax dresser) and Elspeth Keddie, who was likely employed in the same flax works. By the time of the 1861 census, Andrew was working in the mill, alongside his mother and brother. In 1871 he had changed both occupation and residence, and was an agricultural labourer, based at Balgrummo Farm near Scoonie.
As an agricultural labourer, Andrew would have moved from farm to farm. Eventually he met Margaret Lawson, with whom he had a child in 1873 in Leuchars. The pair went on the marry in 1876 (and eventually had a further thirteen children). By 1881, Andrew and Margaret had settled in Kirkton of Largo, where Andrew was working as a carter. The family, with four children at the time, lived on Main Street close to McGregor the butcher.
A few years later, in the mid-1880s the opportunity to move into the butcher trade arose, when another Kirkton butcher, David Simpson, moved to Lundin Mill's Hillhead Street. Andrew Baird took over Simpson's vacated premises at Church Place and was recorded there at the 1891 census along with his wife and nine children. Perhaps Andrew had learned some relevant skills from his time working on farms. However, his time as a butcher (or flesher) was not always smooth running. The piece below from 22 December 1888 Fife News tells us that Baird was prosecuted for the foul state of his pig styes.
The following year he was charged with possession of a dog without a license (see 24 May 1889 East of Fife Record below). Further below the 20 August 1890 Commercial Gazette recorded that Andrew Baird was in front of the debt recovery court.
In 1894, the butcher premises in Church Place, consisting of a shop, house, stable, byre, etc., was put up for sale (see 1 September 1894 St Andrews Citizen below). This was the same year that Andrew and Margaret Baird's twin infant daughters Elsie and Oona died, aged nine months, from croup, within days of one another. The Baird family relocated to Lundin Mill, at a time when the village was on the cusp of expansion. The 1901 census finds the family living at 3 Rossini Place, just off Emsdorf Street, very close to the newly completed Lundin Links Hotel and the Lundin Links shops. Andrew was working as a carting contractor, assisted by his 13 year old son Andrew. Margaret and three of their younger children completed the household. Andrew rented a stable on Hillhead Street from the widow of butcher David Simpson (whose premises he had taken on a decade beforehand).
After a lengthy period of illness, Andrew died at Rossini Place on 12 March 1907. His widow, Margaret continued to live at Rossini Place. In the 1911 census she lived there with three of her sons, Andrew (who was a coal miner), John (a colliery pony-driver below ground) and Thomas (shop assistant at a licensed grocer), as well as a 9 year old grandson, also named Andrew. Below is the family headstone, which Andrew shares with his wife Margaret Lawson (who died in 1923) and their two daughters who died in infancy - twins Elsie and Oona.
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