VINTAGE LUNDIN LINKS AND LARGO
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Broadlea

25/8/2023

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The images above and below from the Canmore collection were captured in 1975 and show Broadlea and its associated stores (formerly a stable and byre). The top photograph shows the oldest part of the group of buildings in the foreground, the end closest to the bridge over the Cupar Road. The buildings once belonged to Largo Estate and were specifically associated with Lundin Mill Farm. The image below shows the farm worker's cottage which became know as Broadlea from the south showing its main entrance (which faced away from the main road).

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Above is a 1960s colour image of the same properties, taken from the ninth green of Lundin Ladies Golf Course, with Broadlea in the centre background. The buildings can be seen again in the top right hand corner of the aerial image below. The buildings were demolished to make way for the Penrice Park housing development in the mid 1990s.
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The extract from an 1866 Estate Plan above shows the extent of Lundin Mill Farm. The Broadlea buildings are on the north edge of Lundin Mill village, close to the Mill Dam, conveniently located on the road north towards the upper parts of the farm. Broadlea cottage has the appearance of a circa 1800 dwelling, while the adjacent stable and byre appear significantly older. The imprecisely cut crowstepped gable of the byre, suggests authentic crowsteps of the pre-1750 era. The gable end can be seen in the Canmore image below taken from alongside the Cupar Road bridge. This old building was a characterful and distinctive landmark when approaching Lundin Links from Cupar direction.

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The 1826 map below appears to show the Broadlea buildings, Earnest Cottage and Lundin Mill Farm House along with the corn mill (marked with a wheel like symbol). This mill is also marked on the 1775 Ainslie map of Fife.
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Broadlea was built to be a farm worker's cottage, likely circa 1800. Over its history, using census information, it would appear that Broadlea was home to many individuals and their families, including those occupied as field labourer, carter and dairyman. In 1901, carter David Morris lived at Broadlea with his wife and two children but in the warmer months the property was let to summer visitors. By September 1901 the Morris family were preparing to move out and the notice below from the 19 September Leven Advertiser provides an insight to some of their equipment, livestock and household effects.​

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The 1911 census shows the row of buildings as three separate dwellings, Broadlea, its annex and the 'bothy'. Robert Imrie, farm grieve, now occupied the main cottage with his wife and six children. A 'lodger' occupied the small annex and a shepherd and ploughman lived in what was then described as the 'bothy' at the edge of the village. The above snippet from the 28 December 1911 Leven Advertiser reports that George Bell, tenant farmer at Lundin Mill, gave each farm servant a Christmas gift of a currant loaf and pound of tea.

​By the next census ten years later, in 1921, Robert Imrie was still at Broadlea and still employed as a farm grieve. The former byre was now referred to as 'Bell's Bothy'. A shepherd and three ploughman (aged 20, 16 and 16) lived in the bothy. Below is a report from the 8 December 1925 Leven Advertiser about the Imries departure from the farm (they later returned to live in Lundin Links). Farm workers continued to live at Broadlea for many more decades, including ploughman Sebastian Ramsay in the 1940s and the Osborne sisters in the 1960s. Below are the buildings as viewed from Cupar Road and a 1964 maps showing the three separate dwellings.
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Lost Bridge

18/8/2023

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The above postcard view is interesting because it features a pair of bridges over the Keil Burn, only one of which still remains today. The zoomed in annotated detail below shows that the bridge in the background (marked 1) is the one which still carries the Cupar Road over the Keil Burn, while the smaller bridge (2) in the foreground accommodates a farm track within Lundin Mill Farm, from the steading over the burn to the fields on the other side. The feature marked 3 is the former buildings on the Cupar Road, including the house known as Broadlea. The map from 1912 further below show the same three features and an arrow to indicate the direction in which the photograph was captured. Note that the bridge in the foreground has a slight curve to its top, while the Cupar Road bridge has a straight upper edge.
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Broadlea and the small bridge were lost when the Penrice Park housing development was built in the mid-1990s by Bett Brothers. Both of these features appear again in the slightly different postcard view below titled 'Largo Law from Ladies Golf Course'. Note the neatly constructed hay ricks to the far right of the image. The Lundin Mill Farm steading and mill complex were also demolished around 1995.
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Below are the two bridges close up for comparison - the top black and white image is the lost farm bridge while the lower image is the surviving Cupar Road bridge. They are not dissimilar in design, suggesting that they may have been constructed around the same time. The surviving bridge may have been enlarged and maintained more than once in its history.
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The side-by-side 1912 map and recent aerial photo show how the Penrice Park housing filled in the space between the Cupar Road/Largo Road and the Keil Burn.  Penrice Park was named after the Penrice family that were tenant farmers at Lundin Mill Farm and other local farms over many years. A further development of flats followed a few years later by Thomas Mitchell builders (in the south east corner of the newly developed area).

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Above are a couple of photographs of the bridge on the Cupar Road to the north of Lundin Links and below is an advert for the ex-show house for sale in the 6 November 1997 Scotsman newspaper. Change is inevitable but it seems such a shame that only one of these historic bridges has survived.
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Largo Roses

11/8/2023

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The above advert, from the 3 November 1948 Leven Mail, is for Largo Roses, which were grown at Kirkton Nurseries on the edge of Upper Largo beyond the cemetery. The 1940s aerial photo below shows the nurseries in the central rectangle, to the north of the cemetery and the school. The proprietor of Kirkton Nurseries was David Strathearn Abernethy. Born in 1900 in Dalkeith Parish, Midlothian, David was the son of David Alexander Abernethy an Inland Revenue Officer and Margaret Nisbet. By the time of the 1921 census, aged 20, David was already a 'nurseryman' working for Dickson & Co Nurserymen and living in Liberton. 

By 1923, David Abernethy had relocated to Largo and was owner occupier of 'greenhouse, office and land' at Chesterstone Farm. The nursery would continue to operate from this site for more than four decades, David living on site for much of this time. He would become known locally as an authority on roses, acting as judge at local flower shows such as the St Andrews Rose Show. 

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Above is an advert from the 23 November 1935 Leven Mail. Note that David is a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. Roses were hugely popular at this time, with most gardens featuring the "Queen of the Garden" amongst their displays. Being easy to grow, coming in many varieties and blooming long and lavishly, the rose was seen to provide a good return for its cost. Being able to visit a nursery to view roses in bloom and having the option to order a catalogue, made it easy for customers to confidently place an order. The nurseryman would give advice on the best varieties for a garden's situation and soil type. The Kirkton Nurseries would have had a wide range of varieties and its reputation grew quickly. Below are example adverts for the "widely known" Largo Roses from the early 1950s, available via Thomas Oswald, Florist and Fruiterer, Shorehead, Leven.

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In the summer of 1955 there was a fire at the Nurseries - the 20 July Leven Mail reported on the incident below. The fire started on the roadside, close to the wooden house of Mr Smith who worked at Kirkton Nurseries. Fortunately, the blaze was noticed quickly and was extinguished by a unit from Methil Fire Brigade before it reached the house. The Smith family were unharmed but a bed of roses was destroyed. A discarded cigarette was presumed to have led to the fire.
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Below is a later advert from the 25 October 1961 Leven Mail and further below are three examples of adverts for Largo Roses which all appeared in the East Fife Mail in 1969. Note that by 1969, orders were taken through a Buckhaven telephone number. David Abernethy was now living at 4 Church Place, Upper Largo and had likely retired by this time. David Strathearn Abernethy died aged 78 in 1979. Do you remember the man responsible for making Upper Largo famous for roses? Do you recall Kirkton Nurseries and the rose beds? Did you ever have a catalogue or order roses? If so, please leave a comment.
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Hugh Cameron RSA RSW (1835-1918)

4/8/2023

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Hugh Cameron was born in Edinburgh in 1835, eldest son of tailor John Cameron and his wife Isabella Armstrong. At the age of 14 he became an apprentice in architecture and surveying. However, his true passion was for painting and by 1852 he was studying under Robert Scott Lauder. Cameron exhibited for the first time at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1854 at the age of nineteen (and went on to be represented at every exhibition bar two up until the year of his death). Having given up architecture entirely in 1856, he became an Associate of the RSA in 1859. The 1861 census describes Hugh Cameron as an 'artist figure painter' and the census of 1871 records him as living in India Street in Edinburgh as an 'artist (painting)'.

In 1877 at the age of 42, Hugh married widow Jessie Allan (nee Anderson) in Helensburgh. Their first daughter Margaret Kerr Cameron was born the following year. Their second daughter Isabella Armstrong Cameron was born the year after. The family then moved to London - Hugh following in the footsteps of many of his fellow Scottish painters. While based in London, at West Cromwell Road in Kensington, the couple had their son Hugh and a third daughter, Jessie. The family returned to Scotland after only a few years "not finding London very congenial". Based in Edinburgh at the time of the 1891 census, Hugh had already by this time discovered Largo as a place of inspiration. 

The full catalogue of his works exhibited at the RSA shows Viewforth (beyond the Temple at Largo) named as his studio base from 1889. In 1889 he produced works such as Pleasures of the Sea and The Timid Bather. These were followed by pieces such as Summer Pleasures and Morning by the Sea. Viewforth (the ruins of which are pictured below) was right on the shore of beautiful Largo Bay, was fairly private and isolated and had a quality of light quality just perfect for capturing seascapes. The fresh breezy weather and opportunity for sea-bathing was beneficial to the wider family and Cameron's pieces from this time often feature women and children by and in the sea.
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In fact Hugh was already associated with Largo by 1888. The piece above from the 10 February 1888 Fifeshire Advertiser shows him present at the annual dinner of Largo Curling Club. He continued to split his time between Edinburgh and Largo beyond 1905, when his wife Jessie (who produced her own paintings of Largo) passed away aged 59. One of the most recognisable scenes of Largo is the one below (Summer Pleasures, 1890) looking west along the bay towards the Crusoe Hotel. Further below is a selection of other works depicting Largo.
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In the 1901 census, Hugh, wife Jessie and two children, Isabel and Hugh, were recorded as residing at Elphinstone on Crescent Road (pictured above). The census took place on 31 March, perhaps suggesting that while this time of year was not conducive to being at Viewforth, the family still opted to be based in the Largo area. Two local women were also part of the household, employed as a cook and housemaid (see below).
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The above portrait of Hugh Cameron, painted by John Brown Abercromby in 1898, is significant because it depicts Cameron painting a scene of Largo Bay. The word 'Largo' is also incorporated into this artwork in the centre at the foot (see detail below). Although known as an Edinburgh artist, there is no doubt that Largo was an important place for Cameron, a place which not only inspired him but one which was also for a long time his home. The 16 July 1918 Scotsman included the following words in his obituary:

"For some years he resided in Fifeshire whence originated some attractive pictures of child life being painted sympathetically at play on the shore, the compositions having a sense of light and movement which have characterised the best of the later work of Scottish artists." 

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Hugh Cameron died in Edinburgh, aged 82, at the residence of his daughter, Isabella Armstrong Archibald, on Spottiswoode Street. He is buried in Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh along with Jessie and two of their daughters (see image at foot of post).
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    This blog is about the history of the villages of Lundin Links, Lower Largo and Upper Largo in Fife, Scotland. Comments and contributions from readers are very welcome!

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