Trying to visualise c1850 life in Largo Parish is a challenge due to the lack of images of the place at that time. The oldest photograph of the area I have seen is the c1870 John Patrick view of the harbour and viaduct at Lower Largo.  We need to rely on engravers and painters for earlier representations,  The above is a wonderful example.  This artwork shows the harbour before the addition of the viaduct and was done by Dr Charles Blatherwick.  

Born in 1826 in Hampshire, Blatherwick studied medicine but was better known for his other roles - author, contributor to magazines, artist and "H.M. Alkali Inspector in Scotland". He lived the second half of his life in Scotland, settling near Helensburgh, where he died in 1895. He was president of Glasgow Art Club, treasurer of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water-Colour and had three exhibits in the Royal Academy. This must have been one of his early pieces. It captures the importance of the harbour and pier before the villages changed forever with the arrival of the railway in 1857.

The image was included as a plate within the 1907 book by Andrew Storrar Cunningham 'Upper Largo, Lower Largo, Lundin Links and Newburn'.

The previous post focussed on the cluster of feus around the inn corner at Lundin Mill, dominated by the Bell family in the mid 19th century.  Around 1802 the planned settlement of Emsdorf was created - spreading east from the inn and toll bar.  The origins of Emsdorf have been covered before. Some of the original feuers were described as 'manufacturers' perhaps suggesting that they set up the weavers' cottages found on this street. Fast forward fifty years and there were still many weavers operating on this street.  

From the c1850 map above, the plot marked '1' above was owned by Andrew Hogg who was a 'weavers' agent' or 'manufacturers' agent'.  Plot '2' was owned by Robert Gibb a 'disabled seaman' whose daughters were hand loom weavers, while the plot marked '3' contained two houses and a weavers' shop, owned by James Thin but partly occupied by weaver James Peebles. Next along were weavers James Muir and George Grieg (4). Feu '5' stands out as being different - this contains 'Emsdorf House', a larger detached property, which was owned by Peter Smith, miller at the Cameron Bridge Mill. At '6' were weavers George Clark and Robert Mitchell.

While the south side of Emsdorf Street was largely occupied by weavers and their agents, the north side was more diverse. For example, plot '7' was owned by John Reid a nurseryman from Leith, while '8' was owned by Thomas Smith of the 'United States of America' - could these have been early holiday homes? The image below (taken late 1890s) gives an impression of the contrast between the fairly uniform south side of the street (left) and the more varied north side. Originally, many of the cottages would have had thatched roofs and the roads would have been rough and poorly drained (as recalled in an earlier post).

The other notable building in Emsdorf was the old school - situated strategically between the villages of Emsdorf and Drummochy (marked '9' above).  According to the Scotland's Places website, it was "a small stone building in good repair, built for and occupied as a school house. Built in 1821 at the expense of General Durham then the proprietor of the Largo Estate". The average attendance was noted as around 60. This was replaced in 1858 by the Crescent Road school but continued to be a public resource - used for meetings and soirees before becoming the wash-house of Seacliff and ultimately being demolished. Seacliff is pictured below and the school/wash-house was situated at the back corner of the garden just behind where the bus-stop is today and where a very old wall remains.

1. Agnes Bell (Toll Keeper)       2. Andrew Bell (Inn Keeper)     3. Thomas Bell (Weaver) - two feus
4. James Bell (Mason)               5. John Trail (Carter)                  6. Brewery/Bakery      7. Bleaching Green

The toll house at Lundin Mill has been mentioned previously. Back in the mid-19th century the toll-keeper was Mrs Agnes Bell, mother of innkeeper at the neighbouring inn - Andrew Bell. One could imagine Agnes Bell directing passing travellers to her son's inn (pictured above some decades later).  And the 'family affair' didn't end there, as the five feus clustered around the junction of what is now Leven Road, Links Road and Emsdorf Street (see top image above) were all occupied by members of the Bell family.  One of Agnes's other sons - James Bell - was a mason and had the narrow plot that is now 'Ivanhoe'. Her nephew, Thomas Bell, cousin to Andrew and James, had a feu on each side of Emsdorf Street. So it looks very much like Andrew Bell's family lived to the left of the inn and Thomas Bell's family to the right, as shown above.

The story of how the family came to dominate this key locality seems to stretch back to the origins of the inn itself. The earliest recorded innkeeper seems to be a 'Mrs Wood'.  Records point to Mrs Wood being an Elspeth Cornfoot, who married a James Wood.  She was recorded as innkeeper in 1794 and perhaps remained so up until the time of her death in 1814. Soon after that her relative Nathan Cornfoot stepped into her shoes at the inn.  In 1817 there is a reference to "Cornfoot's Tavern" in Lundin Mill in the Caledonian Mercury. Interestingly, when Nathan Cornfoot died at the inn on 12 February 1840, an inventory of his possessions was compiled. This provides tantalising insights into life at the inn around that time.

As well as the usual tables, chairs, tablecloths, beds (described as "chaff beds" - effectively straw mattresses), bedding, pillows, dressers, cutlery and crockery, there were many items you would expect to find at an inn, including stoups (used for collecting water from the well), a gross of bottles, wine glasses, goblets, tumblers and measures (including 'gill', 'mutchin' and 'donald' sizes) and no less than 22 gallons of whisky! Apparently the consumption of whisky per person per year in Scotland then was around 1.6 gallons back then, compared to 0.4 gallons now.

Also listed were grates, fire irons, bellows, shovels, a bread toaster and a tea kettle. More refined items included mahogany tea trays, brass candlesticks, lanterns, silver teaspoons and an eight-day clock (with a movement requiring winding only once per week). Meanwhile, out in the byre were two cows - one brown, one black, a corn chest, a wheelbarrow, a scythe, rake and ladder, among many other items.

Andrew Bell eventually took over as innkeeper.  He too, looks to have had a family connection to Elspeth Wood (nee Cornfoot) - as one of her daughters (Janet Wood) married into the Bell family.  When, Andrew Bell died in 1849, his wife Janet (nee Berwick) took over as inn keeper and remained so for many years.  

There's an extremely detailed hand-drawn map of the Lundin Links area that pre-dates the railway, the golf course and Standard Life development.  Held at the St Andrews University Library Special Collections, this large linen-backed paper map of feued ground sadly cannot be published so I have re-created it in simplified form above. Although entitled 'Drummochy' on the original, it actually gives a clear impression that there were really three distinct small settlements at that time (c1850).

To the north is Lundinmill with its historic heart around the mill itself, surrounded on three sides by the Keil Burn.To the south by the mouth of the burn is Drummochy. Well-established as a port at the time, Drummochy had been home to a salt works in the eighteenth century.

The newest of the three villages was the planned settlement of 'Emsdorf', the origins of which can be traced to 1802. The toll house and inn at the east of what would become Emsdorf Street were already in place when Sir William Erskine began feuing off the land in the part of the Lundin Estate newly named 'Emsdorf' (after the battle in which Erskine's father had had a famous victory). Apparently also known at one time as 'Over Drummochy', Emsdorf would soon be considered part of 'Lundinmill'. 

Over the next few posts, we'll look at each of these three settlements as they were back around 1850 and the people and facilities found there at the time.

This view looking along Upper Largo's main street is undated but looks around the turn of the century.  The distinctive white pony and carriage may provide a clue.  When a certain Miss Mary Haymes of Aithernie died in June 1898, the St Andrews Citizen stated that:

"...for many a long year her low pony-chair and white pony were a familiar sight at cottage doors in Lundin Mill, Largo and even so far from home as Woodside and Backmuir."

Miss Haymes was the last of the well-known trio, the Misses Rigg and Miss Haymes, that did much good work for the local community during the second half of the 19th century.  Mary Dalyell Haymes was born in 1844 in Lincolnshire but raised at Tarvit by her late mother's sisters.  In 1864 she came with Misses Mary and Margaret Rigg to the home they had built on a slope close to Lundin Links station. Precisely 34 years later to the day after moving into Aithernie, Miss Haymes died there, following a period of poor health.

She had devoted her life to alleviating suffering and poverty and had a particular association with the Largo Clothing Club and the Girls' Friendly Society.  Newspaper archives also highlight her involvement with the local Good Templar Lodge, her teaching at Sabbath School and hosting annual Christmas soirees.  Whether the above pony and trap do belong to Miss Haymes or not, the image certainly evokes that era and provides one theory for who might have been visiting Kirkton of Largo that day.

Joseph Hislop was an internationally renowned professional opera singer who retired to Largo Parish and ended his days teaching others to sing there.  Born in Edinburgh in 1884, he was a chorister at St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral at Palmerston Place at the age of ten but began a career soon afterwards as a photo-process engraver. After spells in Glasgow and London, his job took him to Sweden where he worked in Gothenburg at a printing firm. There he joined a male voice choir. A visiting professional singer happened to hear one of Hislop's solos and suggested he audition for singing teacher and physician Gillis Bratt.

He studied with Bratt for three and a half years before joining the Opera School attached to the Royal Opera House in Stockholm. In 1914 he made he debut in the title role of Faust at the Royal Theatre. In the following six years he appeared in many leading roles across Sweden and Norway becoming Scandinavia's highest paid opera singer (he would later be knighted by both the kings of Sweden and Denmark for his services to Opera). He began to travel the world, singing in La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden in London, Paris and elsewhere in Europe.  He toured the USA and Canada, South America, Australia and New Zealand.  He sang in six different languages and made many recordings, including 150 records for HMV. When the great Caruso died in 1921, Hislop was tipped as a successor.

In the mid 1930s, Hislop undertook a major tour of the UK, including a 34-town tour of Scotland among which was a visit to the Adam Smith Theatre in Kirkcaldy. The Fife Free Press of 14 April 1934 spoke of how:

"Scotland's world famous tenor is appearing in person, supported by a brilliant company of international artistes. This is the first occasion on which Mr Joseph Hislop has made a comprehensive tour of his native land, and it says much for the influence of Kirkcaldy that the town has been included in My Hislop's itinerary. During the past few years, Joseph Hislop has sung in every great Opera House throughout the civilised world....It is expected that the capacity of the hall will be tested to its uttermost on the occasion of this outstanding event."

The tour left his voice strained and, soon afterwards, Hislop retired from performing and began to teach, initially in Stockholm at the Royal Academy of Music. One of his pupils was the soprano Birgit Nilsson. By 1947 he moved to London and advised at Covent Garden and Saddler's Wells, as well as teaching at the Guildhall School of Music. Joseph and his second wife Nancy eventually began to yearn for Scotland and in 1969 retired to Fife, settling in Berryside farmhouse south of New Gilston (a location chosen because Nancy had connections with Cupar and Joseph enjoyed golf - playing regularly at both Lundin Links and St Andrews).  Joseph continued to teach privately from Berryside with some of his students staying in a caravan on the farm. In the book 'Joseph Hislop - Gran Tenore' by Michael Turnbull, the Scottish baritone Donald Maxwell recalls his regular visits of Berryside...

"I'll never forget driving up to the farmhouse and hearing him busily practising the day's scales, for he warmed up his voice rigorously even though over 90...My strongest memory is of sitting at Berryside on a summer's day looking over to Largo Law and discussing Scots songs....My last memory of him was about a couple of months before he died. We were sitting listening to the re-releases of some of his records. He was by then rather frail but typically, for a tenor, he smiled approvingly at his top note."

Joseph Hislop died peacefully at home in his sleep on 6 May 1977, aged 92, and was survived by his wife, son and two daughters. Examples of his singing can be found on-line:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFzgR--q-7s

This blog began exactly three years ago today with a short post and an inspiring photograph. The heritage of Largo Parish has continued to inspire and motivate the development of the website and will hopefully continue to do so for some time to come. 

If you have information, images, artefacts or memories relating to the area's rich heritage, that you would be willing to share, please do get in touch.  You can comment on this post or use the 'contact' option.  

There are so many aspects that contribute to a 'sense of place' - buildings, people, industrial heritage, leisure pursuits, customs, landscape, names.....and the small details that can be found everywhere.