Going back a century or more, if you wanted to walk along Woodlands Road you would have said that you were going "along the Back Braes". Of course many people would have regularly done just that, as it was a quick way to reach Largo station from Lundin Mill (Lundin Links station being quite far away).
The road at this time was described by Esther Menzies as follows:
"The only houses, and these all on the north side, were the four small ones at the beginning, Keilbank, Rose Villas, the Manse and the group at the end, beginning with Monkton Lodge. At the entrance there was a pump on the south side and on the north side a huge boulder just on the corner...all the traffic was by horse and cart and the boulder forced the wheels to miss the big concrete doorsteps which are on the feu charters."
Mrs Menzies went on to talk about a garden ground between Keilbank and West Rose Villa with a private drying green. Between East Rose Villa and the Manse was a corn field belonging to the farm which stretched from the Mill right up to March Wall which runs right along the back of all the Woodlands Road houses. Apparently, various neighbouring fields were used for the annual flower show and for "the shows" (ie fairs).
The road at this time was described by Esther Menzies as follows:
"The only houses, and these all on the north side, were the four small ones at the beginning, Keilbank, Rose Villas, the Manse and the group at the end, beginning with Monkton Lodge. At the entrance there was a pump on the south side and on the north side a huge boulder just on the corner...all the traffic was by horse and cart and the boulder forced the wheels to miss the big concrete doorsteps which are on the feu charters."
Mrs Menzies went on to talk about a garden ground between Keilbank and West Rose Villa with a private drying green. Between East Rose Villa and the Manse was a corn field belonging to the farm which stretched from the Mill right up to March Wall which runs right along the back of all the Woodlands Road houses. Apparently, various neighbouring fields were used for the annual flower show and for "the shows" (ie fairs).
On the south side of the road there was farmland from one end to the other, with a rotation of various crops. Sometimes a young colt would be in a field there and it was known to chase people who cut through its field. Of course the railway line ran close by, parallel to the Back Braes, and there was a recognised path for pedestrians to climb a fence and walk over the viaduct to reach Largo Station (reportedly few would take the long way round). This short-cut was in use into the 1910s but a stop was put to it when a woman pushing a pram over the line forced a train to wait!
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