The location in the above photograph is most commonly known as The Orry, or sometimes Orra. However, this name is seldom seen in an official written form. There is no name sign there and it tends not to be labelled on maps. It is most often referred to in the spoken word and that has led to fairly wide variation over the years in its spelling.

Although the name probably goes back to at least the 19th century, early written mentions are few and far between. Back in 1939, when the location was designated as a "regulation parking place" by the District Council (see 5 Aug Fife Free Press notice below), the spelling was given as "Awry". 

Now here is a coincidence (pointed out by a blog reader yesterday) the owner of the Eaglesham estate from 1844 was none other than Allan Gilmour, who went on to purchase the Lundin Estate in 1872. Although, Allan Gilmour was not involved in a hands-on capacity locally, his son John was (before and after he inherited Lundin estate). Could Sir John Gilmour (and/or any employees brought over from the Eaglesham estate) have introduced the term 'Orry' to the local population? Or was it already in use in Largo by 1872 (evolving independently from the Scots 'aurrie')? If you know of a reference locally to 'Orry' before 1872 - please comment.

Meanwhile, the local variation in spelling continued over the decades. In 1959, when plans were being formulated for the Sailing Club, the Leven Mail went with the spelling 'Orrey' (see below).
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Once the days of the Largo Children's Gala came - with the regular parade commencing at the Orry - references to the spot became more common in the newspapers. Below are clips from 1975, 1982 and 1983 and all use the name 'Orra'. Orra is a well-known Scots word meaning either 'spare', 'odd' or 'occasional' - with an 'orraman' being an odd job man. It's tempting to think of the space as somewhere historically that odd jobs were carried out. 

However, by 1984 the spelling 'Orrie' was being used instead (see advert below featuring Crusoe from that year). It was still used in 1993 - see further below.
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This street map from 1996 - perhaps the most official reference among this selection - favoured the label 'The Orra'.

To complicate matters further, another name used for the space has been 'Market Square'. The above snippet from the 20 August 1938 Fife Free Press describes how a driver (presumably having picked up speed coming down Durham Wynd) collided with the telephone box at the Orry. The phone box in question is marked on the map below as TCB (telephone call box). Anyway, the 'Market Square' name (connected with fish markets perhaps) seems not to have stuck.
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So, what you do call the Orry? And how would you spell it? Have you heard stories about the origins of the term? Any information would be most welcome. To conclude this lengthy post - an image of The Orry from the beach, looking towards Goodsir House plus a crowd-filled Orry back in 1975 - eagerly awaiting the start of the Gala parade (courtesy of the East Fife Mail).
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One hundred and forty five years ago this week, the 19 February 1875 East of Fife Record round-up of Lundin Mill news begins with a piece about lambs. After a harsh winter, many "early bleaters" had put in appearance. There's also an insight into the weaving trade at the time and then an interesting note on how foxes cache food for later retrieval - in this case on the links. This tiny snapshots of local nature in the past are just lovely and so eloquently written.

Back in 1907 the Leven Advertiser (18 Sept) felt it newsworthy that Jimmie Brown the market gardener at Hatton Law and owner of the Emsdorf Fruit Shop had harvested some strawberries late in the season.
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​Weather was a regular topic of the local news round-ups of old. This one from 26 July 1901 East of Fife Record notes: "Refreshing showers of rain fell on Sunday evening and on Monday forenoon. Pastures and all kinds of crops were suffering much owing to the protracted drought."
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The above snippet combines weather and fruit and enthuses of the "genial spring" and "splendid show of early stuff". This is from the St Andrews Citizen of 27 April 1895. 

On 31 May 1901 the East of Fife Record remarked upon the Spring birds around Dumbarnie Links. 

I'm curious as to how the newspapers received these observations on local nature. Perhaps the Largo Field Naturalists' Society and other like-minded individuals made it their business to ensure that the local press were made aware of such events? Anyway, their attention to detail is appreciated.

Above is a 'before and after' comparison of the signal box at Largo Station. On the left an image captured shortly before the station's closure. On the right the same view not long after closure, when the weeds and vandals had begun to make their mark. The last passenger train ran on 5th September 1965. Goods services were withdrawn on 18th July 1966. The line was officially closed on 18th December that year - although the very last train to run on the line was April 1967.

Below is a shot featuring the British Railways totem with the station name: 'Largo' (in the classic 'hot dog' shape). These station totems (and other signage such as the one on the signal box above) came in a range of colours, all featuring the Gill Sans font. While signs in Scotland were light blue, North Eastern was orange, Great Western Region was brown, the Midland Region was maroon, Southern Region was dark green and Eastern Region was dark blue. This corporate identity was introduced 1948/9 and was replaced in the late 1960s (post the Beeching cuts and too late to apply Largo or Lundin Links Stations). 

The 'lion on wheel' emblem was also introduced in 1948/9 and can also be seen below on the banking among the flowers to the left of the totem sign. It's shown again below post-closure in an abandoned (yet still visible) state some years later. Further below is the official BR emblem upon which it was based.
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Below are some more scenes of dereliction at Largo Station. Firstly, some rather scruffy looking platforms and tracks superimposed on the same scene in better times (taken from the footbridge over the tracks). Next the levers inside the signal box, through broken glass. Finally, an overgrown track-side, looking through the footbridge. Around 1970/71 the Largo Station buildings were demolished. ​

More 'after the closure' photos of Largo Station are here and for Lundin Links Station click here.
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The "iron bridge" footbridge at Lundin Links (seen in the photograph above to the left of centre in the distance) was built in 1896. This was the same year as the opening of the new Lundin Golf Club House (read more about that here and here). Built for the convenience of the golfers and completed in time for the summer season, the bridge allowed easier access to the building from the east side. Previously, safe access was only from Golf Road to the west.

At the time, Lundin Mill only extended as far south as Crescent Road but feuing plans were underway to develop what would become Victoria Road and Station Road (now Links Road). The 1893 map below shows the spot chosen for the bridge. Handily placed for the residents of (and visitors to) Lundin Mill, Drummochy and Lower Largo, the feus around this area were soon occupied. Non-golfers obviously benefited too from the safer access to the beach.

The 1912 map further below, shows the footbridge now situated between Norvil on the right and Victoria Boarding House to the left. Norvil in particular was planned and built just months after the footbridge was erected. This was probably no coincidence, as Norvil was built for seedsman William Watt - a keen golfer (more of that another time). Further below are a series of images featuring the iron bridge, including (at the very end) a still from cine footage taken from the train driver's cab shortly before the line closed in 1965, The road bridge at the top of Drummochy Road can be seen in the distance to the left. Sadly the footbridge was removed in the early 1970s but many still refer to the vicinity around the steps down to the path were it once stood as "the iron bridge".
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Finally, a few shots from the present day of the spot where the old bridge once stood.

A comparison of Crusoe Buildings (on the right, looking west) - with a circa 1900 view at the top and a contemporary view below. Not much changed? On closer inspection the Crusoe Buildings have undergone a fair amount of remodelling over the last 120 years, with significant changes to the window arrangement and an attic conversion. It was modernised and reconstructed in 1936 according to the newspaper archives. Recent years have seen further renovation. Happily, the statue is unchanged - although it did enjoy a holiday in Glasgow in the 1980s.

Capturing this view without cars featuring in it, is impossible today and no longer does the road feature physical evidence of horses. A new window has appeared in the gable end of neighbouring number 97. The church bellcote has gone and indeed the church building is no longer in use as a church. 

​Below some small details are picked out. Note the child at the door of the former 'Very Crafty' shop. The buildings once housed a Barber's Shop (see announcement from 13 June 1912 Leven Advertiser further below).
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Before you read any further - any idea where this Lundin Links butcher was located?



This particular butcher shop predates the building of the Leven Road shops.



The proprietor pictured (with a tool of the trade in hand) was Andrew Robertson. He was born in Leven in 1849 and that is where the story begins.  Below is an extract from the 1862 Westwood's Parochial Directory for the counties of Fife and Kinross, showing the bakers in Scoonie. At 4 Forth Street is master baker Andrew Robertson. He and his wife Ann Scott were the parents of the Andrew Robertson pictured above. Another baker in Leven at the time was Andrew Thomson - a man who would, soon after the Westwood's listing was published, relocate his business to Lundin Mill. 

The Thomsons and Robertsons were close and when Andrew Thomson moved his bakery to Emsdorf Street around 1865, the eldest son of Andrew Robertson the Forth Street baker (Robert Robertson) took over Thomson's vacated premises on Leven High Street. Robert Robertson's remained a thriving business there for decades and is pictured below circa 1908. So the with eldest son of Andrew Robertson senior following in his father's footsteps, the younger sons followed different career paths. One became a joiner, while Andrew junior trained as a flesher. 

Andrew junior started out in the butcher business in Inverkeithing where he was based for several years.  In 1870 Andrew Robertson married ​Elizabeth Douglas of Lundin Mill, daughter of linen weaver James Douglas and his wife Isabella Peebles. They were married in Lundin Mill by Largo minister William Davidson. There seems a strong possibility that they met through Andrew Thomson the baker now located in Lundin Mill, a community predominantly of hand loom weavers.

By the census of 1881, Andrew and Isabella had moved from Inverkeithing to Dunfermline and had four children. Ten years later they were still running a butcher in Dunfermline and their family had grown. By 1901, their son Andrew had joined the butcher trade and they remained running the business in Dunfermline. Meanwhile in Lundin Mill the butcher was David Simpson. He had a house, shop and slaughterhouse on Hillhead Street. However, in 1895 he fell to his death from the railway viaduct at Lower Largo, aged 49. His wife Janet continued the business until 1907, when she retired. The notice below from the 18 September 1907 Leven Advertiser shows both her message of thanks to the inhabitants of the district for their support and Andrew Robertson's announcement that he would be taking over the butcher from 24th September. Furthermore, Mrs Simpson auctioned off some of the contents of her home (Croft House, Hillhead Street) including a talking parrot.

So, the photograph at the very top of this post was taken on the west side of HIllhead Street at Croft House (number 5). The photograph dates to very soon after Andrew Robertson had taken over from Mrs Simpson. He ran the business for a number of years before retiring. Once retired he still owned the business but let it to Thomas Henderson, butcher. On 18 May 1916, Andrew Robertson died aged 65. This prompted the demise of the Hillhead Street butcher business and Thomas Henderson sold off the plant, fittings and other belongings of the shop (see foot of this post). Thereafter the village was served by G.W. Douglas the butcher on Leven Road (who also had a branch on Leven's Forth Street, which is where this story began).

Update 27/01/2020:

To clarify the location of Robert Anderson's Butcher Shop, see 1893 O.S. map below. It was adjacent to the slaughterhouse on Hillhead Street. This street was once (surprisingly) considered the main area for shopping:

https://lundinlinks.weebly.com/blog/hillhead

The above photograph was taken by the late Robert Carswell Paxton of Homelands. It may have been taken around 1902 when the Paxtons settled in Largo (initially staying at Drum Lodge). This is still in the days of the wooden footbridge (see left of image) which preceded the building of the road bridge. Incidentally, the photograph of the first car crossing the road bridge is also thought to have been taken by Robert Paxton, who must have been quite a keen amateur photographer.

The detail below shows a team of three painters working on the exterior walls on what appears to be a bright sunny day. Alexandra House (now the site of Lower Largo's one remaining shop) can be seen to the left of the Crusoe. Further below is detail showing Bridgend House, the Railway Inn and Belmont Temperance Hotel (in an elevated position to the right of the bridge over the railway line). Miss Mary Carswell was proprietor of the Belmont at the time of this photo. I wonder whether she may have been related to Robert Paxton's mother Janet Carswell. At the foot of this post is an advert from 1908 for the Belmont Hotel when the proprietors were the Misses Sawyer.

The previous post looked at the life of William Ritchie - founder of The Scotsman newspaper who was born in Lundin Mill. His elder brother John Ritchie was also involved in the newspaper from the beginning. Soon after William died in 1831,
John relinquished the haberdashery and drapery trade to fill his late brother's shoes, devoting his time, finances and efforts to the newspaper. Within a few years he acquired the shares held by others, and became sole proprietor of the ‘Scotsman.’ Under his direction, on 30 June 1855, the paper first appeared as a penny daily. 

However, it is John's early life which is of significance to those interested in Largo's past. John had been born in Kirkcaldy on 3 February 1778 but within a year or two the family had moved to Lundin Mill in connection with father James's occupation as a flax dresser. At the age of nine, John (pictured above) was sent to service on a small farm further north in Largo Parish. He appears to have been there for at least eight years, as by the age of 17, it is recorded that his pay there was £1 per annum in addition to his keep. Later in life he wrote extensively about his years on the land. His recollections provide a valuable insight to the life of an agricultural worker in Largo in the 1790s. What follows are excepts from a piece he published in The Scotsman of 8 April 1857, entitled "Scotch Farming and Farm Living Sixty-Five Years Ago" - some reminiscences of the life of men and beasts on a small farm in Fifeshire in the end of the last century.
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The reminiscences relate to the small farm to which "at the age of nine years, I was sent for service". The farm was approximately 80 to 100 acres and "nearly entirely arable, in the neighbourhood of Largo, and within a mile and a half of the coast. The farm establishment consisted of the farmer, his wife, a lad about seventeen, a maid and a boy – to wit, myself.” The farm is unnamed but the 1775 Ainslie map above shows rural Largo Parish at the time. Ritchie continued:

“All worked and eat together, and all slept in the farmhouse which consisted of but one room and a kitchen. The stock consisted of three farm horses, four milk cows, six young cattle and a pig. My work was in summer to rise at five in the morning, take the cattle to field, bring them home again about eleven – when they remained for about three hours, during which time I had to clean the byre; then again to field, where we (that is, I and the cows) remained till eight o’clock, when I had to furnish my charge with supper and bedding.”

In terms of food, Ritchie informs us that:

"This was humble and varied little throughout the year. Generally everyone partook of food together and from the same dish. Breakfast was oatmeal porridge. Eggs were produced but only for selling and never consumed on the premises! Dinner was always barley broth with plenty of cabbage or green kail, sometimes a little pork or a salt herring being added….beef or mutton never being seen in the house.”

“We had bread in abundance; a healthy and substantial mixed bread of oat, pease and barley meal, baked in the house, flour bread from the baker’s never being thought of. At night we had again porridge, or in winter, potatoes and milk. On Sundays the master and mistress indulged themselves in a cup of tea. We were true teetotallers – I never saw or heard of spirits, wine or even beer in the house. We made our own candles but were more indebted in the dark nights to the splint coal.”

This description tallies with the records in the 1792 Old Statistical Account of Scotland where the extract below from Largo Parish also describes typical meals.
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The seasonality of life was also chronicled by John. At harvest time, he explained “I might assist in “leading-in” the corn – building it on the cart and forking it from the cart to the stack – and taking up and carting home the potatoes." Meanwhile "the master took the heavy part of the outdoor work – ploughing, sowing, &c – the lad assisting in driving out manure and the like; in winter the lad was mainly employed in thrashing, while in summer he was much employed in pulling thistles from the fields in crop, which were used as food for the horses.” Crops consisted of oats, barley, potatoes, turnip and red clover. "Throughout the year the mistress and the maid were occupied in milking the cows, churning, making cheese, &c; hoeing and other outdoor work in summer; in harvest in shearing; in winter mainly in spinning, all the clothes of the family, woollen and linen, being spun by them. There was then no spinning of fine yarns by machinery."

The meagerness of personal possessions was also conveyed by Ritchie: 

"My master’s best coat served him for the whole of his nineteen year’s lease of the farm. The winter evening’s were spent in the kitchen, mainly by the light of the fire, helped by parrot coal….While the women span, the master knitted stockings, the man-servant mended his shoes or stockings or any other like work, while I usually read aloud for the general benefit. Our stock of literature was scanty, consisting, besides the Bible, of some old sermons, a copy of Boston’s Fourfold State, Hervey’s 'Meditations among the Tombs'* and an ample stock of old stories and ballads – the latter being the joint property of the maid-servant and myself.”

“We had family worship every evening, the hour of which, as well as that of bedtime, was a little uncertain, owing to there being no watch or clock in the house. In the winter nights we could only judge the passing of time by the quantity of yarn spun by the mistress of maid, or by the length added to the stocking which the master was employed in making – which was rather an unreliable standard as he sometimes took a nap. When the weather permitted we regulated ourselves by the progress the “seven stars” made over the pent stack. For summer, I constructed a sun-dial by a rather unscientific process. Getting a loan of a tailor’s watch, I drew a line across a large whinstone by the shadow of the sun every hour from seven in the morning to eight at night, which answered the purpose remarkably well.”

*James Hervey (1714-58) was a writer of devotional texts. His popular 'Meditations Among the Tombs' was published in 1746 and it was often reprinted. The subject of the book is death, and the author dwells particularly on the grief caused by early death, and on the eventual re-uniting of the parted in heaven. Below is an illustration from this book.

After several year working on the farm at Largo, John Ritchie returned to the place of his birth, Kirkcaldy, to become a handloom weaver. This led to his eventual move to Edinburgh around 1800 to set up as a draper and haberdasher. By the time that The Scotsman newspaper was established in 1817, he had a flourishing business. John Ritchie (shown below as a young man) spent 53 years at the newspaper. ​He lost his wife in 1831 (the same year that he lost his brother) and never remarried. He entered the town council of Edinburgh in 1844, and was a magistrate of the city from 1845 to 1847. In 1849–50 he was chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. He was one of the founders of the United Industrial School. He died on 21 December 1870, at the age of 92. ​

His obituary in the 22 December Scotsman stated that he maintained associations with Largo Parish throughout his life "to the benefit of the poor of the place to the end of his life, long after all other links of connection had been snapped". He certainly bequeathed to us a graphic pen-picture of conditions on a small Largo farm over two hundred years ago - in doing so demonstrating that he had great powers of observation from an early age.

Above is the nameplate of the original Scotsman newspaper, taken from its very first edition published on 25 January 1817. It's a publication that we are all very familiar with. A lesser known fact is that it was all started by a man born in 1781 in Lundin Mill. Initially a weekly newspaper, it was launched by William Ritchie and Charles MacLaren. Born out of frustration with, and as an alternative to, the existing papers, The Scotsman set out to offer impartiality, independence from the establishment and to stand against privilege and corruption.

William Ritchie (pictured in the portrait below) was the son of a flax dresser named James Ritchie, who had moved from Kirkcaldy to Lundin Mill shortly before William's birth. Following a childhood in Lundin Mill, William moved to Edinburgh aged 19 and became a solicitor. In addition, from the age of 17, William had written short pieces for various publications including the Scots Magazine. In Edinburgh he was a member of 3 different debating societies where he displayed characteristics of "nerve, directness and simplicity, facility of elocution, great promptitude of thought, frequent appeals to general principles, and an ardour, which sometimes rose to transient bursts of passion."

Although a city dweller for most of his life, Ritchie greatly appreciated the rural landscape, as MacLaren also remarked "I never knew an individual who loved the beauties of nature with so intense a feeling. Fine scenery operated on him like an enchantment". Ritchie was also a philanthropist who took a particular interest in improving the police system in Edinburgh and who campaigned for the reform of prison conditions. He took a particular interest in debtors prisons. The piece below from the 25 Jan 1917 Scotsman helps to explain why this was an issue that he felt strongly about. 

Does anyone remember welcoming in 1975 at The Law? This advert from the East Fife Mail tells us that Jimmy Spowart played the organ there every night during the festive season....

Back on the first day of 1896, the "time-honoured custom" of the Largo Brass and Silver Band playing around the three villages was still being observed (East of Fife Observer 3 January). That year the band (led by George Houison) made a special visit to the home of Johnny Laidlay at Strathairly. The Laidlays entertained their tradespeople, servants and friends to a Christmas treat that same festive season. Thomas and Sarah Wishart were likely guests at that event, as they met at this time while both working on the estate. 
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