The above advert appeared in the 17 September 1969 East Fife Mail, to herald the opening of the "Dolly Pop" Boutique on Leven Road, Lundin Links. The venture was run by Mieneke Addison, wife of Ian Addison who would launch the 'Yellow Carvel' in Emsdorf Street the following year (tickets for its opening event were on sale through both the boutique and the Crusoe Hotel, Lower Largo).

Advertising dresswear, knitwear and jewellery, the shop brought contemporary and exciting clothes shopping experience to the village for a short spell.  This was a contrast to the original clothing shop at this location - James Gulland the Tailor, Clothier and Draper. The 'Coro Craft' jewellery mentioned in the advert above was made in the UK from post-World War Two until 1980.

Back in the Summer of 1970, a 'Grand Opening' took place of a new enterprise on Emsdorf Street in Lundin Links. The Yellow Carvel offered food and dancing in what had formerly been La Scala cinema. Named after Admiral Sir Andrew Wood's ship, the opening was reported in the East Fife Mail as follows:

"A new entertainment centre for all age groups opened last week in Lundin Links. The 'Yellow Carvel', the brainchild of Mr Ian Addison, was launched with a buffet dance on Friday. Mr Addison has converted what was the La Scala cinema into a centre which will provide entertainment ranging from the latest on the pop scene to folk singing and a village hop. It will be open Tuesday to Saturday inclusive with a different programme each evening and during the day it will be open for coffee and other refreshments."

Mr Addison felt there was a need in the community for such a venue as there was little for locals or visitors to do. Tom Clayton the former La Scala owner, who had a wealth of experience on providing entertainment locally, had been helpful during the preparation for the opening of the Yellow Carvel. The venue's original weekly programme was a discotheque two nights a week (Wednesdays and Saturdays), dancing to "Fierce" on Tuesdays, folk singing on Thursdays and a village hop on Fridays. Timings and prices are shown in the advert below.

The opening buffet dance attracted more than 200 guests. However, the 'Yellow Carvel' name continued only until 1972, when it was rebranded as 'Seaway'. Below are a range of adverts for 'Seaway' from the mid 1970s. Note the wide range of live acts that performed there. Hogmanay 1975 saw the well-known jazz musician Chris Barber perform with his band. 

Finally, the architect drawing further below, dating from 1981, shows the front of the building annotated with proposed alterations. Soon afterwards, another re-branding of the venue took place, when it became the 'Admiral's Bell'. 

Following on from the previous post about La Scala cinema, above and below is another example of the programme produced to advertise the month's film screenings. This example was one of (if not the) last ones produced, as the cinema officially closed in November 1968 when owner Thomas Clayton retired. 
​

Although the 'screen went blank' in November of 1968, that was not quite the end of the story for La Scala. The local children had become accustomed to an annual treat of a free film show under the auspices of the children's gala day committee. So, on 11 January 1969, just weeks after the official closure, the children had their film showing as usual when Tom Clayton opened the cinema again for this special show. The kind gesture was much appreciated by the children of the Largo villages. As the clipping from the East Fife Mail below states, the special show was a double-bill of "The Gnome-mobile" and "The Million Dollar Collar". The following week's paper reported that a full-house of 330 children and nearly 40 adults attended.
​

​La Scala cinema was a feature of Emsdorf Street in Lundin Links from 1920 until 1968. The programme shown above and below dates to the final months of the picture house, which closed in November 1968. The front cover above indicates that the cinema was open every day except Sunday at that time and that there was only one showing at 7pm. However, if it was raining, continuous screenings would begin from 6pm (as people would be looking for something to do if they couldn't be on the beach, playing sports, etc). 

Below is the centrefold and the back cover, giving full details of all the films showing from the end of July until the start of September. This included the 1966 'Batman' movie featuring Adam West and 1967's 'Barefoot in the Park' with Jane Fonda and Robert Redford. Did you see any of these films at La Scala?  If so - please add a comment.

As well as showing films, La Scala hosted a wide range of events. Some early examples from the 1920s and 1930s are shown in the newspaper clippings below. One of these clippings mentions the Motor Club Dance - one of the attendees of that event became part of a news story, dating from 2 March 1929 in the Fife Free Press. One man travelled from Dysart to La Scala by car but unknown to him, two young, daredevil Dysart lads had hitched a ride on the back of his vehicle by clinging onto the spare tyre...

"The lads had apparently intended to jump off before the car left the town, but the exhilaration of the surreptitious ride, like stolen fruits, seemed too good to miss, and so they hung on and hung on until not to hang on would have resulted, at the best, in serious injury. Thus was a pleasure trip turned into a grim and hazardous enterprise. Along the undulating Standin' Stane Road, through Windygates, past the top of Leven, up Scoonie Brae, and thence along the Leven-Largo highway sped the car at a speed which often touched fifty miles per hour. Nine miles, an icy cold wind, the wheels of the car churning up slush and snow, and the young lads clinging onto the back like leeches!"

Eventually upon arriving at Lundin Links, the driver of the car went into the dance - still unaware of the stowaways. Around ten o'clock a local lady noticed the lads sitting on the step of the car, shivering and splattered with mud. The boys told of their experience and explained that they were waiting in the hope of a ride back. The owner of the car was informed and "more in sorrow for the plight of the boys than in anger at the foolhardy thing they had done, he put them into a passing Kirkcaldy-bound bus and paid their fare home."
​
In the next post - another cinema programme from the final days of La Scala.
​

​The previous post looked at flax cultivation and the preparation of the harvested flax for spinning within the mill that once operated in Lower Largo (shown in the photograph above in a later guise as an oil and cake mill). Following on from 'part 1', the drawing below shows the mill first floor plan and describes the "wet" spinning process, as well as providing other contextual information. To view this in a new window as a zoom-able PDF, please click here.

Once the flax was spun, 'reeling' or 'winding' took place. This was a labour-intensive process and described below. In the census of 1851 there were several folks described as 'yarn winders' in Largo, including 81-year-old George Kidd Senior and 13-year-old Isabel Bell. There were also a few recorded as 'pirn winders', which included 10-year-old George White and 12-year-old Caroline Lindsay. After winding, the spun yarn was dried. Full details of this and more are given in the drawing below - click here for a PDF version.
​

Finally, to round off this two-parter, the drawing below shows the three levels of the main mill building in relation to the water wheel and the boiler and engine. The annotations indicate that the preparation of the flax took place on the ground floor, the spinning on the first floor and the reeling in the level above that. To view this as a PDF - click here. It was quite an operation and one that brought significant employment to the villages. In a future post it might be interesting to look more closely at some of the people that worked in the mill and what happened to them when it closed.
​

Below are a couple of photographs taken inside a flax spinning mill in Arbroath. To see a film of a more modern (1940s) version of the flax spinning process, click the link below....

​www.youtube.com/watch?v=nspGz6xYzvg

Below is a detailed description by John Band of flax cultivation and processing, and the history of this particular site. To open this document as a PDF please click here. Note that 'retting' (the soaking of the flax in water) was a key part of the process. An example of a 'retting pond' (a small natural or artificial body of water used for the prolonged soaking of flax straw, in order to soften the woody tissue and enable the fibres to be separated) can still be seen at Silverburn Park.

Next, the drawing below shows scale plans of the 'heckle house' building, showing the probable use of the space within it at the time of the flax spinning operation and describing the initial steps in the process. To open this drawing as a PDF, click here. 
​

​Finally, for this post (a part two is to follow), the drawing below features a ground floor plan for the main mill building and outlines the next stages in the process. A PDF of this can be opened by clicking here. In the next post, the actual 'spinning' part of the process will be detailed, along with the subsequent winding and drying, as well as much more information about the buildings at that time and the industry in general.
​

The above advert for the 'East Fife Co-operative Society' shops dates to 1965, just a few years before the closure of the Largo branch (which is mentioned in the list of stores above). The Largo branch was at west end of the main street next to the grocer's shop at 'Forthview'.  Initially a milliner's shop, this building had became a branch of 'Leven Reform Co-operative Society' by 1915. Some decades later, the Leven co-operative society merged with others in the area, taking the 'East Fife' name.  Below is an advert from 1925 inviting applications for the position of 'saleswoman' at this Largo branch (12 Sept Scotsman). 

Following on from the previous post about the 'Forthview Grocer's Shop', a trawl through our archives has revealed a selection of vintage adverts for this particular shop. In chronological order below, we have tenant grocer Thomas Cooper, who ran the shop after the death of original proprietor Robert Alexander in 1891 until his own early death in 1898. Note the wide range of beers listed and the fact that these were "carefully bottled on the premises".
​

Next is an advert from the era of Peter Scott c1910s. Note that, as in the advert above, the grocer would call round local homes to take orders and then deliver them in the mornings.  Peter Scott started business in Lower Largo in 1906, coming from Dura Den. He actually found himself bankrupt in 1912 but managed to retain the grocer shop. He married fellow shop-keeper Catherine Simpson Bell in 1913. Catherine was the daughter of the green-keeper at the Lundin Ladies Golf Club and their marriage took place within her home - the green-keeper's cottage behind the ladies golf club house.
​

Peter Scott died in 1931 and Catherine applied for a renewal of the shop's license before advertising the business for sale. The advert below must date to around that time. William Gould took on the grocer's and the final advert below dates from early on during his time in charge.

On the face of it, not much has changed since the above postcard view, entitled 'West End Lower Largo', was captured in the early 1930s. However, the use of the buildings on the right has changed significantly. In the 1930s, the painted sign above the shop on the far right reads "Leven Reform Co-operative Society Ltd", while the one to the left of it states "Peter Scott" who had a grocer shop there. In the centre of the 1930s shot, with the ladies standing outside doing a spot of window shopping, was "Mrs Davie", the ladies' and children's outfitter. Today there are no shops on this stretch of the street - all have been converted into housing long ago.

The buildings on the left hand side, originally known as 'Seaview', pre-date those on the right hand side by a good couple of decades. The buildings on the right (originally named 'Forthview Place') were built in 1887. The grocer shop above, labelled "Peter Scott", was originally occupied by Robert Alexander. He had been working as a grocer in Kirkton of Largo in the shop run by James White (who died in 1878) and his family. Robert married James White's daughter Janet in 1882 and they had a son, James White Alexander, in 1884.

As part of their move to the new Lower Largo premises seen above, Robert Alexander applied for a porter and ale license for the shop (see 19 Oct 1887 notice in Fife Herald below). However, this was unanimously refused because "within two hundred yards from this shop were two public houses and a fully licensed grocer's shop" (14 Nov 1888, Fife Herald).
The neighbouring shop (that would become the Co-op) was originally a milliner's shop run by Agnes Guthrie (nee Gilchrist). She was the wife of harbour master at the time, Henry Guthrie. 
​

On 5 April 1891, when the census was taken, Robert, Janet and James Alexander (aged 6) were recorded at "Forth View Place Grocer's Shop". However, the very next month Robert Alexander died. He was aged only 33 years old. By this time the grocer's shop was licensed and in October 1891, Janet Alexander applied for a transfer of the license. She retained ownership of the business and had tenant grocers run it. In 1895 the tenant was Thomas Cooper. In 1905 it was Edward Guthrie. From 1906 Peter Scott was tenant grocer.

Janet Alexander died in May 1912 and her son James became owner of the shop. James had been working as a journeyman grocer under Peter Scott for a spell but was described as a fruiterer in Kirkton of Largo just before he went off to fight in the First World War. James Alexander was never to return - dying on 3rd May 1916. His name is the first in the alphabetical list on the Largo War Memorial. Peter Scott remained at the grocer's premises until the 1930s (becoming the proprietor rather than tenant during the 1920s). Willie Gould took over the grocer's around 1932.

Many will remember the derelict building pictured above which sat on the north side of the Keil Burn at the west side of Largo Road, down in the dip and opposite the former Keilside Bakery. This was demolished in 1995 ahead of the Bett Homes development at Penrice Park. A further development of flats followed a few years later by Thomas Mitchell builders (the later development being more closely aligned to the footprint of the old farm steading).  At the time of the demolition (February 1995) archaeological survey work was carried out (just ahead of the digging of drainage and sewage trenches to serve the new housing). Historic Environment Scotland records state that:

"Archaeological watching brief in the course of the demolition programme at the farm steading and mill complex of Lundin Mill Farm, Lundin Links, Fife by GUARD, revealed that the mill with its associated kiln had been the original building on site, followed in the early 19th century by the farm outbuildings. There was no evidence to suggest the existence of earlier buildings at the location, although cartographic evidence indicates that the site was being utilised for milling of grain from at least 1775."

It would seem likely that the building dates to mid-eighteenth century but was renovated in the early nineteenth century around the time that Earnest Cottage was built. Earnest Cottage would appear to have been the farm house before the construction of the newer Lundin Mill Farm House circa 1870s. 

John Band has produced a series of drawings to provide an insight to what went on within the building when it was a working mill. To set the scene, please click here to see location maps and some background on 'thirlage' and on water rights. Also, see below for the overall building layout as surveyed in 1995 (source: Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division).

The annotated drawing below, shows the upper ground floor plan of the mill end of the building (immediately above the lower ground floor layout given above). To view that as a PDF please click here.

​Details are also given below of the dam, weir and lade that served the mill. See inset for larger version of the drawing of the dam across the Keil Burn and the lade that ran alongside.

Above are two images from the Canmore collection, showing the building's north elevation (upper photograph) and south elevation (lower photograph). The former having the appearance of a single storey structure while the latter shows two stories. 

What follows below are section drawings, showing the upper and lower ground floors together and featuring elements such as the waterwheel, hoppers, kiln and hoist. A PDF of this drawing is available here. 
​

Finally, below are details about millstones and how they were dressed. Also included are a ranged of phrases still used today that derive from the milling process and the days when this was far more central to everyone's daily life. A PDF-version is available here. At the foot of the post is another Canmore photograph - this time showing the west elevation (with the four storey 'Millburnlea' on Largo Road visible on the far right in the distance).