Following on from the demise of Largo Station, let's look at the final days of Lundin Links Station. The demolition of the station buildings at Lundin Links can be accurately dated thanks to a preserved paper trail. On 26 November 1971, the Fife County Council Master of Works acknowledged receipt of an application from Lundin Golf Club to demolish the station buildings (see below). The site of the station was adjacent to the golf course and some time after closure of the railway line, the Club purchased the disused site. 

The application appears to have been acted upon swiftly, as the note below dated 1 December states that the station buildings have been demolished and that the levelling of the site is underway. 

So after a spell of lying derelict, the station buildings were removed and the whole station site absorbed into the golf course. The location where the station buildings stood is now a course maintenance area, alongside the 17th fairway, adjacent to Links Road. For images of the station after closure but before demolition please click here and also here. Below is a photograph of the part of Links Road (once known as Station Road) where the station once was. Memories of the station or its demolition would be very welcome - please comment or get in touch through the 'contact' link.

Back in the mid-nineteenth century, when golf was growing in popularity and new clubs were being established in the area, one man's name seemed to crop up in the context of several local clubs. He was Nicol Baird Malcolm - a farmer from Dubbieside (Innerleven). Even many years after his death, he gets a special mention as the "ever-famous Nicol Malcolm" in the 22 July 1899 St Andrews Citizen (see below), in the context of the role he played helping in the setting up of Lundin Golf Club, back in 1868. His life story is an interesting one and is interwoven with other local characters.

Nicol's parents, John Malcolm and Janet Glass were married on 2 February 1793 in Edinburgh. John was a gardener at Broughton Loan (an area north east of Edinburgh city centre which was then filled with plant nurseries). Janet was the daughter of a shoemaker and lived in nearby Canonmills. Their daughters Christina and Isabella were born circa 1793 and 1799 respectively. By the time their son Nicol was born, on 24 May 1801, the family were living in the Parish of Scoonie.  John Malcolm continued to work as a gardener around the Leven area into the 1840s.

In 1819 Nicol’s elder sister Christina married Alexander Patrick, a linen weaver of Scoonie Parish. They had a son – John Patrick. John eventually became a cabinet maker in Leven and married Agnes Murdoch Patrick c1840. They had at least eight children. On 9 November 1866, John Patrick (who was Nicol Malcolm's nephew) died in a cholera outbreak (see Dundee Advertiser of 10 Nov 1866 below) but before that he had diversified into golf club making.  John’s business (and the family home) was at 3-4 Branch Street at Leven’s Shorehead. It was the low building shown on the left in the sepia image below. The building still exists today as a take-away pizza outlet.

John’s eldest son Alex Patrick had joined him in the club making business, before the fatal cholera outbreak, and he went on to continue making golf clubs for the rest of his working life. Alex had shops in Leven and at Lundin Golf Club. Alex’s younger brother Nicol (named after his great-uncle) had become an apprentice golf club maker by the age of 17 in 1871. Youngest brother David Murdoch Patrick also eventually became a golf club maker. He was based in Lundin Links (after a spell as greenkeeper at Royal Wimbledon Golf Club) and a had a house and workshop built on Golf Road around 1896.

So, while Nicol Malcolm appears to have had no family of his own, he had many great nieces and nephews – three of whom were golf club makers. He also seems to have been connected to another John Patrick - the pioneering local photographer - who had a studio in Leven, before he moved to Kirkcaldy and then Edinburgh. Nicol Malcolm married later in life, aged 43. He married widow Ann Christian Gray (nee Wetherspoon) on 2 August 1844. ​Ann was recorded at Nicol’s Dubbieside residence in the 1841 census – three years before their marriage. Her first husband – John Gray the Cupar ironmonger – had died aged 39 in 1837.

Nicol was a farmer at Dubbieside and had a dairy there. At the time of the 1851 census Nicol’s widowed sister Christina had joined Nicol and Ann (acting as house keeper). In 1861 the three – Nicol (still a farmer), Ann and Christina were still residing together at an address described as ‘Innerleven Cottage’. And in 1871, the household comprised: Nicol ('farmer employing 1 man and 1 boy'), Ann, Ann’s son from her first marriage (William Gray ironmonger) and a servant (Anne Dryburgh). By 1881, Nicol has passed away but Ann continued to reside at ‘Dubbyside Street’ – now with a niece and nephew (Anne and Edward Gray) and servant Mary Brown. Ann was described as an ‘annuitant’.

The valuation rolls also provide an insight into Nicol’s interests. In the 1855 valuation roll he is named against 4 subjects: he is proprietor occupier of a house and garden in Dubbieside and proprietor of another house and garden. In addition he is tenant occupier of both a land holding and the ‘Links of Methil’ – the land owner being James Hay Erskine Wemyss. ​By 1865, the situation was much the same with Nicol owning two houses with gardens plus a stable and byre – as well as being tenant of ‘Innerleven Acres and Links of Methil’. Golf had been played on these links for a long time. As tenant of the links, and an enthusiast of the game, it is not surprising that one of the nine holes of the golf course at Dubbieside was named ‘Nicol Malcolm’. He was also a member of Leven Curling Club and he hosted other sporting events on Methil links such as 'gymnastic games' in 1874.

In the 1875 census, Nicol Malcolm was still proprietor of the two houses but no longer the tenant of the acres and links – these were now rented to John Lawrie, farmer from Kirkland. Now aged 74, it seems that Nicol had retired. The newspaper archives are full of references to Nicol Malcolm – mainly in the context of golf. He was a member of  at least three local clubs – all founded during his adult lifetime: Innerleven (Dubbieside) (1820), Leven Golfing Club (1846) and Wemyss Castle (1857) plus he had a hand in the setting up of Lundin Golf Club in 1868. As well as mentions in connection with agriculture and cattle markets, Nicol was noted in the press for his gardening skills (clearly taking after his father).

Nicol died on 1st March 1881 aged 79 years, having had a full and active life. His wife Ann passed in 1886 in Edinburgh aged 76. However, the legend of Nicol Malcolm lived on after his death - for example in the clip from the 16 Sep 1899 St Andrews Citizen below - which recalls the time that he challenged a man to a round of golf playing with a bottle rather than a club! If you know more about Nicol, please comment. There is also reportedly at least one photograph of him in existence - if you know of its whereabouts, please do get in touch.

This sketch appeared in the Dundee Evening Telegraph on 5 May 1903. However, I suspect the sketch was done perhaps around a decade before that date, as there is no development on the south side of Crescent Road. It likely dates to a similar era to the photograph in an earlier post - click here. 

The article that accompanies the sketch describes how the "Leven and Lundin Links are held on lease by the three local clubs - Innerleven, Thistle, and Lundin - the proprietors being Sir John Gilmour, Bart. of Lundin and Montrave, and Mr R.M. Christie of Durie. The three clubs have equal right to the privileges of the course, and a Committee of two from each Club constitute the Board of Management, with the indefatigable worker on behalf of Thistle, Mr J.T. Ireland as Secretary."

The piece goes on to describe each hole on the course, as it was then, by name and in some detail (a topic for a future post). A visitor could buy a monthly ticket for 6s. The course record was 74 - held by David Kinnell. Memberships were 200 for Innerleven, 500 for Lundin and 650 for Thistle (1350 total). It's also noted that "a two-inch waterpipe runs the whole length of the course, and the greens are not allowed to starve for want of refreshing moisture. Three men are constantly employed on the links."

The houses shown in the background of the image are accurately drawn. From left to right these are: 'Fir Park'/'Braddan' (now 5-7 Crescent Road); 'Elphinstone'; 'Melville Cottage' (now Old Calabar); School and Schoolhouse; 'Bayview Cottage' (now Oldfield) and 'Murree Lodge' (now Glenairlie - No.23).  Interestingly, the latter house looks quite different today. The sketch shows a much smaller, symmetrical home. Since then Glenairlie has been significantly extended to the left. The stretch of Crescent Road shown dates back to the years immediately following the opening of the railway (and the stalled attempt to expand the village by then owners Standard Life Assurance Company). These houses were once referred to locally as "The Cottages".

The open ground upon which the golfers are practising would soon be developed - with a road constructed alongside the new house named 'Norvil' (see here for a later image of the same area). The 'fashionable' nature of the village and the building of proper services and infrastructure meant that the expansion of Lundin Links really took off in the years that followed.

The scene above of Lundin Golf Course dates to circa 1900. There are a number of distinctive golfers in the photograph, including a young caddie on the left of the group of three and a well-dressed chap further left who appears to have brought his dog with him. The slim golf bags contain far fewer clubs than today and everyone is sporting hats and jackets.

The background is no less interesting. Lundin Links train station is in the centre, complete with a steaming engine pulling a number of carriages. The blown-up image below flags a few points of interest:

1. Aithernie - shown as a private house prior to the extension added in 1906 (this is now the Old Manor Hotel)
2. Steam engine at station platform
3. Original station building - before the addition of a second station building shortly afterwards
4. Haworth Cottage (adjacent to Leven Road)
5. Gardens of Haworth (main house) and Homelands (both obscured by trees)

The slightly later photograph further below shows both the extension to Aithernie and the second station building, plus Haworth can be seen through the trees. The sloping land between features 4 and 5 would eventually be filled by the houses and gardens of the west part of Links Road.

Golfers, day trippers and summer visitors were important users of Lundin Links station. There was also a small amount of freight traffic. According to 'The Leven & East of Fife Railway' by Hajducki, Jodeluk and Simpson, this consisted:

"...largely of inward traffic of coal from the Fife Coal company and the Wemyss Coal Co. through merchants such as Thomson & Small and an outward traffic of potatoes from merchants such as John A.D. Steins and Isaac Poad & Sons Led. Until World War I there was a regular traffic in horses and horse-drawn carriages destined for the large houses in the village. Other traders who used the small goods yard in the years before the World War I included D.M. Patrick, golf club and golf ball manufacturers, and W.Dick coach builders."

The house of David Murdoch Patrick can be seen in the very top image (house with triple apex roof towards the right hand side above the bunker). This was the only house on Golf Road at that point. Today it is gaining a new neighbour (see below).

Another quick look back at summer events from the past. The above advert dates back half a century! Back in 1968, the 'Largo Fair' took place and it included many traditional activities - pony rides, fancy dress parade and beetle drive among them. Clearly, folks of all ages were catered for from the youngest to the oldest (note the offer of rest at the manse in between events). The 725th anniversary of the Largo and Newburn Parish Church provided the impetus for this occasion.

Meanwhile, a mere 25 years ago, 'Largo Festival '93' was a collective effort by an impressive list of local groups and businesses (see below). This particular year was the third of the Largo Festival in this format. In fact, it evolved from the 'flying off the pier' event which was a forerunner to it (click here for an image of that). The 1993 programme included a beach barbecue, sandcastle competition, a display of vintage cars, art exhibition, car treasure hunt, fun run, skittles night, cricket tournament, quiz night, race night, evening of music, football match, jazz night, patchwork exhibition, car boot sale and an afternoon of 'frolics' on the pier (boat trips, raft race, assault course, stalls and live music). The photographs at the end of the post provide a flavour of the festivities.

Above is the Lundin Bowling and Lawn Tennis Club's annual fete of 1968. Leven Road can be seen in the background. Club funds were boosted by nearly £200 thanks for cake and candy sales, white elephant stalls and a putting competition.

Meanwhile, in the same year, members of Lundin Ladies' Golf Club enjoyed an out-of-doors cuppa at one of their regular coffee mornings held at the clubhouse. A bring and buy sale at this particular event helped to augment the total raised.

A coffee morning was also the order of the day for the 1st Largo Girl Guides. Held at the Durham Hall, the photograph shows Guider Mrs E. Saunders showing the new Guide Handbook to youngest Guide, Sandra Graham.

Finally, members of Largo Bay Sailing Club and their supporters chose the Montrave Hall in Lundin Links for their coffee morning in aid of club funds during the summer of '68.
​
Source: East Fife Mail

Another significant local event which took place in 1970 was the 'Largo Festival of Drama and Flowers' featuring a pageant on Largo's story. Held in the manse garden in Upper Largo, a large cast of local actors, dressed in period costume, re-enacted some key episodes connected to the church's history. Characters featured included King James III, Sir Andrew Wood, Sir Patrick Spens, Sir Alexander Durham and Alexander Selcraig (and his parents John and Euphan).

The photograph below, from the 8 July 1970 East Fife Mail, features a few of the cast, from left to right: George Penrice (as Sir Andrew Wood), Andrew Gilmour (as King James III), Dorothy Brazenall (as the Queen) and Anne Stewart (as Queen's attendant). Largo Kirk can be seen in the background. Church members put many hours into organising the festival, rehearsing, making costumes, baking and setting up stalls. Their reward was hundreds of visitors over three days, 4th to 6th July. The pageant was written and produced by Lewis Cochrane. Many local groups contributed including the Lundie Drama Group, Cupar Operatic Society, the Buckhaven High School choir and orchestra, the Kinghorn Singers and players from New Gilston. A special visit from the Royal Scots Grey's Military and Pipes and Drums Bands on the Monday brought back memories for minister Rev. Douglas Lister, who was a former band member.

The 'Festival of Flowers' element of the occasion, held within the church, was directed by Mrs Mary Scott of Elie with input from Leven Floral Art Club and Lady Gilmour. Teas were provided in a large marquee on the front lawn and meals were served at "The Stables" (in use for the first time, having been newly converted from manse outbuildings, stables and barn). All in all £620 was raised by the series of events.

The image above by Valentine of Dundee was published in a 1946 tourist guide to Leven, Largo and Elie. Taken from an upper window of Elmwood boarding house in Lundin Links, the photograph showcases the putting green, tennis courts and football pitch. Note the worn grass around the goal mouth of the pitch - showing that it was well used. Also there is what appears to be a vendor (perhaps of ice-cream and other refreshments) set up between the three facilities wearing a long white apron. Largo Law can be seen in the distance but even more prominent is the bastion of trees at Fir Park.

Tomorrow (28 April 2018) will be the Balcormo Races (Fife Point-to-Point). Billed as the UK's most northerly Point-to-Point meeting, the event has been held at Balcormo Mains (a couple of miles north of Lundin Links) since 1910. However, this year is actually the 126th anniversary of these races. Originally the races took place at Bruntshiels Farm near Ceres, over a three mile course, with twenty jumps over water, dykes and ditches, as well as other "obstacles of a rough hunting country". The event was inaugurated by Captain Middleton and other members of the Fife Hunt in 1892. It got off to a difficult start - the first date fixed (10 March) had to be abandoned late in the day due to frost and snow. Many visitors travelling long distances had made it all the way to the field before learning of the postponement. 

When the inaugural event did come off, on 19 March, the St Andrews Citizen of a week later reported that:

"spectators came trooping by rail, brake, waggonette, landan, phaeton, chapel-cart and every conceivable conveyance - the endless cavalcade on the main highways to Bruntshiels famous grass parks presenting between one and two o'clock, a most varied and animated picture....every horse available for hiring purposes was engaged, and many visitors who came to town by subsequent trains were obliged to walk to the rendezvous on foot, a distance of seven miles - most of which is uphill."

Once again the weather would not be kind to the 2,000 attendees:

"As the place of meeting drew in sight, a cold wind blowing steadily from the east and driving clouds of mist before it, did not augur well for the comfort or pleasure of the onlookers....The east wind, instead of abating, grew keener and colder as the afternoon wore on, and the surroundings ultimately submerged in a sea of mist."

In spite of this challenging start, the event returned the following year and this time "the weather was delightful for the season" according to the Courier of 31 March. The event continued at Bruntshiels annually until 1897, before lapsing for eight years, then returning 1905 to 1909. In 1910 the move to Balcormo was made - see St Andrews Citizen piece of 26 February 1910 below and subsequent advert from the 5 March Scotsman.

Now the races entered their heyday, as the photo collages below show. Over the years cars and buses replaced horses and brakes, crowds rose to as much as 10,000 and, of course, the weather continued to vary considerably from year to year. 

The open space between the north part of Victoria Road and the Lundin Sports Club / Homelands has long been known as "the Common". However, it was not always so. Before the expansion of Lundin Links the whole area was part of Sunnybraes Farm. Then it almost became entirely built-up under an un-executed plan devised by the Standard Life Assurance Company. Once the development of Lundin Links did finally take off, the grassy space was referred to as 'Homelands Park' - presumably just because of its proximity to the large house called 'Homelands'. The 1893 map above clearly shows the undeveloped space to the right of Homelands.

​One of its key uses back then was as the official venue for local football matches. But it was used for lots of other events - many during the busy summer season. The clipping above details an end of season fireworks display at 'Homelands Park' (30 August 1900, Courier). Another typical example of an event held at this site was an "open-air market" in aid of the Largo W.R.I. in  July 1924.

Around the turn of the century, Largo had a junior football team called 'Largo Crusoe'. The origins of the team are unclear, but most towns and villages had amateur teams at the time and Largo Crusoe featured in the East of Fife Juvenile Association by 1895. The team is regularly referenced in the local paper from that date onwards but went into abeyance for the Great War years. When the team was re-established after the war, it was given a new name - 'Largo Rovers'. The image below shows a range of newspaper reports about the Largo team from both before and after the First World War. Note the reference to "the Homelands supporters" in the lower left piece.

The regular football fixtures would soon by joined by other sporting pursuits. In 1903 discussions began on creating tennis and bowling facilities to the east of Homelands and on 28 July 1905 the official opening of both the tennis courts and the bowling green took place. At some point in the 1920s the name 'Homelands Park' began to be replaced with 'the Common'. It appears that around this time the ground was donated by the Gilmour family for community recreational purposes. The small newspaper clipping below is one of the earlier references to 'the Common' found in the archives (30 July 1927 Fife Free Press). 

A putting green was added to the facilities by the 1930s. And on 20 December 1947 the Courier reported that "the 'common' in Lundin Links is to be developed as a recreational centre for the villages of Lundin Links, Upper Largo and Lower Largo." Although the report did not specify what the developments were at that time, it shows that the site has continued to evolve and develop over time. The play park with its swings and other play equipment have been around for decades. Although no longer a venue for regular junior league football matches, it is good to see this important community space being used for a range of sporting and social activities and continuing to evolve.