Lundin Mill Farmhouse (pictured above in the 1970s from the Canmore collection) shares a number of architectural features with nearby Fir Park Villas on Crescent Road. Castellated detail above the bay windows, and stone finials at the frontage apexes, are two of the notable shared features. The comparison photos below also show very similar chimney stacks and distinctive quoins (masonry blocks at the corners of walls). Fir Park Villas were built by 1875 were originally owned by local builder Archibald Muir White, who constructed them. Given the strong similarities in style, I suspect that White also built Lundin Mill Farmhouse. If anyone is able to confirm this - please leave a comment.

Inspection of old maps of Lundin Mill Farm shows that there was a forerunner to the present farmhouse. It was also known as Lundin Mill Farmhouse but it had a different layout and stood in a slightly different position. The annotated maps below show, on the left a 1912 site map and, on the right a 1866 equivalent. Both maps feature Broadlea and its associated stores (marked 1) and Ernest Cottage (marked 2) but the present day Lundin Mill Farm House (marked 3) is not present on the older map. So when was the newer farmhouse building constructed?

Census information for the dwelling reveals that, up until the 1881 census, the farmhouse was noted as having "5 rooms with windows" whereas, from 1891, the farmhouse was described as having 10 windows. This suggests that a new, larger farmhouse was constructed during the 1880s. This was during the tenancy of John Whyte (or White), whose family had run the farm for generations. The valuation rolls for the period confirms that the value of the farmhouse rose substantially between 1885 and 1895. So the new farmhouse likely dates to some time between 1885 and 1891.

Around 5-10 years after the building of the house, tenant farmer John White/Whyte had to retire due to ill health, breaking his 'tack' (tenancy). This turn of events (covered on 18 September 1896 by both the Dundee Courier and the East of Fife Record above) signalled the end of a long era of the Whytes farming this land. On 28 October 1896 a displenishing sale took place at Lundin Mill Farm - attracting a huge gathering, with farmers from far and wide in attendance (see 30 October 1896 Dundee Courier piece below). The farmhouse went on to be occupied by subsequent tenant farmers for several more decades.

The images above and below from the Canmore collection were captured in 1975 and show Broadlea and its associated stores (formerly a stable and byre). The top photograph shows the oldest part of the group of buildings in the foreground, the end closest to the bridge over the Cupar Road. The buildings once belonged to Largo Estate and were specifically associated with Lundin Mill Farm. The image below shows the farm worker's cottage which became know as Broadlea from the south showing its main entrance (which faced away from the main road).

Above is a 1960s colour image of the same properties, taken from the ninth green of Lundin Ladies Golf Course, with Broadlea in the centre background. The buildings can be seen again in the top right hand corner of the aerial image below. The buildings were demolished to make way for the Penrice Park housing development in the mid 1990s.
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The extract from an 1866 Estate Plan above shows the extent of Lundin Mill Farm. The Broadlea buildings are on the north edge of Lundin Mill village, close to the Mill Dam, conveniently located on the road north towards the upper parts of the farm. Broadlea cottage has the appearance of a circa 1800 dwelling, while the adjacent stable and byre appear significantly older. The imprecisely cut crowstepped gable of the byre, suggests authentic crowsteps of the pre-1750 era. The gable end can be seen in the Canmore image below taken from alongside the Cupar Road bridge. This old building was a characterful and distinctive landmark when approaching Lundin Links from Cupar direction.

The 1826 map below appears to show the Broadlea buildings, Earnest Cottage and Lundin Mill Farm House along with the corn mill (marked with a wheel like symbol). This mill is also marked on the 1775 Ainslie map of Fife.
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Broadlea was built to be a farm worker's cottage, likely circa 1800. Over its history, using census information, it would appear that Broadlea was home to many individuals and their families, including those occupied as field labourer, carter and dairyman. In 1901, carter David Morris lived at Broadlea with his wife and two children but in the warmer months the property was let to summer visitors. By September 1901 the Morris family were preparing to move out and the notice below from the 19 September Leven Advertiser provides an insight to some of their equipment, livestock and household effects.​

The 1911 census shows the row of buildings as three separate dwellings, Broadlea, its annex and the 'bothy'. Robert Imrie, farm grieve, now occupied the main cottage with his wife and six children. A 'lodger' occupied the small annex and a shepherd and ploughman lived in what was then described as the 'bothy' at the edge of the village. The above snippet from the 28 December 1911 Leven Advertiser reports that George Bell, tenant farmer at Lundin Mill, gave each farm servant a Christmas gift of a currant loaf and pound of tea.

​By the next census ten years later, in 1921, Robert Imrie was still at Broadlea and still employed as a farm grieve. The former byre was now referred to as 'Bell's Bothy'. A shepherd and three ploughman (aged 20, 16 and 16) lived in the bothy. Below is a report from the 8 December 1925 Leven Advertiser about the Imries departure from the farm (they later returned to live in Lundin Links). Farm workers continued to live at Broadlea for many more decades, including ploughman Sebastian Ramsay in the 1940s and the Osborne sisters in the 1960s. Below are the buildings as viewed from Cupar Road and a 1964 maps showing the three separate dwellings.
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The above postcard view is interesting because it features a pair of bridges over the Keil Burn, only one of which still remains today. The zoomed in annotated detail below shows that the bridge in the background (marked 1) is the one which still carries the Cupar Road over the Keil Burn, while the smaller bridge (2) in the foreground accommodates a farm track within Lundin Mill Farm, from the steading over the burn to the fields on the other side. The feature marked 3 is the former buildings on the Cupar Road, including the house known as Broadlea. The map from 1912 further below show the same three features and an arrow to indicate the direction in which the photograph was captured. Note that the bridge in the foreground has a slight curve to its top, while the Cupar Road bridge has a straight upper edge.
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Broadlea and the small bridge were lost when the Penrice Park housing development was built in the mid-1990s by Bett Brothers. Both of these features appear again in the slightly different postcard view below titled 'Largo Law from Ladies Golf Course'. Note the neatly constructed hay ricks to the far right of the image. The Lundin Mill Farm steading and mill complex were also demolished around 1995.
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Below are the two bridges close up for comparison - the top black and white image is the lost farm bridge while the lower image is the surviving Cupar Road bridge. They are not dissimilar in design, suggesting that they may have been constructed around the same time. The surviving bridge may have been enlarged and maintained more than once in its history.
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The side-by-side 1912 map and recent aerial photo show how the Penrice Park housing filled in the space between the Cupar Road/Largo Road and the Keil Burn.  Penrice Park was named after the Penrice family that were tenant farmers at Lundin Mill Farm and other local farms over many years. A further development of flats followed a few years later by Thomas Mitchell builders (in the south east corner of the newly developed area).

Above are a couple of photographs of the bridge on the Cupar Road to the north of Lundin Links and below is an advert for the ex-show house for sale in the 6 November 1997 Scotsman newspaper. Change is inevitable but it seems such a shame that only one of these historic bridges has survived.
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Hugh Cameron was born in Edinburgh in 1835, eldest son of tailor John Cameron and his wife Isabella Armstrong. At the age of 14 he became an apprentice in architecture and surveying. However, his true passion was for painting and by 1852 he was studying under Robert Scott Lauder. Cameron exhibited for the first time at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1854 at the age of nineteen (and went on to be represented at every exhibition bar two up until the year of his death). Having given up architecture entirely in 1856, he became an Associate of the RSA in 1859. The 1861 census describes Hugh Cameron as an 'artist figure painter' and the census of 1871 records him as living in India Street in Edinburgh as an 'artist (painting)'.

In 1877 at the age of 42, Hugh married widow Jessie Allan (nee Anderson) in Helensburgh. Their first daughter Margaret Kerr Cameron was born the following year. Their second daughter Isabella Armstrong Cameron was born the year after. The family then moved to London - Hugh following in the footsteps of many of his fellow Scottish painters. While based in London, at West Cromwell Road in Kensington, the couple had their son Hugh and a third daughter, Jessie. The family returned to Scotland after only a few years "not finding London very congenial". Based in Edinburgh at the time of the 1891 census, Hugh had already by this time discovered Largo as a place of inspiration. 

The full catalogue of his works exhibited at the RSA shows Viewforth (beyond the Temple at Largo) named as his studio base from 1889. In 1889 he produced works such as Pleasures of the Sea and The Timid Bather. These were followed by pieces such as Summer Pleasures and Morning by the Sea. Viewforth (the ruins of which are pictured below) was right on the shore of beautiful Largo Bay, was fairly private and isolated and had a quality of light quality just perfect for capturing seascapes. The fresh breezy weather and opportunity for sea-bathing was beneficial to the wider family and Cameron's pieces from this time often feature women and children by and in the sea.
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In fact Hugh was already associated with Largo by 1888. The piece above from the 10 February 1888 Fifeshire Advertiser shows him present at the annual dinner of Largo Curling Club. He continued to split his time between Edinburgh and Largo beyond 1905, when his wife Jessie (who produced her own paintings of Largo) passed away aged 59. One of the most recognisable scenes of Largo is the one below (Summer Pleasures, 1890) looking west along the bay towards the Crusoe Hotel. Further below is a selection of other works depicting Largo.
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In the 1901 census, Hugh, wife Jessie and two children, Isabel and Hugh, were recorded as residing at Elphinstone on Crescent Road (pictured above). The census took place on 31 March, perhaps suggesting that while this time of year was not conducive to being at Viewforth, the family still opted to be based in the Largo area. Two local women were also part of the household, employed as a cook and housemaid (see below).
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The above portrait of Hugh Cameron, painted by John Brown Abercromby in 1898, is significant because it depicts Cameron painting a scene of Largo Bay. The word 'Largo' is also incorporated into this artwork in the centre at the foot (see detail below). Although known as an Edinburgh artist, there is no doubt that Largo was an important place for Cameron, a place which not only inspired him but one which was also for a long time his home. The 16 July 1918 Scotsman included the following words in his obituary:

"For some years he resided in Fifeshire whence originated some attractive pictures of child life being painted sympathetically at play on the shore, the compositions having a sense of light and movement which have characterised the best of the later work of Scottish artists." 
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Hugh Cameron died in Edinburgh, aged 82, at the residence of his daughter, Isabella Armstrong Archibald, on Spottiswoode Street. He is buried in Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh along with Jessie and two of their daughters (see image at foot of post).
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The above photograph shows Harbour Wynd, heading south towards Lower Largo. The building at the corner with the black and white half-timbering was once Largo's Gas Showroom. Also once known as Gasworks Wynd or Toll Road, the Harbour Wynd showroom opened in 1935. The facility was adjacent to the gas retort house and cylinder and was owned by the Kennoway and Largo Gas Company, who quickly set about ingratiating themselves with the locals and the visitors in Largo. The piece below from the 20 August 1935 Leven Advertiser tells of how the manager installed a seat outside the showroom, overlooking Largo Bay, upon which were the words "to use more gas and enjoy more leisure".
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​Note the small cartoon character at the foot of several of the gas adverts above. This was 'Mr Therm' - a jolly character designed in 1933 by graphic designer Eric Fraser, which was used in the gas industry's advertising for around four decades. Mr Therm explained how gas worked, highlighted the benefits of using modern products and reminded people of the savings they could make by switching to gas. The slogan "Mr Therm burns to serve you" was often used.
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Many small town and village gas showrooms was in inconspicuous, modest buildings such as Largo's and the example below from Biggar (which still exists as a museum). As well as being a place to view and order gas appliances (available for rent, hire-purchase or sale) the gas showroom was a place folks went to pay their gas bills or to have appliances repaired.
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In 1965, Largo Gas Showroom was converted into a house and it is now known as Friday Cottage. These days, it is hard to imagine that this once had a shop front, a range of innovative home appliances on show and a queue of people waiting to pay their bills. If you have memories of the gas showroom, please leave a comment.
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The photograph above of the former Church Rooms associated with Largo Parish Church was taken in 2021. Dating back to the early 18th century, the facility was for much of its history an ancillary building linked to Largo House. Note the traditional forestair leading to the upper entrance and the thackstane at the chimney base (suggesting an original thick thatched roof). The building was given to the Largo Kirk Session in 1935, by then owner of Largo Estate David Maitland Makgill Crichton. Presumably the building had become surplus to the requirements of the estate. During this era, Largo House had been let to a series of long-term tenants and at the time was occupied by John Key Hutchison, flour merchant.
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When Largo Parish Church completed the renovation of The Stables in 1970, the Church Rooms became a secondary hall space and was less in demand. In 1984 it was designated a category B listed building. Its listing description is as follows:

​Early 18th century with alterations. 2 storeys, 3 bays. Harled with some ashlar dressings. Entrance front originally 2 doors in left ground bay, one now window; central forestair to 1st floor door. 2 later 1st floor windows. South front altered fenestration to ground floor, 3 windows in weathered stone architraves to 1st. Straight skews with simply moulded skewputts, crowstepped skew to south-east. End stacks. Pantiled roof with straight skew and skewputt left and right (mutual with adjoining building). Rendered left and brick right end stacks.

Below are two 1970s black and white images of the property, front and back, from the Canmore Collection.
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Largo Cricket Club made use of the facility as a pavilion in more recent decades before switching to a portacabin adjacent to their ground. When the Church undertook significant renovation work during 2016-17, it was recognised that the Church Rooms were not being used. Plus, when Largo Parish Church came into being on 15 November 2017, a result of a union between the linked charges of Largo and Newburn and Largo St David’s churches, the Church had the use of both The Stables and the Durham Hall. Accordingly, the Church Rooms building was handed back to Largo Estate. After nine decades of community use, the Church Rooms were in need of maintenance. The estate applied for planning permission to convert the facility into a dwelling house, replace the roof and carry out a series of renovations inside and out. Now residential accommodation for estate workers, the building has moved into the next chapter in its story.

The above postcard image is entitled High Street Lundin Mill. It predates the development of Leven Road, further to the west. This street (Emsdorf Street), along with Hillhead Street, was where the majority of village shops could be found. The date of the photograph can be narrowed down to between 1895 and 1899. It was captured after the 1895 completion of Bellville, the railings of which can be seen on the far right foreground, yet before the 1900 completion of the Lundin Links Hotel.

The construction of the hotel involved the demolition of the two cottages in the left hand foreground (also shown in more detail below) to make way for gated access to the hotel grounds. The photograph further below, entitled Emsdorf St Lundin Links, was captured a few years later. Note the absence of the old cottages on the left but also the fact that the street lamp holder that was once attached to the demolished cottages has moved to the opposite side of the road. The old dwellings date to the establishment of the village of Emsdorf from 1802.

The cottages looked neglected in the photo, having been unoccupied since before the 1891 census. The three-storey house beyond them belonged to William Dick the coachbuilder. His property incorporated a pend for carriages to go through and a workshop at the bottom of the garden. Local resident Esther Menzies recalled:

"It was a fascinating place to be sent to.  There were wheels all over and upended gigs and such like with the shafts up in the air.  He also sharpened lawn mowers and knives.  Next to this were two cottages or maybe one and a byre.  There wasn't much difference. Two old women stayed there.  Maggie Drummond sold sweets which were displayed in her window on a table....when you were in the shop or room and looked along the passage you could see the cows flicking their tails.  The Seaway is there now."
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Indeed beyond Dick's property was another tumbledown cottage, occupied by sisters Isabella and Margaret Drummond. It was demolished and replaced with La Scala cinema. Looking a decade further back, at the 1881 census, it appears that the residents of these run-down properties were largely linen handloom weavers, bobbin winders for the net factory and paupers. Their simple dwellings were cleared away to be replaced with a hotel of unimaginable modern luxury. The transformation of old Lundin Mill into Lundin Links was dramatic for those that lived through it, such as nonagenarian Mrs Wallace.

There are several details worth highlighting in the circa 1897 image at the top of this post.  Looking at the zoomed in version below, note the water tap to the left, next to the people peering into the baker's shop window. On the opposite side of the street, it looks like a coal delivery has been deposited onto the road and a hand barrow is being used to transfer this through the cottage to be stored round the back. In the distance, to the left of centre, is David Lindsay's grocer shop. Careful inspection shows the letters Y'S PROVISIONS visible behind the row of houses. David Lindsay was the original proprietor of this shop, built not long before the photograph was taken. Esther Menzies recalled this shop saying:

"Mr Lindsay sold everything nearly - bran, parings, oatmeal, dried big cod, doormats, salt herring from a barrel in front of the counter and of course the ordinary groceries not packaged as they are today."

Later owners would include James Turbayne and Robert Leishman. To the right of centre is the wall surrounding Pump Green. As Esther Menzies wrote in her memoires, the green was... 

"surrounded by a high stone wall following the line of the posts and chain there at present but protruding in an arc for several yards at the south end.  There was a gap of about four yards with an iron pump with a turning knob....The washing was laid out to bleach in the curved end and we did not play on the green if the washing was there.  At other times it was a playground.  The grass patch beyond was near oblong.  It was crossed by paths - one leading round by the curved wall to Emsdorf Place Houses, another at the east edge in front of their doors and another from Woodlands Road cutting through to meet the one passing alongside the Pump Green wall and leading up to the Hillhead."
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The annotated map (dating to 1893) below points out the main features mentioned above. Note that there are four water taps (marked W.T.) within this small area. 

1. Site of new Lundin Links Hotel
2. Site of Bellville
3. Old Cottages (demolished)
4. William Dick's Coachworks
5. Drummond sisters' cottage
6. Baker's Shop
7. Site of Lindsay's Grocer
​8. Pump Green

Pictured above is Rollo Villa, an imposing three-storey house on the Temple at Lower Largo. This house dates to the early 1880s and is not dissimilar looking to its neighbour to the west, Serpentine Villa. As well as a sea view, Rollo Villa once enjoyed a great view of the railway line to the rear, with steam trains passing just feet away from the back door and garden. The photographs below, kindly shared by Ian Downie, show just how close the railway was to the back porch.

Ultimately James Clark's son, John Clark, a railway surfaceman, became the proprietor of the new villa built upon the site of the cottages. He named the new property Rollo Villa after his mother's maiden name. He and his wife Elizabeth Elder rented out the flatted property to summer visitors for many years. John Clark died at Rollo Villa in 1913 and the house passed on to his widowed daughter Mary Rollo Todd who had lived with him for some time and who had been married in Rollo Villa in 1890. Mary died in 1935 and the property passed on to her children Alexander and Elizabeth.

​Rollo Villa remained in the ownership of the same family until very recently. In the painting above, by John Blair, the rear of Rollo Villa can be seen within a grey and stormy scene. Below are some photographs outside Rollo Villa from the mid-1960s when the Downie family resided in the upper flat and Rollo Villa was owned by David Rollo (whose mini can be seen in one of the photos). One shows Mr Downie working on the retaining wall of the front garden across the road. In the photo of the four male Downie siblings, the neighbouring properties can be seen before the extensive renovation work which makes their appearance today very different.

Lower Largo has a few characterful cobbled paths and pavements, some of which date back to circa 1880. Their construction was often associated with house building development. Cardy House for example was built in 1871 on an elevated position, accessed from the west side, via a small slope (pictured above and below). Having a surface made of cobblestones enabled horses to get a better grip than they would on dirt. Cobbles set into sand also have the advantage of allowing water to drain and to shift slightly with subtle ground movements. This example at Cardy Crossing (also known as Braehead or East End Cottages) actually comprises whin setts (even blocks of dressed stones) in the middle and 'split whin horonising' to the side. The latter are irregular slivers of offcut material. 
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The 1885 photograph above shows the old muddy dirt roads of Main Street, which were subject to rutting and puddles. Although it wasn't practical to surface all roads, some small sections were cobbled by those that could afford it. For example, circa 1880 a broad area of the roadside was surfaced in front of the Crusoe Buildings (see below) and its neighbouring houses to the east. Not only was this to become a prestigious spot due to the Robinson Crusoe Statue being sited there but the cobblestones provided a practical space for outdoor work - such as the preparation of fishing nets. The material below is another example of split whin horonising.
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Some of the other examples around the village (see below) are true 'cobbles', i.e. naturally occurring more rounded stones. The word cobble derives from the word cob which means a rounded lump.

During the second half of the 19th century, cobbles were widely phased out in favour of less expensive concrete and tarmacadam. Often cobbles were covered over with these new materials. However, most Largo examples have stood the test of time, providing character to the streetscape and the occasional low-key artistic flourish, such as the one below. There are even a few modern takes on cobblestones around the village, including around the Temple Car Park. 

Have you noticed the plaque (pictured above and below) on the wall of a house on Lower Largo's Main Street?  Do you know what this was placed there for? Read on to find out the answer (or take some time to think about it first before reading on). The plaque sits between between two upper windows and has recently been painted gold and black. Previously it had a more grey-brown appearance (see image further below).

The house in question is shown in the Canmore collection photograph above, taken in the 1970s. The plaque can just be seen between the centre and left upper windows. This is 38 Main Street, known as Crampie, but once named Berwick View. Crampie is also the name of one of the named large boulders on Largo beach. Below are other examples of the same type of plaque - with the same sun symbol but varying number sequences. Do you know what these are yet?

To fully answer the question, let's go all the way back to 1666 and the Great Fire of London. This catastrophic event triggered the establishment of insurance offices. The first one was called the 'Fire Office' and started in 1680. At the beginning, it provided money for the restoration or reconstruction of buildings damaged by fire. However, insurance companies soon realised that it was cheaper to prevent and extinguish fires than simply to pay the cost of reconstruction. Insurance companies began to employ their own fire brigades.

The insurers created ‘fire mark’ plates, such as the one in Lower Largo, in order to identify which houses were insured by each company. These were installed prominently on an exterior wall facing the street. This identification was particularly important before the introduction of street numbering but they also served to advertise the insurance company's services. Sometimes, insurance companies had reciprocal arrangements with each other, so that if a fire brigade put out a fire at a house insured by another company then the brigade’s company would be reimbursed.

​The fire plaque or plate provided instant visual proof that the household was insured against fire-risk, and guaranteed attendance by the insurance company's fire-fighters should the need arise. The illustration below depicts fire fighters from the Sun Fire Brigade circa 1800 with their rudimentary equipment. The newspaper clipping from the Fife Herald of 21 Oct 1824 gives an example of their brigade putting out a fire in Edinburgh.
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