Here is Thomas Graham Wishart posing with his creation - the 'Largo' 2 H.P. motorcycle. Manufactured within his own workshop at East End, Upper Largo, this model featured a battery, coil ignition and a belt drive. Boasting a maximum speed of 45 mph, this vehicle managed 150 miles to the gallon. Wishart was born in 1871 and, while still a young man, set up a 'made to measure' cycle business. This flourished and over time developed into a motor business. He became well-known for his invention - the Wizard Carburettor - which saved petrol and increased acceleration. 

The photograph above appeared in a 1977 East Fife Mail, as it had been part of an exhibition at Kirkcaldy Industrial Museum. A member of the Wishart family had donated a series of photographs and accompanying family history to the museum. The EFM article also notes that the original photographs were gifted to Largo Library. Does anyone know of these?.

The photograph below shows Wishart in the driving seat of his motor car. Registered SP for Fife (and 349 for the 349th registration within Fife), it is unclear whether he had a hand in the creation of this particular vehicle. Many early cars were developed by cycle engineers and Wishart's car below illustrates this connection with its spoked wheels and handle-bar style steering.

The top advert dates to 13 July 1899 (Leven Advertiser) and the second advert dates to 1904 (East of Fife Record 1 July) and features Largo Motor and Cycle Engineer T.G. Wishart. One of Wishart's creations was the 'Largo' brand of cycle which he made himself. He bought, hired out and taught people how to use bicycles - later moving also into the sphere of motor cars. ​Thomas Graham Wishart was born in 1871 to John Wishart and his wife Elizabeth Henderson.  John was gardener at Airth Castle who regularly won prizes for his fruit growing. The family lived at Airth Castle Stables. After a spell at Shanwell House in Kinross, the family moved to Largo in the late 1880s.

John Wishart bought an acre of land at the east end of Kirkton of Largo to set up a market garden. Meanwhile, Thomas began a joinery apprenticeship at Strathairly. From a young age Thomas demonstrated a flair for engineering. At the age of 16 he had exhibited a design for a steam engine at Dundee Industrial Exhibition. In 1890 he patented a design for an improved speed regulating governor attachment for a steam engine. At the time of the 1891 census, Thomas was living with his parents and working as a joiner.

In 1896 he married Sarah Lee whom he met at Strathairly where she was a domestic servant. The same year Thomas's father John died. Around this time Thomas began to manufacture cycles at the Upper Largo site and, by the census of 1901, he was described as a 'cycle maker and electric bell fitter'. He was living with wife Sarah and their two sons (John and James - named after their two grandfathers). The advert above from 1904 details that types of services offered by the business.

Outside of work, Thomas was an avid curler. With his expert input, the curling pond behind the Simpson Institute was lit in 1905, using electricity generated by an engine he had specially adapted (see 29 Dec East of Fife Record piece below).
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​Thomas Wishart was also the Secretary of the Largo Brass Band before the First World War. In the previous post, mention was made of how Wishart drove around the streets of the Parish advertising a bazaar in aid of the band in 1909. The article below from the 21 October East of Fife Record tells us a bit more about the car in question. Wishart had rebuilt an old Decauville car - making it more powerful, adding new features and causing "quite a sensation".
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In 1911 Thomas described himself as a 'Motor cycle engineer'. Around this time he joined Largo Parish Council. In 1915, aged 44, Thomas enlisted for the Great War effort becoming an electrician in the Army Service Corps. He spent time in France and became a Sergeant in 1918. When the war ended, Thomas was part of the Army of Occupation in Germany. While in Cologne in 1920 he was a passenger in a motor accident which resulted in two months in hospital and ultimately an end to his military career.

He returned to Largo and continued to work as a motor engineer. The business was now styled 'Wishart & Sons', with both sons following in their father's footsteps. Thomas also continued to invent - including the 'Wizard wringer' attachment for laundry, a special trolley for moving pianos and the 'Wizard carburettor'. He also resumed his hobbies including the Curling Club and the Brass Band. In 1928, Thomas was president of Largo Brass Band and both of his sons were members. Sadly, Thomas's younger son, James (who had six years army service during and after the Great War) died in 1927 aged just 28. Elder son, John went on to become a chief electrical engineer and was pictured in the Courier of 6 November 1928 when he took up a new position at Inveresk Paper Works (see image at the foot of this post). He lived until 1982.

Sarah Wishart died in Largo in 1934 aged 67. Thomas Graham Wishart died 26 August 1960 in Collessie aged 89.

Saturday 19th November 1949 saw the opening of Ellen Batty's Drapery Shop at 35 Main Street, Upper Largo. The shop sold clothing for ladies, gents and children, as well as toys and general 'fancy goods'. The shop building had already existed for decades by this time, having for a long time housed a butcher with slaughterhouse attached. 

Records of a 'flesher' at the premises go back to at least the 1850s when Alexander McGregor ran the business with wife Isabella Morrison and her brother Robert. By 1881, Alexander's son Andrew McGregor had taken over, working alongside his widowed mother. However, ten years later, it was another son - Alexander - who was running the business with his mother.

Around the turn of the century the business was taken over by William Bousie Simpson (himself the son of a butcher) who ran it for decades until his death in 1932. William's wife was Helen Henderson - hence the adjacent house was name 'Helenslea'. Helen moved to Durham Terrace in Lower Largo after WIlliam died (also calling her house there Helenslea) and her son James took over as butcher in Upper Largo for a spell. In the late 1940s, Mr R.T. Walker was butcher here but in 1948 and again in April of 1949 the family were hit by two tragic events and the butcher business ceased.
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Vintage news reporting often includes stories that no one would bother documenting nowadays. These charming stories - of unusually large fish, swarming flies, flowers blooming, birds nesting and the like - show how people were very in tune with their natural surroundings and how life's tiny details were considered 'news'. Here are a few more examples of small-time tales from a bygone age...

A summer hail shower made the news in 1875 (3 July Fifeshire Advertiser).

Wood pigeons found themselves in the firing line in 1870 (22 September Fife Herald above).

A tree root was chosen as a hiding place for counterfeit coins in 1875 (30 December Fife Herald).

The Fife Free Press of 1 June 1935 above harked back to "old world" Largo.

Do you recognise the location of this former chemist shop in Lundin Links? This is not at the corner of Links Road and Emsdorf Street where the present chemist's is located. This one was on Hillhead Street in the premises which now contains the Doctor's Surgery. Peter Cowie occupied this space within in David Lindsay's building in the early 1900s. He also had another chemist shop in Upper Largo.

The son of a farmer, Peter Cowie was born in 1871 in Turriff, Aberdeenshire. By the age of 19, he was a chemist's apprentice in MacDuff and ten years later a chemist in his own right in Turriff. However, the death of Upper Largo chemist Charles Thomson late in 1901 (aged only 31) saw Peter Cowie relocate to Fife and take over the chemist on the north side of Upper Largo's Main Street (believed to be in the shop shown below, number 25).

​Shortly after coming to Largo, on 6 February 1902, Peter married Mary (Polly) McConnachie at the Fife Arms Hotel in Turriff. The couple lived at the Upper Largo shop until Peter's death at the age of 47 on 14 March 1917. In July 1917 James Bowie took over the Upper Largo chemist shop. Moving across the road to larger premises a few years later. Peter Cowie had been in poor health for a few years prior to his death and had given up the Lundin Links shop by 1915 - leaving Andrew Hogg as the only chemist in Lundin Links (the Emsdorf Street shop that remains a pharmacy to this day). The little shop on Hillhead Street later became Jeannie Turbayne's sweetie shop.

Below is the full 1909 advert for Peter Cowie, Chemist and Druggist. Note the dark room available for free use by amateur photographers. Also see the telephone numbers at the foot of the advert, reflecting that these were the very early days of telephony. Finally, at the very end of this post is a 'then and now' image of number 4 Hillhead Street. ​
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Kirkton of Largo Primary School's present building was completed in 1879 replacing the former school (later Scout Hall) further down North Feus in Upper Largo. A comparison of the building as it looks in the present day with old architect drawings downloaded from Canmore (the national record of the historic environment), shows that the school has lost many of its original ornate features including the steeple, chimneys and the barge boarding on the roof apexes. The drawings are dated to the time of the 1910 additions and alterations by Haxton and Watson of 5 High Street in Leven but reflect the original 1878 design by John Melvin & Son of Alloa. The floor plan below shows the separate girls and boys entrances at the front and some detail on the classroom layouts and other facilities.

The building of this school was preceded by years of debate and controversy. A summary of the saga was published in the 15 November 1877 Fife Herald under the headline "An Irrepressible School Board". Pointing out that "school board squabblings" had once been more common but had "long since settled down", aside from "one board which has not yet given up the ghost on contention".  The piece continues:

"During the weary four years of its existence it has been going from bad to worse...In the Largo School Board, which has been the scene of so many wordy warfares, the great topic of contention has been the propriety of erecting a new school or enlarging the old school at Kirkton. With singular variableness the Board, or rather a section, has oscillated from one proposition to the other."

The Education (Scotland) Act of 1872 had made primary education mandatory. This triggered the creation of 1,000 regional school boards and led to the need to increase many a school's capacity. Kirkton School had an average attendance of around 90 pupils around 1874. An early idea was to build a new classroom at the back of the existing school. This suggestion was met with objection from the then teacher who said this plan "broke up and destroyed his garden"! 

A counter proposal of building out at the front of the school was also deemed unacceptable (and led to the board member who suggested it retiring in disgust). It was then resolved to lower the floor (in order to effectively heighten the roof). Some outlay was incurred to do this work but not long afterwards it was concluded that a new school was needed after all. Ratepayers protested at this and much debate ensued about a suitable location. The site eventually chosen next to the cemetery was deemed by many to be "unhealthy".

Other newspaper reports on the proceedings of the Largo School Board around this time talk of "hot words", walk outs and "disgraceful conduct". The Fife Herald piece concludes that "there must be a screw loose somewhere when in a company of representative parishioners things have come to such a pass."

Eventually the new school was built and its first head teacher was Thomas Nicoll who remained in post for 35 years bringing welcome stability. His successor David Low Pye was head teacher for over twenty years. Below is a little snippet from the school's history, telling of a scheme to provide lunch to school pupils in 1896 (21 November St Andrews Citizen). The idea of vegetables from the Largo House gardens being made into soup by a lady that lived in North Feus and given to the Kirkton pupils is a lovely one - local food supplies being put to good use with no 'food miles' or packaging involved.
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The above photograph shows the 42nd Fife (1st Largo) Scout Group circa 1960 in the Scout Hall on North Feus, Upper Largo. All sections of the Group are included in the picture (Cubs, Scouts and Rovers) as well as leaders. According to the 'Largo Village Book' by Leonora Rintoul (1932):

"In the early days of the Boy Scout movement, a troop was formed in Largo, and went on very successfully for a considerable number of years.  In the Great War it was found impossible to get a Scout Master and so the troop was allowed to lapse.  With the return of peace it was revived, and is now a flourishing body under the leadership of Scoutmaster Kay."

The origins of the Scouting movement as a whole can be traced back to 1907, when Robert Baden Powell held a camp on Brownsea Island in Dorset to test out some of the ideas in his 'Scouting for Boys' book. The book was originally intended to be a training aid for existing organisations but it quickly became the handbook of a new movement. Scout patrols were rapidly set up all over the country. A patrol was formed in Leven late in 1908 (see 5 December St Andrews Citizen article below). 
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When Baden-Powell formally set up the Boy Scouts Association in 1910 it had over 100,000 participants. In March 1910 there were 650 Boy Scouts on the register of the Fife Association and the number was expected to double within twelve months (26 March 1910 St Andrews Citizen). A key figure in the beginning of Scouting in Largo was Major George James Lumsden who lived at Aithernie House (now the Old Manor Hotel). In his obituary (Fife Herald 23 Sept 1953), following his death aged 88 at Cupar, stated that "while resident at Lundin Links, Major Lumsden began a long connection with the Boy Scout movement that culminated in his receiving in 1938 the highest honour the Scouts can bestow, that of Silver Wolf. He was chairman in 1910 of the committee that formed the first troop of Scouts [there]." 
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As well as having its own troop, Largo became a popular place for Scout troops from other areas to come and visit and to set up camp. However, when the First World War came, not only did Largo Scouts go into abeyance but all scout camps were prohibited throughout Fife (12 June 1915 Fife Advertiser).

Despite stories in the early part of the war of Scouts assisting the Coast Guard in watching the coast, collecting money for various war funds and acting as test patients for the Red Cross, the regular troop meetings couldn't continue with leaders absent. However, Largo Scouts were re-established after the war ended and by the 1920s the newspapers ran stories of the their activities including running cake and candy stalls, celebrating Burns Night, giving concerts and of course taking part in Remembrance services. An innovative "comic dog show" was held in 1930 at Durham Hall. Local dogs such as 'Paddy', 'Rover' and 'Spotty' competed in categories such as 'most handsome dog', 'dog with the longest tail' and 'dog with the most "soulful eyes"'!  In 1935 the older Scouts set the bonfire on Largo Law that was part of a chain of beacons to celebrate the silver jubilee of King George V. The Sale of Work advertised below dates to August 1950 (Fifeshire Advertiser).

The Largo Scouts base was the old schoolroom on the east side of North Feus, Upper Largo. The school had moved to new premises further up the same street in 1879 (where it remains to this day). The old school had been taken over by the Largo Field Naturalists' Society (established 1863) soon after the school's relocation, as a base for the society and to house their museum. When the Montrave Hall was opened in Lundin Links in 1910, the Society moved their museum to an annex there. The Field Naturalists continued to own the North Feus hall but let this to the Largo Scouts for many decades.

Below is the programme from a 1962 Scout fund-raising show called "Laughter United". Many of the boys pictured in the photograph at the beginning of this post likely took part. Perhaps you remember this show or other Scout events over the years?  If so, please comment. 

On 19 July 1837 The Scotsman newspaper ran the story above about a tremendous thunder-storm which caused multiple fatalities in Upper Largo. The incident was supposed to have occurred on the "links adjoining Mr Beveridge's farm" (Buckthorns farm). The description of how ten people were killed outright made shocking reading. Understandably, it was said that this "made a deep impression on the villagers".

​However, three days later the same paper conceded that the story was "without foundation" and actually a "pure hoax". The story had been written under a fictional name and left in the letterbox of the newspaper. It had been used in "good faith" due to the recent spate of thunderstorms and the occurrence of "similar, though less alarming accidents" elsewhere. The actions of the hoaxer were condemned for creating "serious alarm in the minds of those who had friends residing in the place to which the accident was assigned."

In spite of the retraction of the story, it continued to be printed in papers up and down the country including the piece below from the Birmingham Journal, right up until 5 August!

The 1878 oil painting above is by Robert McGregor (1847-1922) and is not only set in Largo but the painter used locals as models in this scene. The original hangs in the McManus Galleries in Dundee and is accompanied by the information below. It's interesting to see a Largo painting which is more focused on the people than the landscape. Featuring folk of all ages, the piece gives a great idea of how locals would have dressed at the time and shows the attraction of the visiting knife grinder. 

It's tricky to establish the precise location of the scene but the best clues are in the background. In the detail shown below, the spire of Largo Kirk is visible in the middle background and could that be Largo House to its left? If so, the location could be somewhere between the Main Street and South Feus, amongst the back gardens and outhouses. Alternative theories welcome!

Robert McGregor was born in 1847 in Bradford, Yorkshire, the son of a Scottish businessman who later relocated to Dunfermline and subsequently to Edinburgh. He frequently painted working men such as fishermen, shepherds, crofters, pedlars, and farm labourers. However he also painted Scottish, French and Dutch country and coastal scenery.  He first exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1873 and was elected a member there in 1889. He exhibited at the RSA until 1914 and died in Edinburgh in 1922.

Incidentally, the life of the knife grinder was not an easy one, as the newspaper clipping below illustrates (Fife Herald 6 August 1884).