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).

An evening of live jazz or a dinner dance were a couple of options available to see in the New Year back at the end of 1975. The Largo Hotel is now known as Upper Largo Hotel.  The Seaway was the forerunner to the Admiral's Bell, which of course was originally the La Scala cinema (and then Yellow Caravel). It was quite a coup to have Chris Barber and his band in the village - read more about Chris here or perhaps have a listen to some of the band's music here on YouTube.

Whatever you are up to on Hogmanay 2018 - have a fantastic time! Very best wishes for the New Year when it comes.

More to come in 2019 on both the Seaway and La Scala.

Back in 1982, there was a great choice of local places to go for your Christmas meal or party. Here is a selection of adverts that featured in the East Fife Mail in the run-up to the festive season that year. Nice prices too! Did you partake in any of these? More seasonal adverts to follow....
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A view looking east along Upper Largo's Main Street, taken from alongside the Upper Largo Hotel (on the right). The hotel was known as 'The Largo Hotel' at this time - as can just be made out on the nice piece of vintage signage advertising McEwan's shown in detail below. The hotel has a long history and has had a few name changes over the decades. 

Opposite the hotel, on the far left above, is the garage which was once owned by David Ramage and then by Jimmy Purves. This image must have been captured not long before the house next to the garage (with 'no parking' daubed on the wall) was demolished and alterations were made to the garage. The building housing the garage was built around 1843 and was originally the Free Church.