Forty years ago, a lady named Esther Menzies wrote down her recollections of old Lundin Mill. This was done to coincide with the building of the new Lundin Mill school and her writing were published in the East Fife Mail in May 1974. She described street by street what life was like before the village's expansion to the west from the late 1890s. Over the past series of posts I have retold her memories and tried to replicate her 'tour' of old Lundie, using the names and phrases used back in the late 19th century. The map below shows the extent of the village then and is labelled using locally-used names, rather than official names.
The map will hopefully help bring together the descriptions given over the past ten posts and should give a more visual impression of the village's structure back then. Although Lundin Mill originally grew around the mill, the development of Emsdorf stretched development south. The arrival of the railway in 1857 and the subsequent building of the school and houses of Crescent Road led to the layout shown above with the Pump Green at the heart of the village.
Features not mentioned in the previous posts are the vennels that ran between 'The Street' and 'The Cottages'. The vennels were the old entrance to the school. Here's how they were described in the memoirs:
"The first vennel was next to Mrs Docherty's house. It was a narrow passage between that house and the next. The rafters of the garret between the houses were clearly visible. Past gardens on both sides of it, the path led to the second vennel, like the first but much higher. There were two cottages on each side of the vennel. You were now in the school playground. Why the right of way to the school was closed I'll never know. During the school holidays a stout barricade was put across the mouth of the second vennel."
The numbered red dots on the map highlight a few more notable features:
1. Mill
2. Temperance Hall
3. Lundin Links Hotel (Inn)
4. Emsdorf House
5. School
I feel incredibly grateful to Esther Menzies for recording her memories, which were so evocative and detailed. Mrs Menzies was born in Lundin Links and attended the Crescent Road school, before going on to Leven Higher Grade School, Waid Academy and St Andrews University. She later was an English teacher at Leven School before marrying and moving to Montrose. After her husband's death she returned to Fife and once again taught at Leven School until her retirement. At the time of the publication of her recollections of old Lundin Mill she was living in Woodlands Road.
Features not mentioned in the previous posts are the vennels that ran between 'The Street' and 'The Cottages'. The vennels were the old entrance to the school. Here's how they were described in the memoirs:
"The first vennel was next to Mrs Docherty's house. It was a narrow passage between that house and the next. The rafters of the garret between the houses were clearly visible. Past gardens on both sides of it, the path led to the second vennel, like the first but much higher. There were two cottages on each side of the vennel. You were now in the school playground. Why the right of way to the school was closed I'll never know. During the school holidays a stout barricade was put across the mouth of the second vennel."
The numbered red dots on the map highlight a few more notable features:
1. Mill
2. Temperance Hall
3. Lundin Links Hotel (Inn)
4. Emsdorf House
5. School
I feel incredibly grateful to Esther Menzies for recording her memories, which were so evocative and detailed. Mrs Menzies was born in Lundin Links and attended the Crescent Road school, before going on to Leven Higher Grade School, Waid Academy and St Andrews University. She later was an English teacher at Leven School before marrying and moving to Montrose. After her husband's death she returned to Fife and once again taught at Leven School until her retirement. At the time of the publication of her recollections of old Lundin Mill she was living in Woodlands Road.
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