Back in 1974, at the time of the transfer of Lundin Mill Primary School from its mid-nineteenth century building on Crescent Road to its new circular, semi-open plan facility in Pitcruvie Park, a Mrs Esther Menzies took the opportunity to remind people why the school was named Lundin Mill (and not Lundin Links) Primary. When she watched the new school being built, she found herself thinking "I hope they stick to the old name". Of course, the old name was kept, but nevertheless Mrs Menzies wanted to ensure people were aware of what the village used to be like before its early 20th century expansion. She wanted to explain how small the village used to be and what daily life was like.....before this knowledge was lost. She was canny enough to record this valuable insight, and her recollections were published over 3 editions of the East Fife Mail in mid-1974.
Forty years have passed since Mrs Menzies wrote her account and I think her memories need to be retold. Life was very different pre-1900 - no cars, washing machines, supermarkets or well-organised street names with numbered houses. Let me take you into a horse-based world of communal bleaching greens, a plethora of village shops and very descriptive local names for streets and areas. The hub of Lundin Mill, according to Mrs Menzies, was the area shown in the image below - where Emsdorf Street, Road and Crescent converge with Hillhead Street and Woodlands Road. No longer the epicentre of the village, this space would once have been a hive of activity. In the next couple of posts, we will look at how the patch of green grass in the picture below would once have been much larger and busier, and how Hillhead Street was once to Lundin Links what Princes Street is to Edinburgh!
Forty years have passed since Mrs Menzies wrote her account and I think her memories need to be retold. Life was very different pre-1900 - no cars, washing machines, supermarkets or well-organised street names with numbered houses. Let me take you into a horse-based world of communal bleaching greens, a plethora of village shops and very descriptive local names for streets and areas. The hub of Lundin Mill, according to Mrs Menzies, was the area shown in the image below - where Emsdorf Street, Road and Crescent converge with Hillhead Street and Woodlands Road. No longer the epicentre of the village, this space would once have been a hive of activity. In the next couple of posts, we will look at how the patch of green grass in the picture below would once have been much larger and busier, and how Hillhead Street was once to Lundin Links what Princes Street is to Edinburgh!
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