Back in 1903, with Lundin Links rapidly expanding, new street signs were required to name new roads and identify existing streets more formally. An exercise took place to list which names were required, in what quantity and the number of letters involved (which would impact upon cost). The handwritten list below shows the output of that work (including some faint corrections where spelling mistakes were made). Organised by Mr Alexander Fraser the factor of the Lundin and Montrave Estate, most streets required two signs but the shortest streets - Golf Road and Norvil Road - required only one each, while Leven Road and Crescent Road needed 3 each.
The decision was made to go with enamel signage, which was a common choice for street signage between 1880 and 1950. The brochure below was consulted and the option at the top left (item no. 62) was highlighted as a good template. D.F. Wishart & Co, iron merchants of Edinburgh, were engaged to create something similar to this. This firm, established in 1857, are still going today.
Some of the signs were placed on building walls, others on metal railings and one or two on free-standing posts. The images above show examples of each of these. More of the enamel signs are evident in the old photographs below.
Of the 29 signs put in place in 1903, only a handful remain today and all of those are on buildings walls. The signs that were on free-standing posts are long gone. Those that were attached to metal railings lost their anchor points during the Second World War, when iron railings were removed in a drive to gather raw materials for the war effort. Some wall-mounted signs were removed when the black and white replacement street signs came along (which are larger and clearer to read).
The sign at the east end of Emsdorf Street is still there but has recently been painted over. Two Leven Road signs remain - attached to numbers 12 and 54 (the latter being the farthest west that the street extended in 1903, just before where the Montrave Hall is now). One of the Mill Wynd signs is still there, on the former jewellery workshop. Hillhead Street has no sign but the old pin marks can be seen where it once was. If you spot any more examples of the old enamel signs, please comment. They are now well over a century old.
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