OLD WEAVERS AND OTHER OLD PEOPLE OF DUNFERMLINE, 1900-1915 – A LIST FOR THE FAMILY HISTORIAN. Compiled by Jean Barclay This is a list of the names, addresses and ages of the old men and women who attended the `old weavers` drive` each July from 1900-1915. They are taken from reports in the local press, which sometimes included group photographs. The drives were originally just for old hand-loom weavers but from 1906 invitations were extended to `any respectable man of 60` and from 1909 to women. There are some discrepancies in the lists due to incorrect reporting of ages and addresses and because several people shared the same name. 1900: Visit to Glensherup Reservoir, the source of Dunfermline`s water supply. `Dunfermline Hand-loom Weavers Drive to Glensherup`, Dunfermline Press, July 21 1900, Dunfermline Journal (Supplement), July 28 1900. Attendees (names, addresses and ages). No addresses were originally given but they have been added from later lists, Changes of address and the year recorded are indicated in brackets: Anderson, Alexander, Baldridgeburn, 74, Anderson, Andrew, 82, Anderson, Robert, Pittencrieff St, 88, Bernard, Andrew, 62, Beveridge, George, Moodie St, 77, Boag, Robert, 82, Bowie, James, Albany St, 80 (Castleblair Lane 1905), Brand, John, Bothwell Place, 74, Brown, William, 82, Burt, John, 84 Golfdrum St, 70, Christie, Thomas, 73, Clark, John, 74, Clark, Thomas, Maygate St, 63 (37 Bridge St.1907), Coutts, Charles, 67, Cummings (or Cumming), John,…
An Edwardian Day Out
Jean Barclay tells us how the elderly, former handloom weavers of Dunfermline were treated to an annual outing. Hundreds of men and women were taken by fleets of horse drawn carriages for visits to “big houses” around Fife. This fascinating article gives us all sorts of insights into life and social attitudes one hundred years ago. The Auld Weaver’s Drive By Dr. Jean Barclay At the end of the 19th century there were many old handloom weavers in Dunfermline, who had experienced the ‘four stoups o’ misery’ with the coming of power looms from the early 1850s. Some had found employment in the new textile mills but many were in poor circumstances having faced years of unemployment or doing what odd jobs they could find. In 1897 Councillor John Dick and Mr. Edward Watt, burgh rate collector, organised a collection to provide ‘Old Handsel’ suppers for old hand-loom weavers (1). These took place in January 1898 and 1899 and it was suggested at the time that it would be nice to give the old men a summer outing into the countryside. Courtesy of The Carnegie Library and Galleries Money was raised and an ‘Auld Weavers’ Drive’ was arranged to Glensherup Reservoir, the source of Dunfermline’s water supply. On the morning of Thursday July 19th 1900 some 70 old weavers assembled at the cannon near the townhouse and took their seats in four large, horse-drawn brakes. To the sound of the bagpipes, the brakes left the town via Douglas Street, halted at the post…
Elders with feet of Clay
Tales from the Kirk Session by Dr. Jean Barclay The Elder at the Plate by H C Preston In the early 1720s the Dunfermline kirk session consisted of the two ministers and 25 elders who were subject each year to ‘privy censure’ to ensure they were ‘circumspect in their walk and conversation’. The elders were responsible for taking the collection on Sundays, accepting or giving testimonials of good behaviour from people coming or going, relief of the poor and Sabbath visiting. This last to ensure that no-one was drinking or carrying out household tasks or other activities when they should have been at church. The ‘elders at the plate’ were regarded with some awe but in 1726 two of them, Robert Couston and Robert Ferguson, fell from grace. With Robert Couston it was drink. On November 20th 1726 it was reported to the kirk session that Robert Couston, one of their number, was scandalously drunk at Wednesday’s market. When Robert was questioned he acknowledged that he had been somewhat mistaken with drink that day but denied reports that he had also been fighting and rankling (wrangling). On December 7th several elders reported that they had heard that on market day after daylight was gone, Robert had been in a public change house (inn) in the town and that he was not only mistaken with drink but was offensively kissing both men and women. Robert admitted that he ‘kisst a young woman who might become his good-daughter’ (daughter in law) and that he also ‘kisst William…
Adam Westwood, Dunfermline artist (1844–1924)
Adam Westwood was a local painter who has left us some beautiful images of Dunfermline in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. In “Adam Westwood, Dunfermline artist (1844–1924)” Jean Barclay gives us a concise summary of his life and work illustrated with some rarely-seen examples of his work.
The Tale of the Holes in the Floor
Tales from the Kirk Session The Affair of the Holes in the Floor By Elaine Campbell The Ordination of Elders By J M Lorimer RSA From ‘The Kirk and its Worthies’ By Nicholas Dickson In the 17th and 18th century the Kirk was a very important institution in monitoring how people conducted their day to day lives and it interfered in a way we would now find unacceptable. It did however, do a lot of good in the community by giving small pensions to people who were unable to work through age or disability, paying school fees for a child whose father had died and by trying to ensure that the father of an illegitimate child took responsibility for its upkeep. As the arbiters of morals in the community, the Kirk Session Minutes contain a large number of cases of fornication and children born out of wedlock. Occasionally, there are cases where there is a dispute about paternity of an illegitimate child or whether fornication has taken place and some of these can be as entertaining as a soap opera. The Session normally met each week and on Thursday, 13th July 1752 the Moderator informed the Session that one of the elders had given a report of “flagrant and scandalous behaviour” on the previous Friday between George Wilson, a farmer in Knockhouse (Knockhouse farm is now part of Crossford) and Isabel Watson, the widow of Peter Shorthouse, who was the late gravedigger in Dunfermline. The Moderator had therefore cited both George and Isabel to appear before this…