In “Shopping for Food and Drink in Victorian Dunfermline,” Sue Mowat tells us of the wide range of shops and businesses serving Dunfermline 150 years ago.
The Rev. Ralph Erskine
There is a statue of an 18th Century minister outside the former church in Queen Anne St. and it has been there since 1849. Who is it of, and why was he commemorated like this? In “Rev. RALPH ERSKINE (1685-1752) – SECESSIONIST MINISTER” George Robertson answers these questions and explains some of the complex church politics of the time, between the turbulence of the earlier 17th Century religious strife and the better known, later, Disruption.
Hills Laundry
By George Beattie This business had its origins in Cowdenbeath where, in 1897, Mrs Janet Hill began a small hand-washing enterprise in Moss-side Road. A short time later, Mrs Hill was joined in the business by her husband, Charles Hill, with the enterprise then becoming known as Charles Hill & Co, Moss-side Laundry and Cleaning Works. Mr & Mrs Hill, in the early years, worked a 16 hour day in order to establish their small business. It was with remarkable foresight that Mr and Mrs Hill set up their business in the midst of what was then predominantly a mining area – though it expanded much more quickly than even they could have visualised. In those days part of the business was the cleaning and starching of stiff collars, as the people didn’t have the facilities to do them at home. Mr Hill would boast that ‘during Communion Week’, the firm would do about 1000 starched collars for the Kelty area alone’. By 1908 the laundry at Cowdenbeath employed about 30 people and cleaning processes were becoming more mechanised and more efficient. Even in the early days, there were washing machines of a type, but all the ironing was done by hand – the average woman ironing 11 or 12 shirts an hour. In 1918 Mr & Mrs Hill acquired much larger premises in the shape of Dunfermline & West Fife Laundry Ltd., which had been started in Halbeath Road, Dunfermline, in 1912 – See Note. Two years later, in May 1920, the Cowdenbeath laundry was closed and the whole…
Provost Moodie’s Little Troubles
Did You Know… About Provost Moodie’s Little Troubles? In “Provost James Moodie” Jean Barclay tells of of the “interesting and energetic” life of an early 19th Century Provost of Dunfermline, after whom Moodie Street is named. Provost Moodie achieved many things but also found himself in trouble with the Church more than once.
The Black and Blue Rows
In “Update on Dunfermline’s Coloured Rows“, Jean Barclay provides new evidence which appears to solve the problem of the location of the long demolished Blue Row. In the mid 19th Century the Red, Black and Blue Rows were a set of streets north of the Mill Dam, mostly inhabited by workers in the textile industry.