Gilbert Rae’s Aereated Water Works Baldridge Works, Golfdrum Street, Dunfermline by George Beattie Gilbert Rae Gilbert Rae was born in 1841, at Marchwell Farm, Rullion Green, near Penicuik. He was the son of James Rae, who was then a tenant farmer, and his wife Rachel Martin. During Gilbert’s early childhood his father changed his profession to that of general merchant/grocer and moved to Edinburgh. It appears that young Gilbert was trained in his father’s shop and, according to family folklore, was given the sum of £100 by his father to go out into the world and set up in business for himself. It is not known why Gilbert came to choose Dunfermline for this venture but it is known that in 1867 he took over the ‘family grocery warehouse’ business of James Shearer, in the Maygate, Dunfermline. This shop was part of a three storey building located at the Kirkgate end of Maygate and was licensed to sell wines and spirits. These premises would later become, for over a century, the headquarters of the wholesale grocery firm of Fraser and Carmichael. An advertisement in the Dunfermline Press of that year intimates this move and details an extensive list of the products Gilbert could supply. These included fine wines, liquors, ales, porters, teas, coffees, eggs and butters. Gilbert Rae’s shop in Maygate, Dunfermline, with the Abbey in the background As will be seen from the bottle label below Gilbert Rae also sold ‘Fine Old Burntisland Whisky’. As with most grocers…
Reminiscences of Dunfermline – Pharmacy
In the next of his articles based on Alexander Stewart’s “Reminiscences of Dunfermline – Sixty Years Ago”, George Robertson describes the provision of pharmacy and medical care available in Dunfermline in the early years of the 19th Century. As you might imagine, they are very basic and seem to be based largely on traditional remedies. “Old Fashioned Pharmacy” indeed. Stewart himself notes by how much pharmacy and medical practice had improved even over his “60 Years”.
Peter Chalmers, minister and antiquary
The Dunfermline Historical Society recently received a portrait photograph of the Reverend Peter Chalmers, a minister of the Abbey Church, a local historian and an influential figure in Dunfermline life in the 19th Century. Jean Barclay has researched his life and in “REVEREND DOCTOR PETER CHALMERS, 1790-1870” she summarises his achievements in education, charitable work and historical research and also his difficulties in coping with the Great Disruption of 1843.
Erskine Beveridge’s Business Beginnings
Erskine Beveridge & Co. The Origins of a Famous Dunfermline Business by Donald Adamson Dunfermline in 1914 – A linen town At the outbreak of the First World War, Dunfermline had ten major damask linen mills. They employed over 7,000 people. Erskine Beveridge & Co had the largest factory with 1,000 looms at the St Leonard’s Works, and in addition had another 900 looms in Cowdenbeath, Ladybank and Dunshalt. The company, incorporated in 1893, also had warehousing operations in London, Manchester, New York and Montreal, as well as agencies all across the British Empire. Other notable companies in Dunfermline included Hay & Robertson, Andrew Reid & Co, Henry Reid & Son, Inglis & Co and J & T Alexander. In 1867, it was said that “Dunfermline is the chief seat of the manufacture of table linen in Britain – indeed, it may be said, the world.” The commencement of Erskine Beveridge & Co: retail draper Erskine Beveridge came from a family of trades people, long established in Dunfermline. His father was David Beveridge, master baker, deacon of the Dunfermline baxters, and in due course Convenor of Trades in Dunfermline. David married Margaret Thomson in 1794. They had five sons; John (born 1797), Henry (born 1799), David (born 1801), Erskine (born 1803) and Robert (born 1805). There was also one daughter, Elizabeth (born 1795), who married a wheelwright, James Adamson from Crossgates. Henry was the grandfather of Lord Beveridge, the author of the…
The Tradesmen’s Library
George Robertson has compiled a history of an early Dunfermline Library, founded well before the current institution came into being. He has taken another piece from Alexander Stewart’s “Reminiscences of Dunfermline” as a starting point, then quoted from a range of other early accounts to bring us “The History of the Tradesmen’s Library“.