Jean Barclay starts a new series of short pieces based on a 19th Century compilation of writings about Dunfermline, the “Folio of Oddities”. In “The ‘Gude’ Mr Erskine and his Fiddle” she presents the story of a new father searching for the perfect minister to baptise a new-born child.
`Our Autumnal Remittent’: Dr John Stedman and the influenza epidemic of 1758
As we continue to cope with the current pandemic, it is interesting to learn how epidemics were managed in the past. In “Our Autumnal Remittent: Dr. John Steadman and the Influenza Epidemic of 1758”, Dr Jean Barclay recounts the life of one of the doctors involved in treating those affected by an outbreak of influenza, in the time between the identification of that disease and any real understanding of its causes.
Andrew Allan, Baker
Allan’s bakery was a feature of Dunfermline High Street from the 1880’s to the 1960’s. In another of our series on Dunfermline’s Industrial and Commercial past, George Beattie writes, in “Andrew Allan, Baker”, a short, illustrated history of the firm.
Dunfermline’s Post Office
By George Robertson In 1886, Alexander Stewart published his book “Reminiscences of Dunfermline – Sixty Years Ago”, which contains a selection of fifty-six stories concerning people and events in Dunfermline. In his Prefatory Note to the book, Stewart remarks “no town in Britain excelled Dunfermline fifty or sixty years ago for the number of intelligent, thrifty, shrewd, good-living people, many of whom were quaint in their ways, and out of the common run”. This viewpoint might well be challenged as an exaggeration but there is no doubt Stewart captured the flavour of Dunfermline and it’s people at the time in question. From a local history point of view, the book is useful since Stewart describes in some detail events taking place in the town and the behaviour of its townspeople. It is my intention to retell some of these stories and I begin with Stewart’s description of the early history of – Dunfermline Post-Office “Between fifty and sixty years ago the Post-Office was a very primitive establishment. Letters were carried to and from Dunfermline in large canvas wallets slung on horseback, and the post-boy carried a long tin horn to herald the approach and departure of the Royal Mail. For some years Mr Andrew Angus, printer, was postmaster, and after he died in 1833 he was succeeded by his daughter Catherine, who had been his assistant. The Post-Office was then in Kirkgate, and it was a place of small dimensions. Miss Angus was postmistress till 1851, when…
The Poor School
The Life and Times of the Poor School of Dunfermline by Dr Jean Barclay The Charity or Free School was established in Dunfermline in 1797 by the Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge among the Poor with the backing of the Town Council and soon became known as the ‘Poor School’. This account of the Poor School is set against the background of religion and of education in Dunfermline at the time. In the 18th century there was an ‘awakening’ in religion and several evangelical organisations were founded in Scotland to improve religious knowledge and moral behaviour, particularly among the poor. Three of these would become involved with the Poor School. Firstly, in Edinburgh in 1709 the Society in Scotland for Promoting Christian Knowledge was founded as the `younger sister` of the Society for the Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), which was launched in 1698 by Anglicans in London. The aim of the SSPCK was to establish schools, above all in the `uncivilised` Highlands and Islands, to `Teach to Read, especially the Holy Scriptures and other good and pious Books; As also to Teach Writing, Arithmetick, and such like Degrees of Knowledge`. Catholic missionaries had already established a foothold in the north and the SSPCK hoped to `settle the religious situation, foster a sense of belonging to the Presbyterian Church and provide a bulwark against Jacobitism`. The SSPCK was accepted by the Church of Scotland which in April 1723 ordered a collection…