David West & Son, Road Haulier of Rumblingwell and Touch. By George Beattie In 1920, David West, a former bus driver with the Autocar Bus Company (ABC), Dunfermline, founded his own road haulage business at James Street, Dunfermline before moving to Foundry Street, Low Beveridgewell and, latterly, to Rumblingwell. The early history of the firm is somewhat vague but it is known that in 1924, Mr West operated ex-army Karrier vehicles with bodies which could quickly be converted from lorries to buses. With the bus side of the business, Mr West operated a route from Dunfermline to Burntisland, via Aberdour from May, 1924, and then another from Dunfermline to Limekilns from August, 1925. In 1926 the bus side of the business was allowed to lapse in favour of the haulage operation which in the main involved the carriage of produce, mainly grain and potatoes, for local farmers. The haulage business flourished and in the early to mid-1930s West moved to larger premises at 179 Rumblingwell, Dunfermline. By that time West’s fleet had increased to some ten vehicles, mainly Albions, AEC and Maudsleys, and David West’s son, Jim, had joined the firm. Jimmy Hynd, interviewed in 1999, spent most of his working life with David West and recalled starting work at Rumblingwell as a 15 year old driver’s mate in 1937. The driver’s mate, or second man as he was more commonly known, was compulsory at that time and part of his duty, as well as assisting in the loading and…
`My Favourite Boy` – The Dunfermline Link with the Bartholomew Map Family
I’m sure many of us will have used Bartholomew’s maps over the years and may well still do. John Bartholomew and Sons was a very well known cartography company, founded in 1826 in Edinburgh, but it’s origins lie further back. In “`My Favourite Boy` – The Dunfermline Link with the Bartholomew Map Family”, Jean Barclay tells the story of George Bartholomew, a boy who had a difficult and unusual start in life, his parents fought a long court case, but became a skilled engraver of maps and plans. His son John, also trained as an engraver, went on to found the business.
Their story tells us much about both class distinctions and social mobility in late 18th and early 19th century Scotland.
Fraser and Carmichael Ltd
Fraser & Carmichael Ltd, Grain-Millers, Wholesale & Retail Grocers Monastery Street, Maygate & Chalmers Street, Dunfermline by George Beattie Although the firm of Fraser & Carmichael was founded in Dunfermline in 1866, the family links to the Dunfermline business probably go back to back to 1817, when John Carmichael, a native of Comrie, Perthshire, opened a grocer and grain merchant’s shop in the town’s High Street. This shop is believed to have been at No 7 High Street, later occupied for many years by the London & Newcastle Tea Company. John occupied the High Street shop for a number of years before moving to 1–7 Maygate where the firm of Fraser and Carmichael will be best remembered. In tandem with the Maygate shop, and probably with the High Street shop, John Carmichael operated the Heugh Grain Mill in Monastery Street. This mill was originally operated by water power from the mill lade which originated at the Town Loch at Townhill. In the 1851 census, John Carmichael, (44), a grocer, is residing at Gardener’s Land, Dunfermline, with his wife, Jane, (46), daughters, Anne (13), Janet (10), Catherine (8), and son, Archibald (7). In 1865 John Carmichael’s daughter, Catherine, married Alexander Fraser, a native of Limekilns. Alexander had served an apprenticeship as a grocer/wine merchant with the long-established Dunfermline firm of David Blelloch, whose premises were also in Maygate. Shortly after completing his apprenticeship Alexander Fraser moved…
Halbeath Wedding
Back issues of local papers can give us all sorts of fascinating information about the past. When the article itself is about “Past Times”, we are shown even further back in time. George Robertson has found an article in a 1909 copy of “The Leven Advertiser and Wemyss Gazette” which recounts how weddings were held in Fife mining villages in the 1860s. “WEDDING CELEBRATIONS IN 19TH CENTURY HALBEATH” shows us how different they were from today.
Harleys Acres
By Sue Mowat Among the papers in the Pittencrieff estate deed box in the Local Studies Library is a small notebook containing details of all the feus granted by the Hunts of Pittencrieff on their estate between 1800 and 1837. Most of the street and place names in the list are familiar, like Golfdrum, Whitemire, Woodhead Street (now Chalmers Street) and Pittencrieff Street, but between 1827 and 1830 six feus were granted in an area called ‘Harley’s Acres’. Where on the estate could that have been? The only clue in the notebook to the location of the ‘Acres’ was that all the feus were on the north side of ‘Back Street’, the eastward continuation of Queen Anne Street (now James Street). Once again the 1771 map of the Pittencrieff estate came to the rescue, showing that the laird owned a large field called ‘Back Acres’ in the north-eastern area of the town, whose southern boundary was the eastern continuation of Queen Anne Street. This identification was confirmed by an item in the records of the Marquis of Tweeddale’s lands in Fife (which he owned as successor to the Lord of the Regality of Dunfermline). In 1810 William Hunt of Pittencrieff owed the Marquis £5 12/6d cash and 5 poultry as rental of ‘five acres of the Backside, formerly Harley’. The entry in the record was followed by a note that this was part of the lands that owed dues to St Leonard’s Hospital. (The apparent discrepancy between the Tweeddale acreage and the one on the map is owing to the fact that one is Scots…