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 By George Robertson Weddings today can be lavish and expensive affairs but young couples in earlier times did not have the money to spend lavishly and this is well illustrated in an article which appeared in The Leven Advertiser and Wemyss Gazette newspaper, dated 3rd February 1909. What follows, extracted in unedited form from the newspaper, gives a description of village life and, in particular, how weddings were conducted in the Fife mining village of Halbeath, during the mid 1860’s. “There is perhaps no hamlet in the county which clings more firmly to old customs than Halbeath. The village consists of the “Long Row”, as it is called, and a series of red-roofed short rows. People who want to study the manners and customs and activities of village life must go to the “Long Row”, which sits on the crest of a ridge on which the “Queen” pit was sunk shortly after the crowning of Queen Victoria. I can remember the time when the whole of the output of this great pit, which was one of the pits under the charge of Mr Charles Carlow’s late father, was drawn…
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…
Elder and Son Grain Merchants and Millers
Hugh Elder and Son, Grain Merchant and Millers Queen Anne Street & City Mills, Inglis Street, Dunfermline by George Beattie David Elder, born in Dunfermline in 1806, the founder of the above firm, is described as being ‘a man of common stamp’. Apparently cast upon his own resources in early life (Dunfermline Press of 23rd July, 1870) Mr Elder learned the weaving trade, and maintained himself by it, at the same time embracing every opportunity that presented itself for the cultivation of his intellect until, by degrees, he wrought himself into the position of assistant to Mr Haxton, Principle of the High School, and thereafter taught successfully in Pittencrieff Street for 13 years. Poor health cut short his teaching career and, in 1834, whilst King William IV was still on the throne, Mr Elder went into business for himself, firstly as a grocer with a house and shop at the corner of High Street and New Row. Most grocers of the time also dealt in grain and this soon led to him opening a granary on the south side of Queen Anne Street (situated opposite the later premises of John Goodall & Co). The granary was apparently purpose built and is likely to have been the premises later occupied by The City Bakery for many years. David Elder died in 1870, at High Street, Dunfermline, and his son, Hugh, took over the running of the business. The name Hugh Elder & Son was then applied to the firm and it would be known as such for the next 100 or so years. Around this time…
The Dunfermline Seducer
Tales from the Kirk Session by Dr. Jean Barclay One of the strange stories in the 18th century Kirk Session Minutes of Dunfermline is that of a Dunfermline widower and a married woman from Crieff. It demonstrates how different Kirk Sessions worked together. When a person came to live in a town or parish they had to provide the Kirk Session with a certificate of good behaviour from their former domain and when they left they required another one. On January 7th 1793 John Strachan, late of Roscobie north of Dunfermline, appeared before the Kirk Session of Dunfermline seeking a certificate to cover his removal to the Parish of Muckhart but ‘Session refused to give him one until they were informed of the Truth of Reports gone through the County infavourable to his character’. The rumours apparently concerned Strachan and a woman in Crieff and the Reverend Fernie, moderator of the Dunfermline Kirk Session, wrote to the Minister of Crieff for further details. The Crieff Minister replied enclosing two extracts of the Minutes of his Kirk Session, concerning Margaret Reid, a married woman ‘to whom John Strachan had behaved so unsuitably as to give great offence to this Parish’. The Minutes show that on May 27th 1792 Margaret Reid, spouse to David Thomson, appeared before the Kirk Session of Crieff and acknowledged that on Friday the 22nd of July last, she went for a weekend visit to visit friends in the neighbourhood of Dunfermline (30 miles away) and on the road near the town she…