Did You Know?

William Beveridge and Dunfermline

Did you know…

…about the Dunfermline links of the author of the Beveridge Report?

In “Sir William Beveridge“, Jean Barclay describes the family links between one of the founders of the modern welfare state and his second cousin the Dunfermline industrialist and archaeologist Erskine Beveridge, including a visit in 1919 by Sir William to his cousin’s house on the island of Vallay, off North Uist.

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.

MARGARET HALCRO, mother of EBENEZER & RALPH ERSKINE

DID YOU KNOW…

…the story that Ralph Erskine’s mother “died” before he was born?

The Rev. Ralph Erskine was a seccessionist minister in Dunfermline in the early 18th Century, and his statue stands outside the former church in Pilmuir Street. There is a little known tale about his mother, Margaret Halcro, who is buried in Scotlandwell.

In “The Burial Place of Margaret Halcro“, George Robertson tells the tall(?) tale.