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...

Touch Bleachfields Dunfermline

by George Beattie Around 1843, Messrs Ralph Walker and David Wilson opened a bleach works on the banks of the Lyne Burn at Touch.  Within a decade of opening the field, Mr Walker and Mr Wilson dissolved the partnership. Mr Walker established the Elgin Bleachfield on...

Lilliehill Fire-Clay and Terra-Cotta Works

Dunfermline’s Industrial Past. This series shows how in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, Dunfermline, like many towns of a similar size, had manufacturing businesses of all types to support the local economy. The Lindsay business produced a wide range of...

Walter Scott’s Abbey Haul

Many of you will have visited Abbotsford House near Melrose, extravagantly built and furnished by Sir Walter Scott. But did you know that much of the ancient wooden panelling was “salvaged” from the old Dunfermline Abbey Church, when the new church was...

Harriebrae Mill

Gray & Harrower Ltd, Grain Millers,  Harriebrae Mill, Baldridgeburn, Dunfermline By George Beattie Harriebrae Mill was originally built as a spinning mill during the early part of the 19th century.   By the 1840s the spinning industry was in decline locally and...