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...

Christmas Banned!

In the next in our “Tales from the Kirk Session” series, Jean Barclay describes the very slow re-emergence  of Christmas after the Reformation. “The Kirk that Stole Christmas” describes these changes, from the attempted abolition of the holiday...

Gardening in Victorian Dunfermline

by Sue Mowat In July 1854 the Fife Herald published a report on a Dunfermline horticultural show. Among its descriptions of the exhibits and the lists of prize-winners, the report commented that : The Dunfermline amateur florists are reputed all around this district...

Victorian Homeware and Furniture Shopping

In “Shopping for the Home in Victorian Dunfermline”, the third of her articles on shopping, Sue Mowat gives us a vivid insight into the home lives of a wide range of our predecessors in the town, as well as a description of the many shops and businesses...

John Goodall and Co Motor Engineers

In his latest article on Dunfermline’s industrial past, John Goodall & Co Ltd, George Beattie presents the history of a firm which started in the 1860’s with a horse and carriage, grew into a leading carriage hiring business and then  made a successful...