Old Photograph Priory Lane Dunfermline Scotland

Old photograph of children, cottages, houses and Fish, Fruit, and confectionery shop on Priory Lane in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. Records suggest building began around 1752, after being known by older titles like " Abbey Road ". Dunfermline's most famous son is the entrepreneur and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie who was born in the town in 1835. Among the gifts he gave to his home town, include a free library and public swimming baths. Most important of all, was the donation of the Pittencrieff Estate which he had purchased in 1903 to be converted into Pittencrieff Park. In 1888, two Dunfermline men, John Reid and Robert Lockhart, first demonstrated golf in the US by setting up a hole in an orchard, before Reid set up America's first golf club the same year, St. Andrews Golf Club in Yonkers, New York, with Andrew Carnegie one of the first members.



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Old Photograph Arrol Johnston Motor Car Factory Scotland

Old photograph of the Arrol Johnston Motor Car Factory at Heathhall just outside Dumfries, Scotland. Arrol-Johnston, later known as Arrol-Aster, was an early Scottish manufacturer of automobiles, which operated from 1896 to 1931 and produced the first automobile manufactured in Britain. The company also developed the world's first " off-road " vehicle for the Egyptian government, and another designed to travel on ice and snow for Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole. George Johnston was by training a locomotive engineer from Neilson, Reid and Company Limited of Springburn, Glasgow. Johnston was commissioned by Glasgow Corporation Tramways in 1894 to build an experimental steam-powered tramcar to replace their fleet of horse drawn trams. In 1895 Johnston formed a joint venture with Sir William Arrol, an engineer of the Forth Bridge to form the Mo-Car Syndicate Limited, which was to produce his car. Sir William was Chairman and Johnston was Managing Director, and the Syndicate included a Mr. Archibald Coats, and a Mr. Millar of Paisley, while Norman Fulton was Works Manager. Sir William's main interest in the business was as the financial backer. The first Arrol-Johnston car was a six-seater " Dogcart " a vehicle with two transverse seats placed back to back, which went into production at a factory at Camlachie, in the East End of Glasgow. The company's Camlachie premises were destroyed by fire in 1901, and production was moved to Paisley. In 1913 Arrol Johnston bought land at Heathhall, just outside Dumfries, and commissioned an American firm to build a factory. This is said to be the first factory in Britain to use ferro-concrete, concrete reinforced with metal bars, and was designed by Albert Kahn, architect of the Ford factory at Highland Park, Michigan, USA, where the Model T was produced.



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Old Photograph Orkneyman's Cave Bressay Scotland

Old photograph of the Orkneyman's Cave and cliffs on the Island of Bressay, Shetland Islands, Scotland. Bressay lies due south of Whalsay, west of Noss, and north of Mousa. At 11 square miles, it is the fifth largest island in Shetland. The population is around 360 people, concentrated in the middle of the west coast, around Glebe and Fullaburn. The island is made up of Old Red Sandstone with some basaltic intrusions. Bressay was quarried extensively for building materials, used all over Shetland, especially in nearby Lerwick. There are a number of sea caves and arches.





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Old Photograph Skene House Scotland

Old photograph of Skene House in Aberdeen, Scotland. Provost George Skene lived in the house in the 17th century and is thought to have commissioned the carved plaster ceilings when he made some structural alterations to the building in 1676. In the 18th century, the Duke of Cumberland commandeered the house for his troops on their march north to Culloden. After this, it was known as 'Cumberland House', a name which survived into the 20th century, when the building, which had hitherto housed the famous and wealthy, became a public lodging house for the city's poor. In the 1930s, when adjacent houses in this formerly grand but now very run-down area of the city were demolished, a campaign was launched to save Provost Skene's House and an extensive programme of refurbishment began. In 1953, the house was opened to the public.



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Old Photograph Links Road Lundin Links Fife Scotland

Old photograph of children, the Bremner grocers shop, cottage and houses on Links Road in Lundin Links by Lower Largo, East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. The Bremner surname is of Scottish origin which dates back to the early 15th Century. Variations in the idiom of the spelling include Brimner, Bremner, Brymner, etc., Church records include one William, son of Robert and Catherine Bremner, who was christened, at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, London, England on December 10th 1736, John Bremner who married Margaret Donaldson at St. Dunstan in the East, London, on September 11th 1763 and Margaret Bremner who was christened in Edinburgh on April 29th 1773. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walter Brabounare held a tenement in Irvine, which was dated 1418, Documents of the Royal burgh of Irvine, Scotland, during the reign of King James 1 of Scotland.



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