THE photographs in this week’s trip down West Fife’s Memory Lane look at the main road into Dunfermline from the east, Halbeath Road.

The first image was taken at the junction of Halbeath Road and what is now Whitefield Road on the left that leads up to the Queen Margaret Hospital. Traffic lights are now in place at this corner where the entrance to Inglis Veterinary Hospital is today.

The Press described the condition of the road around that time in its edition of August 29, 1925: "Halbeath Road it will be recollected had been constructed of water-bound macadam on a doubtful foundation and the tramways were carried on a single line with loops made on the south side of the thoroughfare. It is the intention of Dunfermline Town Council, partly in order to provide work for the unemployed during the forthcoming winter, to continue the widening of Halbeath Road immediately to the east of Linburn Road."

Ruth Stewart recalls the area: “I was brought up here – milk and post used to be delivered by van because it was in the country!”

Irene Brown has similar memories: “Used to go up the old road under the railway bridge to get to the farm where my dad kept his horses – now all houses above the station.”

The next photograph shows the section of Halbeath Road further into town near East End Park with bungalows visible on the south side of the street. Moira Ramage’s father was involved in the construction of many of the bungalows in Halbeath Road: “My dad, John Brough, was an apprentice in his father’s joinery business, Robert Brough and Sons, who had the joinery contract for many of these bungalows. Most of the original features of these houses have been replaced with modern double-glazing and doors, though a few art deco designs are still visible.”

The low stone wall and wooden hoardings on the north side of the road in the photograph enclosed the pitch of Dunfermline Athletic Football Club. In 1920, the board of directors of the club purchased three acres of land from the North British Railway Company for £3,500 and the present position of the ground was laid out. A wooden stand with a low roof and a pavilion were built on the southern side backing onto Halbeath Road. A new two-tier 3,000 capacity main stand for the football club was later be constructed here in 1962 funded by the club winning the Scottish Cup in 1961, and the next photograph shows it being built. A record attendance of 27,816 for a Dunfermline home game during the successful decade of the 1960s was set a few years after its construction on April 30, 1968.

The final photograph from 1902 shows Dunfermline Fire Brigade pictured outside a house (which still stands there today almost 120 years after this photograph was taken) further west at the junction of Halbeath Road and the bottom of Garvock Hill.

More photographs like these can be seen in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries, as well as at facebook.com/olddunfermline.

With thanks to Frank Connelly.