THE first two photographs in this week’s trip down West Fife’s Memory Lane feature Pittencrieff House.

The first one, taken in the 1960s/early 1970s shows members of the ‘Old Boys Club’ gathered at their base in Pittencrieff House which was gifted to them by Andrew Carnegie.

Over the centuries previously, since the house was built in 1610, various lairds (or owners) developed the house with additions being made to suit their specific needs.

In 1902, when Andrew Carnegie purchased the estate from the last laird, Colonel Hunt, he charged his trustees immediately to open the estate up to the townspeople of Dunfermline and this was recognised as Carnegie’s greatest gift to his hometown.

Within his directions, Andrew Carnegie ‘requested’ that the ground floor of Pittencrieff House be given to the old men of Dunfermline as a place to gather to enjoy each other's company, read the newspapers, play board games and generally reminisce about their younger days.

This operated very successfully until, in the 1970s, the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust saw other uses for the ground floor and dispatched the Old Boys Club to a room in the nearby Glen Pavilion. The organisation ‘The Friends of Pittencrieff Park’ later made use of this room before relocating to the glassroom in the hothouses next to Pittencrieff House. The Friends installed a bench in front of the house to commemorate the ‘Old Boys Club’ which was officially wound up in 2010.

Our second photograph, from the early part of the 20th century, shows a group of the old men pictured outside the house.

The Carnegie Dunfermline Trust is currently gathering ideas for the future use of Pittencrieff House, as highlighted by the Press in recent weeks.

The next image was sent in by Press reader Mr H Boyle, of Mitchell Walk in Rosyth, and is a group photograph of Rosyth and Inverkeithing Youth Club in 1951.

The final photograph shows a visit to Rosyth Dockyard in the early part of the Second World War by the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.

Churchill had paid a previous visit to Rosyth in August of 1912 in his role as First Lord of the Admiralty. He visited Cromarty further up the east coast of Scotland on that same trip which was his own personal preference for a naval base, as he explained in a memorandum for the naval staff on the October 5, 1912: “… a fleet leaving Cromarty comes almost immediately into the open sea, instead of having to make its way down 17 or 18 miles of difficult channel, affording many opportunities to mines and submarines ... the docks and dredged channel at Rosyth cannot be counted upon for four years; the temporary base at Cromarty could be brought into existence in six months.”

Churchill, however, did not get his way, with Rosyth Dockyard going on to play a major role in both World Wars, and also providing work for large numbers of local men (and women) in future years.

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 and Jack Pryde.