THE first photograph in this week’s trip down West Fife’s Memory Lane is of a view looking down the High Street in Dunfermline from its junction with Guildhall Street and Cross Wynd.

Well-known businesses at that time included Hepworth’s men's outfitters on the left at the top of Guildhall Street, and Woolworths store on the right-hand side of the street.

Anne Winterburn remembers shopping in Woolworths as a child: “I loved Woolworth’s as a kid. The broken biscuit counter was the best, especially when you got some chocolate ones in there too –and we paid next to nothing for them. At the sweet counter after Easter you could get broken chocolate Easter eggs – now that was living …!”

Between Woolworths and the Clydesdale Bank was the butcher ‘C Smith and Sons’. This was owned by a family of German immigrants called Schmidt who, like many other such immigrants in Scottish towns, chose to Anglicise their name as a result of anti-German feeling during the war and inter-war years.

On the same side of the street as Hepworth’s was the City Restaurant. The signpost for ‘The Bruce Café’ can also be seen that was a favourite meeting place for morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea.

The next photograph is of the lower part of the High Street just before the City Chambers in an earlier period with very few cars yet to be seen. It shows where Woolworths used to operate from when the store came to Dunfermline in 1922.

The refuse workers in our next photograph might be puzzled regarding the news that Dunfermline has just been awarded city status. As can be seen from the prominent signage on the front of their vehicle, they wouldn’t have had any doubt that Dunfermline had long been regarded as a city, and had a daily reminder of their 'City and Royal Burgh' status as they went about their work.

Our final photograph is of the area around Bothwell Street and the railway viaduct at the bottom of the New Row.

Carol Wyse remembers some of the shops that were located there before they were demolished to make way for road improvements and the widening of the junction: “I lived in Elliot Street in 1969 and went to the butchers and the bakers on the way home from my job in the finance department in Rosyth Dockyard – happy days.”

William Kay remembers the different traffic layout at that time: “There was a time when two-way traffic went up both sides but it's a very long time ago. I actually have a feeling that there were two separate bus stops where the bank is now, one for buses heading to the New Row and one for the others heading up to St Margaret's Stance. It eventually became a roundabout no later than the ’60s, I think, and then if you got on a double-decker, it was a bit scary turning the corner on to the New Row as the bus leaned over so much.”

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.