The first image in this week’s trip down West Fife’s Memory Lane is a view of the entrance to Bruce Street in the 1950s as a Co-operative fruit and vegetable cart squeezes past a parked van.
Parking was on opposite sides of the street on alternate days at that time. Burton’s shop and the entrance to the New Victoria restaurant can be seen on the right and a sign for Kyle’s premises is above the parked van.
It is one of the oldest streets in Dunfermline and was named King Street in 1833 and later Bruce Street in memory of King Robert the Bruce.
There will be a series of ‘Bruce 750’ lectures in the Canmore Room in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries to mark the anniversary of the birth of one of Scotland’s greatest historical figures. The first lecture will take place on Tuesday, April 23 at 6.30pm, and will be presented by Dr Michael Penman, of Stirling University, entitled ‘In Search of the Lost Choir and Tombs of Dunfermline Abbey’. Michael will talk about the series of radar surveys he has undertaken in and around Dunfermline Abbey.
The next photograph also has a Robert the Bruce connection, and is the view looking up Randolph Street from its junction with the High Street showing the Cooperative shops that once dominated both sides of that street.
It was originally a footpath that was later widened and named South Chapel Street in 1809. It was later again given the name Randolph Street in 1878 in memory of Sir Thomas Randolph, nephew of King Robert the Bruce and one of his most faithful lieutenants who played a major role in the Battle of Bannockburn and whose body was later laid to rest in Dunfermline Abbey.
Our final photograph is of the magnificent Dunfermline Abbey and Church. Another famous figure in Dunfermline’s history, Andrew Carnegie, described his own feelings on Bruce in this account of Carnegie's meeting with the German Emperor who commented that Carnegie didn’t like kings:
“I have read your books. You do not like kings."
"No, Your Majesty, I do not like kings, but I do like a man behind a king when I find him."
"Ah! There is one king you like, I know, a Scottish king, Robert the Bruce. He was my hero in my youth. I was brought up on him."
"Yes, Your Majesty, so was I, and he lies buried in Dunfermline Abbey, in my native town. When a boy, I used to walk often around the towering square monument on the Abbey - one word on each block in big stone letters 'King Robert the Bruce'. But Bruce was much more than a king, he was the leader of his people. And not the first; Wallace the man of the people comes first. Your Majesty, I now own King Malcolm's tower in Dunfermline - he from whom you derive your precious heritage of Scottish blood.”
More images like these can be seen in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries. Tickets priced £5 for the ‘Bruce 750’ lecture are available online at OnFife as well as from the venue and Carnegie Hall Box Office on 01383 602302.
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