THE photographs in this week’s trip down Memory look at one of Dunfermline’s family owned businesses, Ian Brown Motor Engineers.
The well known firm are sponsoring the Football Comedy Night in the Carnegie Hall in Dunfermline on Thursday 31st October - and we have another pair of tickets to be won in a competition.
The garage is in Golfdrum Street and our first photograph shows it as it was when it was initially owned by William Rennie.
Ian Brown moved to Dunfermline in the 1950s from Galashiels in the Borders where he had served his apprenticeship, and worked in the Post Office garages in Campbell Street until the late 1960s.
Ian and his wife Merva then bought the Golfdrum Street garage from Mr Rennie on the 1st April 1969.
Our next photograph shows two mechanics, Paul Hynd and Pete Aitken, working on a vintage car belonging to a friend of Ian, Willie MacFarlane, who had a business nearby in Pittencrieff Street.
Willie, like Ian, had an interest in vintage cars and collected pre-war Rolls Royces. Through his lifetime he owned around 60 of them.
They were able to be picked up relatively cheaply in the 1950s and 1960s and the entrepreneur in Willie identified a market for them abroad, with many ending up in the United States.
In the 1970s the garage became a Saab Service Centre and the family business continued to develop and expand under Ian’s son, Keith, who recalls the interest his father had in cars and motorbikes.
He said: “Although my father officially retired he was always the boss even after he left! He continued to come up to the garage every day until he sadly passed away in 2019.
"He was very active throughout his working life with the garage, which also operated as a petrol station at one time, and that continued after he gave up the day to day business of the garage.
"He always had a variety of projects on the go at any one time. Dad and mum had a great love of rugby from their early days growing up in the Borders and when they came to Dunfermline they supported and sponsored Dunfermline Rugby Club on and off the park for over 20 years.
"Dad was also a keen Dunfermline Athletic supporter and I remember him telling me that he drove all the way down to Liverpool in 1962 in an Austin A30 to watch the Pars play against Everton in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup (which they'd qualified for after winning the Scottish Cup in 1961).
"Although Dunfermline lost that game 1-0, they defeated Everton 2-0 in the return game in front of a crowd of over 22,000 fans at East End Park to progress in the European competition.”
Our final photograph shows Ian alongside the Countess of Elgin at one of the many motor shows that he attended.
More photographs like these can be seen in Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries.
Tickets for the ‘Football Comedy Night’ on Thursday 31st October, supported by Ian Brown Motor Engineers and with the Dunfermline Press as media partners, are on sale priced £20 from the Carnegie Hall box office and also online at Onfife.
To have a chance of winning a pair of tickets in our competition, just answer this question.
In what year did Ian Brown travel down to Liverpool to watch the Pars take on Everton?
Email the answer, as well as your name and contact telephone number, to editorial@dunfermlinepress.co.uk, with Football Comedy Night in the subject box, by 5pm on Wednesday August 28.
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