This blogpost is very parochial, being about the history and heritage of Kirkcaldy in Fife, a nearby town.
To mark the 50th birthday of Kirkcaldy’s Civic Society they have decided to choose 50 objects that relate to the town and its history/heritage, hoping to stimulate memories in readers which might lead to more information being gathered, information which might otherwise have been lost. You can see some of the ‘objects’ here, so far only 16 have been written about, but I know that the Spanish Civil War memorial just off Forth Avenue will be featuring in the list at some point in the future. That memorial has been on my mind somewhat recently as I’ve just finished reading Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit and obviously George Orwell was influenced by his experiences in that war. You can read Jack’s old blogpost about the memorial here.
I only have a few Kirkcaldy objects in my own varied collection of ‘stuff’. Actually I have quite a few old postcards of Beveridge Park, some of which you can see here. Below is another one which sadly is postally unused, but is of interest to me anyway because of the clothes.
The Mauchline money box below has an image of St Brycedale Free Church, Kirkcaldy. This church is still in use but is now called St Bryce Kirk. In the past the politician Gordon Brown’s father was the minister of this church.
I looked at a map and have a much better sense of where Fife is now.
Was the money box for someone’s personal use, do you think?
I think it was a great idea of some archivist to come up with these 50 items and not to list them all at once. I hope people do share their memories.
Constance,
Yes the money box would have been used to save pocket money in, or to save up for holidays or something. The money could be extracted from the base of it via a wee strip of wood.
I think it was Alan who came up with the idea of the 50 objects, as you say – it’s a great idea.
I was not familiar with that use of the word “parochial” and I am glad to have learned it.
This is very interesting, I have not read about all of the 13 objects listed, but was especially interested in the Sea Wall. Also liked the overhead view of the Volunteer Green and the Promenade. I am glad it was not covered with a car park.
tracybham,
I think parochial is quite a common word here. I used to walk past Volunteers Green and the sea wall every day, just for the exercise. It’s really only that area and the big Victorian parks that I miss about the town now that I’ve moved out. Like many towns it is in a bad way at the moment which makes it all the more important to know what it was like in the past I think.