Modern Day Dalgety Bay
MEMORIES OF DALGETY IN THE EARLY 1960’s
Contributor – John Anderson
Picture credits – Dalgety Heritage Trail
These are a few random recollections of a present-day Dalgety Bay resident who, believe it or not, lived here in the early 1960’s. That was some years before the commencement of the construction of Dalgety Bay private enterprise new town.
As teenagers, he and his brother had the privilege of living in the West Wing of Donibristle House, their father being a senior Royal Navy officer, Naval Chief of Staff, Scotland. Their family, apart from Naval “live in” stewards and chef, were the sole occupants of the West
Wing (picture 1).
In those days, a large part of Donibristle Estate was in the hands of the Ministry of Defence, and access by the general public was denied. Few people lived on the Estate – a few Royal Navy people, in married quarters in HMS Cochrane (picture 2) and those engaged in farming the land.
The very impressive entrance to Donibristle Estate from the main road was just east of where Aldi is now, and was guarded by armed service-men as it was the entrance to the then location of HMS Cochrane.The appearance of this entrance was rather like the ornamental entrance still visible in Aberdour, opposite the Woodside Hotel. You can see the level of ornate detail on the west gate pre-war in picture three and in picture four we have the entrance floral bed to HMS Cochrane.
The kitchens for the previous Donibristle House (gutted by fire in 1858 and demolished in 1912) were in the West Wing, in a large, two storey high chamber, still with the ranges, spits, and ironwork from which meat carcases, pots and pans etc would have been suspended. Tunnels ran from there to the former Main House and to the East Wing. He recalls that the tunnel that had led to the Main House had been bricked up, but the tunnel that linked the East and West wings could still be used. (Link to Donibristle Kitchen- Kitchen Collection https://bit.ly/3zqBDm5)
In the 1960’s the kitchens, which were cleared of any furniture they once contained and thus had a large unobstructed floor area, were used by the Royal Navy for formal and informal receptions and other gatherings – quite an experience for the brothers. Many teenage parties were also held there, as a number of youngsters of other Naval personnel lived at the Rosyth Naval base and at HMS Cochrane.
The teenagers had plenty to keep themselves amused exploring the area. The old stables were ruins, as was the harbour. Other spare time activities were available, including a small boat for use on the Forth and the opportunity to drive a 1930’s car, a Morris 8 Tourer around the private roads, when the boys were 14 and 15 years old.
The airfield runway was still intact at that time, which gave plenty of opportunity for driving practice. The control tower, in picture five, was also still in place and is believed to have been built around the same time as the concrete runways and southern hangars, so around 1943. In our time the tower was empty, but somewhere else to explore.
AN ARTISTIC MASTERPIECE
Contributor: Jonathan Ellington
The photo attached to this post is of a white tea-towel, with printed portraits of members of the Dalgety Church children’s groups, (Discoverers, Earlybirds and Sunbeams), the portraits presumably being crafted by the children themselves. It was bought by my parents and appears to date to sometime before the year 2000 as a rather good likeness of the Rev. Peter Elston is viewable (centre, three quarters of the way down the tea-towel). I presume this tea-towel was produced and sold to earn funds for the groups involved but we would welcome any further details that anyone has available!
By expanding the photo, details of the individuals’ names and pictures are much clearer to see. It would be brilliant if any of the “models” could get in touch in the comments to claim their rightful glory (or infamy!).
My personal favourites are 1) Kim (Left side, a third of the way up), 2) Laura (Extreme left, halfway up), and 3) Blair (Extreme right, halfway down). Of course, artistic merit lies in the eyes of the beholder though…
Hillend Bypass
Contributor: Heritage Trail Brian
Hillend has had a history of having to put up with ‘noisy neighbours’ for at least a couple of centuries, thank goodness for the Hillend Action Group for stopping the gas power plant as that would have stretched the noise pollution for the next few decades.
In the early 1800’s it had a whinstone quarry with all its bangs and booms at the base of Letham Hill Wood to contend with. At the time of the printing of the first edition of the O/S 6-inch map from 1856 the quarry was about 50m long. It stopped operations in the early 1890’s and by the time the 1896 edition from O/S maps came out, the area was marked as ‘Old Quarry’. (See pic 1)
Pic 1
Hillend sits close to the main Aberdeen to Edinburgh and Fife Circle, so it has had its fair share of trains whizzing by. Today’s trains are relatively quiet compared to the steam trains that ran past, up to the 1960’s, but noisy, nonetheless.
Meanwhile from 1917 through to 1959 the noise was from the sky as Hillend found itself under the flight path of Donibristle Airfield with planes of all sizes taking part in exercises with all the landing and taking off from the airstrip and just as calm was setting in with the airfield demise, along came the start of building of the new town of Dalgety Bay in 1962.
All the way along that timeline, came the car ownership boom, Hillend was one of many villages and towns that suffered the exponential rise of the car as the old road network ran through the village. Anecdotally it was said that you had to be on your side of the road before the busy times or you would be stuck due to the car volume. (See car ownership graph pic 2)
The chart above shows the number of licensed vehicles in Great Britain has increased from about 4 million in 1950 to over 34 million in 2010.
The car ownership boom put pressure on our traditional road network bringing increased traffic in our older towns and villages throughout the UK. The first full length motorway, the M1, opened in 1959 and subsequent major roads gave relief to many towns as the bulk of traffic movement diverted onto the faster, wider roads.
Then came the clamour to get bypasses. A huge amount was built between the 60’s and 90’s but it is not a new concept. London, in 1756, seen the first recorded bypass when the Marylebone Road was built between Paddington and Islington and is still there today.
The villagers found themselves in a long campaign to get the traffic and pollution diverted from the Main St and the question of the Hillend bypass reached the floor of the House on more than one occasion. On one exchange on the 18/7/73 it was once again thwarted (see Pic 3).
Pic 3
However, the bypass was eventually authorised and one of the main contractors, Morrison Construction, turned up on site during August 1992 for the 10-month road program. A large chunk of the ‘Old Quarry’ was cut through for A921 diversion which on completion would make the road fully 15.7 miles.
The bypass was finally opened on the 21/6/93 to great cheering and celebration. The village commemorated the day with a street party, finally getting back to being a quiet village (see pic 4,5)
Pic 4
Pic 5
Forsyth’s Hillend Services (pic 6)
As car ownership grew so did the opening of petrol stations and by the mid-1960’s we had over 40,000 in the UK. The market would be affected by the improving fuel efficiency of our cars, BP opening its first self-service station in 1965, Tesco opening its first petrol station in 1970 and the oil crisis in 1973. At this point the market started to consolidate and albeit early days for the supermarkets, they had now entered the scene and slowly but surely the independents were squeezed out. It was these market factors that would see the closure of our Forsyth’s Hillend Services.
Pic 6
Pic 7
Ian Forsyth had for a number of years served the residents of Hillend and the early settlers of Dalgety Bay as well as having the passing trade from the constant stream of traffic that flowed through Hillend. Local people were employed, if you zoom into the picture from the early seventies (pic 6) you will see that it was not self-service, and it was Keith Stutter that is serving the customer.
But sadly, with the changes in the market the decision was made in 1973 to put the business up for sale. It finally closed in 1979.
The land and facilities were owned by Esso and their ownership stretched from what is now the Railway Station, round the corner and up part of Clockluine Road. It took a while before they started to decommission by removing the underground storage tanks to allow the land to be repurposed but having only one landowner to negotiate with made it easier to bring the ‘Halt’ back.
A small fruit and veg pop up shop started on the remaining part of the forecourt, we have been told that it was owned by Mr Bell. We have heard that this was a popular venture and traded there for a while.
Latterly there was a truck stop who seemingly took a bit of persuading to move off site to allow the work on bypass to start and later the building of the Railway Station which opened on the 27/3/98. A thank you to Alan Forsyth for his assistance in helping us piece the story together and pictures 4 and 5 from the Hillend Hub Community Page and Eric Simpson for picture 6.
Town Centre Land
Contributors: Heritage Trail – Brian and Jonathan
Picture Credits: HES, Heritage Trail, Mike Brown and NRS
The Dalgety Bay & Hillend Community Council and the Dalgety Community Trust announced yesterday that the ownership of the land between Louie Brown’s and the Dalgety Parish Church, see picture 1 and the three community woodlands, Crow Wood, Hopeward Wood and Bathing House Wood has now been completed.
As part of the work to transfer the community land, the Dalgety Heritage Trail has been looking into the history of the area. Firstly, let us consult the old maps.
Pic 2
Pic 3
In picture 2, Roy’s military survey of 1747-55, overlaying a google map of Dalgety Bay, shows that Leuchat house and gardens, the home of the Spittal family, were situated close to the town centre land, near Tesco. We must point out that although Roy’s map is a key historical document known for its detail and its informative description for all areas of Scotland, it was drawn over 270 years ago and we cannot expect it to have the same accuracy as Google’s modern satellite technology.
Next in picture 3, we have a copy of the Ordnance Survey Map of Dalgety Farm boundaries headed 1944- 1945, ‘Edition of 1928’ which shows the Earl’s walled garden in close proximity to where Leuchat house was positioned on Roy’s map.
To complete the comparison, and the time span over the centuries, we can look at the aerial shot taken of the airfield where we can see in picture 4 an aircraft hangar (of Bellman type), which is more or less where the tennis courts are today. The towns first tennis courts used the hangar’s concrete base. Further to the right you can make out the pillbox, its position is still discernible today as a scrubbed-out area on the grass. Picture 5 brings us right up to date.
Pic 4
Pic 5
Leuchat house for quite a while now has been assumed to have been positioned near Dalgety Bay Primary School. We believe that is not the case, and although the Spittal estate of Leuchat stretched across a lot of what we now know to be the ‘new town,’ including the land that the school sits on, the house and gardens were nearer the Earl of Moray’s walled garden. In fact, it is highly likely that the Earl took advantage of the Spittal landscaped gardens to create his walled garden and used the stone from the Spittal home to help build the wall which we can still see in part around Tesco and Hugo’s today.
More evidence to our view was the finding of the Spittal armorial stone (Pic 6) during the construction of the Hope Tryst (now Hugo’s). We believe this supports our view that the home was on the church side of Regents Way.
Pic 6
Pic 7
So, who were the Spittals of Leuchat?
A common enough name, this particular family of Spittals were widely successful from the 14th century throughout Scotland, various members being baillies of Inverkeithing and Stirling, rector of Kings College Aberdeen, notary public in Stirling and one, Robert Spittal, was tailor to King James IV. He was also founder of Spittal’s Hospital and did many other philanthropic works in Stirling. Note the coat of arms at Pic 7, Brig of Teith/ Doune, paid for by Robert Spittal and Pic 6, the Leuchat stone find from the Hope Tryst (now Hugo’s), Dalgety, both featuring an eagle displayed.
The Spittals owned lands in Fife since at least the 14th Century and held the Leuchat estate in Dalgety since the mid-15th Century. For many years, the Blairlogie estate (featuring the majestic Dumyat hill), in Stirling and Leuchat were owned by separate branches of the family, but their ownership was united in the 1600s after Alexander Spittal of Blair’s arrangement with his kinswoman Margaret Spittal, who had held Leuchat.
The estate of Leuchat, like many others, changed in size and shape over the years due to various legal deals. At various times, whilst centring on the west of centre of modern Dalgety, it included Letham, Seafield and the farmland at Little Fordell. The Spittals also held estates in Trewin (in Strathearn), Beath (Leuchatsbeath, per the modern golf course, and Knocksudderon). The fact that the Spittals were referred to as the “Spittals of Leuchat” and the head was often referred to, as simply “Leuchat”, indicate that the estate in Dalgety was the “power base” and family head’s home
The best known of the Spittals of Leuchat was James Spittal who died in 1760 aged roughly 96. He was a highly educated and charismatic MP for Inverkeithing – in fact, he was the last surviving member of the Scottish Parliament that voted for the union with England in 1707. Many tales of him still survive, some of which we told previously at:
It is worth noting that the Spittals of Leuchat have played a huge part in the history of Dalgety Bay but are little known here compared to the Earls of Moray, the Hendersons or the Earls of Dunfermline (the Setons).
This is perhaps because:
a), They sold the Leuchat estate so long ago to the Earls of Moray.
b), None appear to be buried in the Bay.
c), Very sadly, neither “Spittal” nor “Leuchat” are used in street names in their base of Dalgety though they are in Stirling, Cowdenbeath and, possibly Inverkeithing.
d), The importance of the family to the area was not acknowledged when the current Dalgety Bay coat of arms was drawn up, featuring only the other three major families in the area.
LORD DOUNE (EARL OF MORAY)
To understand the history of the Town Centre Land under the Earls of Moray, and going forward, we need to know what happened with the estate as a whole.
Francis, Lord Doune who later became the Earl of Moray bought the Leuchat estate in 1766 to extend his Donibristle Estate. He also bought Dalgety House and the estate from the Tweedales (previously the Earls of Yester), and prior to that owned by the Seton family.
To complete the enlarged estate, he also entered into a transaction to exchange land that he owned at St David’s with the Hendersons and in return took ownership of the farms at Easter and Wester Little Fordell which is the area that the Donibristle Airfield and subsequently the Hillend and Donibristle Industrial Estate now sits.
The Earls of Moray then invested heavily in re-landscaping the estate. They contracted Thomas White, a well-known landscaper from England who helped create parklands, woods as well as the formal gardens. This was enhanced further with a new plan drawn up in 1811 by James Knox.
The Heritage Trail will over time, talk about the Earls of Moray life in our area but the land arrangement to allow Donibristle Airfield to be established on the estate and subsequently the history of how the Airfield changed the estate has been covered in previous posts, which as we know, led to the demise of the Moray estate but also, laid the future path to establish the new town.
Pic 8
Pic 9
ADMIRALTY
At the end of the First World War the Earl of Moray was reluctant to agree a permanent sale of the land but in the end the Ministry won the day due to its proximity to the main anchorage of the fleet in the Forth and it would service the need of a landing strip for when pilots couldn’t land on their ship. It was centrally placed with other airfields, and it had good rail and road connections. In their eyes it was the perfect place
for the Fleet Aircraft Repair base.
The town centre land became a hub for engine repairs and testing. If you look at picture 8 the circled black building, which was a Compass Calibration Point and to the left, out of shot was the aero engine test bed, which in part still exists today as an electrical substation at Moray Park, see picture 9. Over the years the repair yard performed major maintenance on all types of Fleet Air Arm aircraft and engine overhaul,
initially from two hangars, but by 1944 this had grown to six.
Space was a real issue, not just for the aircraft being serviced but also the growing need to overhaul and repair engines. Not only did engine complexity grow during the war years but so did the engine size. At one point even the stables at Donibristle House were being used to store them. The town centre land would have seen lots of activity with personnel and engine movement.
EARL OF MORAY
Jumping to 1959 the Earl of Moray family repurchased much of the estate back from the Admiralty through their company called the Moray Development Company and in 1961 along with Copthall Holdings established a new company called Copthall Holdings (Dalgety) Developments Ltd with Lord Doune (heir) on the board of directors, which got the go ahead to build the new town of Dalgety Bay.
DALGETY BAY AND HILLEND COMMUNITY COUNCIL
The designated area for the ‘new’ town, Dalgety Bay was sectioned off into various lots and sold to the house developers who constructed the town over many phases. The town centre land, left over from establishing the Bay Centre, which over time, would be used to build the parish church, tennis courts and the old social club, was a concern to the community as they didn’t want it built on or to be an extension for the supermarket, this led to the then Community Council to look at protecting it for community use.
After discussions with Dunfermline District Council and the land owner an agreement was reached and the Community Council Chair at that time, the late Colin McPhail (MBE), Secretary Jane Gray and Treasurer Tom Stevenson formally signed the legal documents on 20/10/1994 from Barratt Commercial Ltd to take the land ownership on behalf of the community including the land where the tennis courts are now situated.
DALGETY COMMUNITY TRUST
Spring forward to today and this has paved the way for the Trust to act upon the engagement we have already undertaken with the town regarding the creation of a new ‘Community Hub’ and ‘Civic Square’. People told us they wanted a much-needed focal point in its centre. An area to be proud of where folk can meet on a daily basis, hold town events or simply to have somewhere to sit and enjoy the quiet.
This milestone places the responsibility on the Trust for not only the Town Centre land, but also the community woodlands which are meticulously looked after by the Dalgety Bay Community Woodlands Group.
Not only will we endeavour to protect the areas for the community, but we will strive to raise the funds required to deliver our plans for the benefit of everyone in Dalgety Bay, Hillend and Fordell Gardens and the surrounding area.
For updates on the Trust projects please keep checking in on our website
https://www.dalgetycommunitytrust.co.uk/