THE photographs in this week’s trip down West Fife’s Memory Lane are from a new book, ‘The Italians of West Fife’.

It is written by Norma Alari, who herself comes from one of Dunfermline’s most well-known Italian families the Alari’s, who operated one of the town’s most popular fish and chip shops in Chalmers Street.

The book gives the history of many of the Italian families who made Dunfermline their home.

Our first photograph shows the staff of the fish and chip shop in Cross Wynd (on the opposite side of the street from where Giacomo’s café is today) run by the Vernolini family. The owner, Umberto Vernolini (nicknamed Bert), second from the right in the photograph, was born in Barga in Italy in 1904 and came to Dunfermline as a child where he received his education at Dunfermline High School.

The next colourised old photograph shows Umberto serving customers inside his shop. During the Second World War, many Italians in Scotland were arrested and imprisoned, and Umberto himself, despite having become a British citizen, also suffered this fate temporarily.

Our next photograph shows the fish and chip shop operated by the Cascarino family in Reform Street which is now part of Carnegie Drive. Domenico Cascerino (on the left of the photo) was the mother of one of Dunfermline’s best-known Italians, Bacaleno Cascerino (or ‘Bashie’ as he was nicknamed) who was a familiar sight in Dunfermline selling ice cream from his van at the entrance to Pittencrieff Park. The shop in Reform Street was later occupied by Cristifano Cardosi and then Ugo Corrieri in 1928.

The final photograph shows the shop operated by the Berturelli family that was situated at 35 Chalmers Street. Domenico Berturelli had married Eugenia Leonardi in 1876 in Borgotaro and settled in Dunfermline around 1891. Eugenia is pictured holding her son, Marcello, who was born in July 1899. It is said Domenico never spoke any language other than Italian and Eugenia ‘got by’. In their shop, they made and sold ginger beer and had one billiard table. Other ice cream-makers in Chalmers Street between 1896 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 were Arcangelo Tartaglia and his wife, Maria, across the street at number 38; Ernesto Boni at number 40 and John Hersberg at 35 Chalmers Street.

Other Italian café owners had billiard tables on their premises, perhaps the best-known one being Malocos at 125 High Street with 16 tables. The Capanni family had two tables at 5 Bruce Street and Antonio Staffieri also had 14 tables at 22 Bruce Street. Antonio Staffieri, a confectioner born in Naples, was the first Italian on record in Dunfermline in the 1881 census, staying in the town’s Randolph Street.

More information on the early Italian community in Dunfermline can be found in Norma’s book, ‘Italians of West Fife’, on sale in the gift shop at Abbot House.

More photographs like these can be seen in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries and ‘Old Dunfermline’ DVDs are available at olddunfermline.com/shop.