The photographs in this week’s trip down Memory Lane look at Priory Lane, the road that links the bottom of St Margaret’s Street to the New Row.

The Annals of Dunfermline list some of the names the street was known as in the past: "Priory Lane was anciently known as Abbey Road and afterwards as the Common Vennel. It began to be built in 1752."

Our first photograph shows two significant buildings situated on the north side of Priory Lane, namely the old Dunfermline High School on the left and Lauder College on the right.

The Dunfermline Journal in October 1899 reported on the opening of Lauder College: "On Tuesday the new technical school which has been christened Lauder Technical College, and which Dunfermline owes to the munificence of Mr Andrew Carnegie, was formally opened under circumstances which could not fail to impress one with the idea that an impetus has been given to secondary and technical education in the city and district.

"The technical school stands on a site close to the high school. The Buchanan Street entrance forms the entrance from the west and the high school Priory Lane entrance has been changed so as to make the main entrance for the two institutions."

Andrew Carnegie, who provided the funding for the college, asked during the opening ceremony that it be named in honour of his uncle, George Lauder, who he held in high regard.

The buildings still stand there today having been converted into living accommodation.

The next photograph is of the corner of the New Row and Priory Lane.

The bus driving into Priory Lane was painted in 1987 in the colours of the Dunfermline trams to mark the Golden Jubilee and 50th anniversary of the end of the ‘Dunfermline and District Tramway service in Dunfermline in 1937’.

Dunfermline Press reader Ian Ross points out some of the buildings in the photo: “The old West Fife Hospital doctors flats are in the centre of the photograph and the nurses home to the left.”

The next photograph shows an earlier view from much the same spot showing some of the buildings that once stood there, before later being demolished, such as Dick's Cooperative Institute.

Kay Fairweather remembers the masonic hall situated further along into Priory Lane that stands on the south side of the street: “My Granny and Papa lived in the flat above the masonic hall, in Priory Lane one time. He was caretaker there. Happy days.”

The final photograph is of the western end of Priory Lane at its junction with Moodie Street where the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie can be seen as well as some of the houses in Priory Lane.

The top of Moodie Street was later closed to traffic and the road rerouted.

The Dunfermline Press of April 1964 reported on a medieval discovery in that area: "A circular stone well, which may date back to medieval times, has been uncovered on the site of the demolished houses at the west end of Priory Lane."

More photographs like these can be seen in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries as well as at facebook.com/olddunfermline