The first photograph in this week's trip down West Fife's Memory Lane is a view down Bridge Street in Dunfermline towards Pittencrieff Park where the magnificent entrance gates were being constructed in 1928 as a memorial to the widow of Andrew Carnegie, Louise Whitfield.
The design included her intials and his, together with three letters M: One each for Margaret Morrison his mother, Margaret Carnegie their daughter and Margaret Miller their grand-daughter.
Louise Whitfield was both Andrew Carnegie's wife and his partner in distributing his enormous wealth, yet there was much more to the woman than her relationship with her husband. There will be an event in the Canmore Room in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries on Wednesday, May 8, at 6.30pm when actress and storyteller Irene Lofthouse, from Keighley in Yorkshire, will bring her one woman play on the life of Louise to Dunfermline.
The great great great grandson of Andrew Carnegie, the actor and singer Joe Whiteman, will also provide entertainment, performing songs from the musical on the life of Carnegie, ‘The Star Spangled Scotchman’.
Our next photograph shows some of the Carnegie Dunfermline Trustees mingling with other invited guests at the opening of the hothouses in Pittencrieff Park in the early 1970s.
Lynn Dunlop remembers the hothouses well: “My husband and I were married there. The staff were fantastic. Usually people only went there for photographs but we had the whole ceremony there."
Rachel McCord also recalls them: “I remember them so well when I was small - so many happy memories of the Glen, the paddling pool, the bandstand and the Gala days."
Trish Thomas remembers the tropical fruit that was grown inside them: “Many memories of visiting as a child when dropping off or collecting my grandad from the Naval Dockyard. Always fascinated by the bananas!”
Wilma Chapman also remembers the hothouses: “They were brilliant in their day and full to the brim with beautiful flowers and plants."
Paul Robertson recalls visits there: “Ah, my childhood, they gave me a lifelong love of tropical plants, fronds and cacti."
Lynne Channing appreciated the heat as a child in the hotter sections: “I remember the tropical one when we were kids. We liked to see how long we could last in it as it was really hot and humid."
The final image shows the original hothouses that preceded the new ones, and those are the ones that Betty McCaig remembers best: “That’s how I remember them. The new ones were never the same. I remember being taken to see bananas growing there. I had never seen one before. I believe they were given to a hospital or home for sick children.”
More images like these can be seen in the Local Studies Department in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries, as well as at facebook.com/olddunfermline.
Tickets, priced £10, for the show entitled ‘An Evening with Louise Whitfield and her husband Andrew Carnegie’ are on sale online at OnFife, as well as from the venue itself, and from the Carnegie Hall box office on 01383 602302.
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