"Pet" Marjory Fleming, was a remarkable girl,who died aged 8 years and 11 months after contracting meningitis. She is buried in the Abbotshall Church Grave yard. See Braepark in the Lothian section.
Between her grave and the main entrance to the church is what looks like a pile of stones heaped upon each other. On closer inspection you will find that this is the gravestone of a stone mason, with the tools of his trade being shown on the stone.
Marjory
Fleming's grave stone
The
stone masons tools shown on the grave stone
The "lang toon" as Kirkcaldy is known has an esplanade along the sea front... and when you think of it it is a very good place for it to be!
The sea wall, completed in 1922, was built as a project to relieve the serious unemployment of the time, which was over 14 per cent.
Money was supposed to come from central government to recompense the town for the £83,000 costs, but this turned into a long-running scandal as Westminster produced one excuse after another to avoid paying up.
In any case, the sea wall gave the town a defined sea front for the first time in its history.
Esplanade
memorial
There is a delightful poem called The Boy in the Train, written by Mabel Campbell Smith, a Dumfries lady who was born in 1869. The poem was first published in April, 1913. It ends —
'I'll
soon be ringing ma Grandma's bell,
She'll cry, 'Come ben, ma laddie!',
For I ken masel' by the queer-like smell,
that the next stop's Kirkcaddy.'
Fortunately the smell has gone but unfortunately so has the industry. There is now only one factory still making linoleum. (From the Free Fife Press web pages.)
I found this relic of World War 2 on the rooftop of a laundry half way down St.Clair Street.
In the event that the Luftwaffe decided they would like to drop some incendiary bombs upon the good people of Kirkcaldy, a fire watcher sitting in this armoured shelter would have seen the fire and raised the alarm.
I would not envy that job in the winter time knowing how the wind rips into the town from the Firth of Forth.
Apologies for the photo, I forgot to compensate for the effect of the sky.
The
fire watching post