Lassodie is an abandoned settlement located two miles south-west of Kelty, between Dunfermline and Cowdenbeath, in Fife.
Lassodie
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|---|---|
 New Rows, Lassodie, Fifeshire | |
  Lassodie Location within Fife | |
| Population | 1,425 (1901)[1] |
| Civil parish |
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| Council area | |
| Shire county |
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| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
History
editThe name Lassodie was a collective for three settlements, named Old Rows, New Rows (or Parley), and Fairfield, all lying on a road from Kingseat to a series of mines. The name derives from the Scots Gaelic lios aodann, meaning "garden on the brow of a hill".[2]
The earliest known record of the name is as "Lassody", describing a tower in the Blaeu Atlas of Scotland of 1654.[3] The first known use of the area was as the site of a mill in the 18th century,[4] and then as a farm, known as Braehead, belonging to the Dewar family, who held the Lairdship of Lassodie.[5]
The right to collect coal was leased from 1825 at the latest,[6] and pit mining is known to have taken place in the area from 1856.[7] In 1860, Messrs. Thomas Spowart & Company, Ltd. took a lease over the minerals of the estate. Several hundred men were employed and the village (with a school) erected in short order. The village was difficult to find, being 6 miles from the nearest railway station, and offering an appearance of "a row or two and a farm house" (Lassodie House, the home of the laird) from a distance.[8]
However, in May 1931, the company closed the mines, and ordered the miners - whose conditions of employment contained a requirement to live in the village houses - to leave within 14 days.[9] A handful of people stayed behind, living without street lighting or sanitary facilities, until on 15 October 1944 the remaining villagers agreed to leave for Weir houses in Kelty and Halbeath.[10][11]
The remains of the village were almost completely destroyed in the 1960s for the creation of the St Ninians Colliery open cast mine.[12][11] The last building remaining is Loch Fitty Cottage, a former shop and stable, which was saved from demolition by being on the B912 road.[13]
Demography
editA census from 1881 shows Lassodie had a population of 808 individuals; by 1901, it had risen to 1,425.[14] After the closure of the mines, few people remained behind; by 1944, the population was 203.
Facilities
edit
Lassodie had a Free church (St Ninian's[15]), school, a post office, Miners' Welfare Institute, and a public hall. The only shops of any importance in the place were branches of the Kelty Co-operative Society at Fairfield and at New Rows; New Rows also contained the one public house in the village, the Lassodie Tavern.[16]
The senior association football club Lassodie F.C. had some success in the 1880s, entering the Scottish Cup a number of times, and winning the Fife Cup in 1887–88 and Fifeshire Charity Cup in 1889–90.[17] The village also had a 9-hole golf course between Old and New Rows and Loch Fitty.[18]
Plans for a land sculpture project were initiated, based on Charles Jencks' design, on a 930 acres (3.8 km2) site, but the project was stopped in 2013 due to financial problems at Scottish Coal.[19][11]
Notable inhabitants
edit- Lt-Col James Hislop MC, born in Lassodie in 1912, awarded the Military Cross for service in Malaya[20]
References
edit- ^ "The Fife village of Lassodie that vanished when the pits closed". Scotsman. 11 January 2017.
- ^ Liddall, W.J.N. (1896). The place names of Fife and Kinross. Edinburgh: William Green & Sons. p. 36.
- ^ "Fifae Vicecomitatus, The Sherifdome of Fyfe". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
- ^ "advertisement". Caldeonian Mercury: 4. 18 January 1769.
- ^ "advertisement". Caldeonian Mercury: 4. 27 December 1800.
- ^ "Lassodie History". Scottish Mining Website. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
- ^ Map of Fife and Kinross, Sheet 35. London: Ordnance Survey. 1856.
- ^ "With Armadale at Lassodie". Lothian Courier: 6. 7 February 1891.
- ^ "Closing of Lassodie colliery". Dunfermline Press. 9 May 1931.
- ^ "Fight to save village fails". Daily Record: 3. 16 October 1944.
- ^ a b c "The Fife village of Lassodie that vanished when the pits closed". The Scotsman. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
- ^ "Lassodie". Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
- ^ Eighteen, Stephen. "Norman could be Lassodie's last". The Courier. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
- ^ Eighteen, Stephen. "Lassodie: Rise and fall of 1,500-person Fife village where 'nothing is left'". The Courier. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
- ^ "News of the churches". Perthshire Advertiser: 23. 12 January 1935.
- ^ Royal National Directory of Scotland. Manchester: Slater's Directory Ltd. 1903. pp. 664–665.
- ^ "Fifeshire Charity Cup". Scottish Football Historical Archive. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
- ^ "Lassodie". Forgotten Greens of Scotland. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
- ^ Smith, Craig (28 March 2020). "Former Fife opencast mine could become major tourism and leisure hotspot". The Courier. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
- ^ "Obituaries". Daily Telegraph: 21. 26 February 1992.