Lassodie
  • Lassodie
New Rows, Lassodie, Fifeshire
Lassodie is located in Fife
Lassodie
Lassodie
Location within Fife
Population1,425 (1901)[1]
Civil parish
  • Beath
Council area
Shire county
  • Fife
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom

Lassodie is an abandoned settlement located two miles south-west of Kelty, between Dunfermline and Cowdenbeath, in Fife.

Lassodie and Fairfield, in relation to Loch Fitty and Cowdenbeath

History

The 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

A 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

Public school, Lassodie

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

References

  1. "The Fife village of Lassodie that vanished when the pits closed". Scotsman. 11 January 2017.
  2. Liddall, W.J.N. (1896). The place names of Fife and Kinross. Edinburgh: William Green & Sons. p. 36.
  3. "Fifae Vicecomitatus, The Sherifdome of Fyfe". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  4. "advertisement". Caldeonian Mercury: 4. 18 January 1769.
  5. "advertisement". Caldeonian Mercury: 4. 27 December 1800.
  6. "Lassodie History". Scottish Mining Website. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  7. Map of Fife and Kinross, Sheet 35. London: Ordnance Survey. 1856.
  8. "With Armadale at Lassodie". Lothian Courier: 6. 7 February 1891.
  9. "Closing of Lassodie colliery". Dunfermline Press. 9 May 1931.
  10. "Fight to save village fails". Daily Record: 3. 16 October 1944.
  11. 1 2 3 "The Fife village of Lassodie that vanished when the pits closed". The Scotsman. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  12. "Lassodie". Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  13. Eighteen, Stephen. "Norman could be Lassodie's last". The Courier. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  14. Eighteen, Stephen. "Lassodie: Rise and fall of 1,500-person Fife village where 'nothing is left'". The Courier. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  15. "News of the churches". Perthshire Advertiser: 23. 12 January 1935.
  16. Royal National Directory of Scotland. Manchester: Slater's Directory Ltd. 1903. pp. 664–665.
  17. "Fifeshire Charity Cup". Scottish Football Historical Archive. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  18. "Lassodie". Forgotten Greens of Scotland. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  19. Smith, Craig (28 March 2020). "Former Fife opencast mine could become major tourism and leisure hotspot". The Courier. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  20. "Obituaries". Daily Telegraph: 21. 26 February 1992.
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