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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