David Brown

This is the only photo we have of Davie Broon, as he was known locally.  He lived to 74 and I think we can assume this photo was taken not long before outside his house in South Overgate.  He was born into a millworking family in Methil and when the family followed the work from Kirkland to Kinghorn he found himself working in the mill at the age of 12 (or at least his young brother did so I expect he did as well).  He married relatively young (both he and Kirsty were 20) but there was no child born immediately so no suggestion of necessity.  Maybe having worked for so long by that age he felt he was mature enough for the responsibility of setting up a home and family.

He worked as a mill tenter which means that he would stretch out the linen on tenterhooks as shown below.  After the natural oils were washed out of the cloth it had to be stretched to stop it shrinking and "on tenterhooks" means being in a state of tension.  That's not him in the photo by the way.

He went on to work in an oil works and my best guess is thet it was the Binnend Works at Burntisland, extracting oil from the local shale mines.  He was to work as a labourer for a sand pit company after that, which most likely meant taking sand from the Pettycur dunes to the glass works just off the beach.  He later became a boiler fireman at the works. 

The location of the sand pit and the works can be seen here.  The glassworks buildings stood until fairly recent times.

David is one of those characters though whose lives we see the industrial and social backgrounds to an area, moving from industry to industry as the economy changed.

There is one address in his records which I can't locate in any map or from any secondary source, that of Westgate in Kinghorn.  My best guess is that it was either another name for the Gallowgate, now known as Townhead, or was the extention of that street to the West, now known as Kilcruik Road, since the Eastgate meets that thoroughfare at the top of the Overgate.

 

David was born in Wemyss, there's no doubt of that, but Wemyss is a parish containing eight recognised towns or villages and which one he was born in is unclear.  Where it's mentioned specifically it's Methil or Scoonie.  Scoonie is on the Leven side of the River Leven and Methil is on the other, quite clearly different settlements.  I don't suppose it matters but it's strange that he should give two different birthplaces.