1854
East of Fife Railway – well done the fishermen of Cellardyke! They have purchased shares in this undertaking to no less than £800!
1857
A public meeting of the inhabitants of East and West Anstruther and Cellardyke was held in the town hall of east Anstruther on Friday last. The hall and staircase were densely crowded, and a great number were unable to gain admittance…….. the committee had now surmounted all local obstacles to a united effort by all the burghs for a common ‘Union harbour’; the extended harbour works to be in connection with the present Anstruther harbour; the town council of East Anstruther had consented to surrender the harbour revenues on certain conditions, the fishermen of Cellardyke also had a public meeting and agreed to abandon Craignoon scheme, and to devote the £500 they had already collected, and to tax themselves at the rate of 1s 6d a week per boat, if a harbour in connection with the present Anstruther harbour, and sufficient for their wants could be secured, and the managers of West Anstruther also gave the scheme their hearty approval.
1863
Since Tuesday week none of the boats engaged in the white fishing have ventured out, owing to the severe gales of easterly wind and a heavy swell….. The fleet of large boats belonging to Cellardyke at present engaged in Line fishing amounts to thirty eight. Besides these, five or six yawls chiefly manned by old men and boys pursue the fishing in the Forth.
1866
Contemplated Fishing Company – We hear it is rumoured that owing to the low prices realised for fish as compared with other articles of food, the Cellardyke fishermen are proposing to form a company amongst themselves for the purpose of buying and curing fish for market. If the scheme were entered into with spirit and union, there is no doubt it could be easily set a going in Cellardyke, although we rather suspect that the project has, in the meantime at least, no other foundation than natural discontent at the present low rates. With an improved market, however, we may anticipate a more friendly relationship between our fishermen and fishcurers, whose returns of late have been less profitable than is sometimes alleged.
In the case of John Gilchrest, shoemaker, Cellardyke, against John jack fisherman there, considerable sensation was caused by the following incident:- The defender, having expressed his willingness to take the oath, the same was administered, and the first clause repeated in the usual way, but, on the second one being given, the Sheriff was interrupted by the defender crying out ‘Hould on a bit.’ The Sheriff again repeated the clause, but the persistent fisherman, without waiting to take breath, continued his remonstrance ‘Tak time; hould on a bit’ and the third, and even fourth repetition, had to be made, and that not without the decisive tone of authority, before the objections of the defender were stopped and the proceeding resumed their ordinary course.
Export of barrels – for some time past large quantities of white herring barrels have been shipped by our curers. Most have been sent to Yarmouth or Lowestoft, but a considerable number have also been forwarded to various parts of the West Coast of Scotland and England…. As many as 5000 or 6000 barrels are supposed to have already been dispatched by the Anstruther and Cellardyke curers (by railway companies charging 32s 6d per ton, eighty barrels being computed as a ton) . Although we cannot pretend to universal accuracy, we think we are warranted in stating the number of barrels at present in store in the two towns at about 14 000, which it is not unlikely will be nearly doubled by the commencement of the Lammas fishing of 1867
1867
P T Thomson, general Draper Cellardyke. Has always on hand a large assortment of ladies’ and children’s, hand sewed stays, deserving every public attention.
1868
On Saturday last the large old tenement situated at the Harbour of Cellardyke, belonging to the heirs of the late MR John Salter, was exposed in the town hall there. The upset price was reduced from £140 – £130, but no offer was received and the sale was consequently adjourned. This curious old house is one of the most remarkable in the East of Fife. It was built 200 years ago by Andrew Bruce, The Celebrated Bishop of Orkney, who was at the time minister of Kilrenny, having been appointed as such in 1665, in room of Mr Robert Bennet, who was deposed for his covenanting principles. Like the houses of the period, it is built on arches of strong masonry, and although much dilapidated by time and use, it still shows traces of its former consequence and grandeur.
On Saturday evening several shopkeepers in Anstruther and Cellardyke were imposed upon and defrauded of various sums of money by the following bold and systematic stratagem. A rather handsome well-dressed man, accompanied by a woman of equally unexceptionable appearance, entered the shops after dark to make sundry purchases. For the purpose of either paying for the goods or obtaining change, the accomplished sharper would place a five shilling piece or a one pound not upon the counter, at the same time asking the shopkeeper to show more of his wares, or otherwise trying to engage his attention by all the artifice of a ready and practised swindler. While thus confused or thrown off his guard, the shopkeeper of course was easily tempted into a mistake when counting the money, which was the particular object aimed at. In the case of a draper in the west end of Cellardyke this was done by first asking change for a half sovereign. This was no sooner done and the silver counted down on the counter than the wily rogue, with a politeness that was not to be refused, asked back his gold coin and begged to have silver taken in exchange for a pound note, at the same time placing another 10 shillings beside the sum already lying on the counter. The worthy draper seeing the change for the pound before him, but forgetting about the half sovereign which in the meantime he had returned, allowed his exceedingly frank and civil visitors, to bow themselves out of the premises, and did not perceive the fraud passed upon him until it was too late. On Monday however several complaints were made by aggrieved parties to Police Constable Sharp, who immediately proceeded in search of the suspected swindler, whom he traced to Leven. There the fashionable scamp was apprehended in the course of the evening, when he was conveyed back to Anstruther ‘lock up’ and detained until next morning when he was removed by first train to Cupar Sheriff court.