1870
Alleged Theft of Timber.— Last Friday, before Sheriff Bell, Joseph Walker and James Walker, fishermen, Cellardyke, were charged with stealing larch fir, measuring forty feet in length, from a plantation in the parish of Kingsbarns. From an explanation made by Mr Davidson, it appeared that they had been in the habit of using the wood in the plantation for great number of years back, and had never been interfered with. They were dismissed.
KILRENNY. THE CHURCHYARD IMPROVEMENT. – Since the holding of the meeting on Saturday the 21st ultimo, and the appointment of the committee to collect subscriptions for effecting the proposed improvements on the churchyard of Kilrenny, the matter has been responded to by the inhabitants of Cellardyke and others in a manner very creditable to themselves, and worthy of the object in view. The total amount of contributions up to this date is about £37, which includes the handsome sum of £10 from Captain Rodger of Glasgow, and £5 from John Williamson, Esq. of Liverpool. These gentlemen sent their contributions entirely unsolicited, having read in the “Record” an account of the public meeting, and deeming the object well worthy of their consideration. Both of them have certainly shown, by many former acts of their beneficence, how much they have the welfare of their native places at heart ; and in the present movement they have set an example of liberality to those resident in the place, and who have been blessed with the means, which should have the effect of realizing such an amount as will most effectually convert the hitherto neglected churchyard of Kilrenny into a most delightful cemetery or place of sepulture for the inhabitants of the parish. It can hardly be expected that the fishermen of Cellardyke, in the present state of the fishing, can be able to do so much as they would wish—at least until the end of the herring drave; but such of them as have already contributed have done so with a willingness and liberality which do them honour. The sums contributed by them have ranged from 3s.to 10s. each.
1871
ACCIDENT TO CELLARDYNE FISHING BOAT. —On Tuesday morning, while the boat belonging to Mr William Smith (Scott), Cellardyke, was going up the Tyne on its return from the salmon fishing, the steam-tug Robert Scott,” coming down the river, ran into and capsized it. Smith and his son were thrown into the water, but another boat, belonging to Mr John Montodore, Cellardyke, which was close at hand, and which also ran a narrow escape, succeeded in picking them up. On reaching Tynemouth, the aid of a steam-tug was procured, and on proceeding to the spot where the accident had happened, the boat was soon recovered, hut was found to have sustained considerable damage. The nets were recovered when the accident occurred, but some sea-clothing which was in the boat was lost.
1872
Mr Thomson, fishcurer, Leith, was in Anstruther last Friday, and engaged ten or eleven of the Cellardyke boats to fish at Aberdeen and Peterhead during the Lammas herring fishing at 20s per cran.
Mr Jarvis has two other boats nearly ready for launching, one for Skipper Adam Watson and the other for Skipper Robert Stewart, Cellardyke.
Reward for Gallant Conduct-The boat crew who so gallantly ventured from Anstruther in the hope of rendering assistance to the “Matigorda” of Aberdeen, wrecked on the Isle of May on the night of 3rd of April, having made the usual application to the Humane fund and the National Lifeboat Institution, the authorities instructed our respected Custom’s officer, Mr Andrew Keay, to inquire into all the circumstances and report the same to the Board. The superintendent of the Lighthouse Mr Agnew, and his assistant Mr Withers, had given valuable help to the shipwrecked sailors, but no claim had been made on their behalf. Mr Keay, however took care to correct this omission in his report, with the result that on Monday H. B. Mackintosh Esq, the honorary secretary to the Institution, had forwarded to him the sum £5, with instructions to pay £3 to the lighthouse keepers, and £2 to Skipper Alex. Watson and the six men who were the boat. They all belonged to Cellardyke, and were allowed 5s each.
1873
CELLARDYKE. Numbering the Houses. —The Police Commissioners are about to take steps to have the houses numbered, so that every residence may be readily traced out and recognised in whatever part of our long and somewhat intricate streets it may be situated. Dr Robert Chambers, in his interesting account of Buckhaven saw it in 1833, tells us that there were then 160 families in the village, but with only about a dozen surnames. He says there were no fewer than 71 families of Thomson, 19 of Deas, 15 of Logies; but to prevent confusion the neighbours christened one another with nicknames, and that “in this way one was called ‘Fancy,’ another ‘Black Harry,’ one is ‘ Caledonian,’ Rose,’ one ‘ Laird,’ and so forth, and these styles are used on post letters and even on law papers, as Henry Thomson, commonly called Black Harry.” In Cellardyke, there is also curious singularity names. For instances, in the list of voters for last year there were seven James Watsons, six William and five David Watsons, and five James Smiths; but here the custom of the place is more kindly than the method referred to by Dr Chambers, as it is usual to add the wives’ name by way of distinction, though no little trouble, inconvenience, and, we may add, vexation, will be saved by the houses being numbered, as agreed to by the Police Commissioners.
At a Burgh Court held here on Saturday —all the Magistrates on the bench—William Watson, fisherman, Cellardyke, was charged with committing assault by striking George Watson, another fisherman, a blow on the face with tar brush on the East Green, on the 30th ult. He pleaded not guilty, but evidence being led, he was found guilty, and sentenced to a fine of 7s 6d, which was paid.
Birth St Adrian’s Cave. — ln the course the last week or two band of gipsies have been “camping” out in the neighbourhood, though certainly with nothing of the romance and poetry which the popular fancy loves to associate with the swarthy and fortune telling tribe. Indeed, a more squalid and miserable crew could scarcely be supposed in a civilized land— dirty, ragged, and unkempt, hawking or rather begging away their tin ware by day, and sleeping under the midnight stars on the bare sward of some common or stray corner, just as chance or necessity may have led them thither. The gang consisted of two men and two women, with a motley group of young children; and they seem to have continued their rambles cheered, however, all propitious occasions by the “wee drappie drink”— till one of the matrons, who was in a state of advanced pregnancy, was taken ill, in the end of last week, while the party were lurking amongst the herring boats at the green of Cellardyke. With that kind and sisterly feeling for distress which ever forms such beautiful characteristic of the seafaring life, some of the housewives spread a bed in the adjoining washing-house for the poor stranger; but some circumstance or another induced and her people to remove a mile or two along the shore to St Adrian’s Cave at Caiplie, where, the gossips tell truly, in the cell, and resting on the altar at which the holy Bishop of St Andrews is said to have prayed exactly one thousand years ago, before he was martyred on the Isle of May, the gipsy mother gave birth to male child on Sabbath last. There are few more interesting spots to the archaeologist than the cave of Caiplie; but for all that a more wretched place could not well be for a lying-in hospital; though, nevertheless, the swarthy mother and the “little saint,” whose first hymn wakened up the grand old the holy cell, prospered well as if they had been surrounded by all the delicacies and comforts of palace. Her partner in love and lot took the place of midwife or doctor; but we may add that a mother’s agony was no sooner at a close than a panacea was next instant found in the darling “black cutty,” which, with true conjugal spirit, passed from her husband’s lips to her own; and so well did she improve that in the course of a single day or two she and the tribe were once more on the ” trail.”
1874
At a meeting of the Scotch Education Board held in Edinburgh on Thursday last week, a memorial was read from certain ratepayers in the parish of Kilrenny, protesting against the proposal to erect a new school at Cellardyke. The Board were ofo pinion, on a careful reconsideration of the whole circumstances, of the case, that no satisfactory reasons had been adduced why they should reverse their former decision.