View from east of 1 and 2 The Esplanade with the Parish Church in the background

Description View from east of 1 and 2 The Esplanade with the Parish Church in the background

Date c. 1885

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number F 1888

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 747688

Scope and Content Esplanade and Parish Church, Anstruther Wester, Fife Anstruther, a fishing town on the east coast of Fife, was once the main herring port in Scotland. The town originally developed as two separate communities, Anstruther Easter and Anstruther Wester, which grew up on either side of the Dreel Burn. This photograph of the Esplanade and the Parish Church at Anstruther Wester was taken c.1885 by Erskine Beveridge. The Esplanade, a broad street which runs down to the sea wall, is lined with 18th-century harled and painted houses with contrasting painted margins round the windows. No 1, on the corner, dates from 1760, and has crowstepped gables and a curvi-linear wall-head gable to the front. The Parish Church, possibly rebuilt in 1846 by the architect, James Smith, is a plain, harled box of simple proportions. It retains its 16th-century steeple, a harled tower of four stages, topped by a fancy balustrade and a slated broach spire. Anstruther Wester's early prosperity derived from salmon fishing but the industry declined in the 18th century, most of the fishing in the area being concentrated in the larger harbour of Anstruther Easter. By 1837 no mention was being made of any fishing or trading activity in the Wester harbour, and after 1850 all traffic to the harbour finally ceased. The pier was let for some years to fishermen for laying up their boats, and there was still some part-time fishing going on in the burgh. However, in 1899 the Town Council finally ordered that boats were no longer to lie on the pier. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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