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Lower Largo, Main Street, Cardy Networks
Net Works (19th Century)
Site Name Lower Largo, Main Street, Cardy Networks
Classification Net Works (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Cardy Net Manufactory
Canmore ID 32854
Site Number NO40SW 82
NGR NO 42222 02631
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/32854
- Council Fife
- Parish Largo
- Former Region Fife
- Former District North East Fife
- Former County Fife
NO40SW 82 4225 0265
Site recorded by Maritime Fife during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, Kincardine to Fife Ness 1996.
Publication Account (1986)
Situated on the edge of the foreshore of Lower Largo, the modest-sized networks built by David Gillies in accordance with drawings dated 1867, though now disused, is otherwise well preserved. Externally it is best appreciated from a trade card engraving which shows the complex as a going concern complete with factory, formal walled garden and the proprietor's mansion. The factory building, measuring 60 ft (18.29m) by 50 ft (15.24m) overall, is a two-coloured brick structure panelled externally by pilasters and divided from N to s by three roof-ranges covered with slates and having ample roof-lights. Internally, the two eastern ranges contain the working area, divided by a central row of structural columns, and the third range is divided off to form a workshop with forge, a smaller warehouse and an office. At the time of survey in 1978, the warehouse and office were much as they had been left when the works closed some twenty years previously; an early photograph shows the factory interior in operation.
Information from ‘Monuments of Industry: An Illustrated Historical Record’, (1986).
Standing Building Recording (2009 - 2010)
A series of research investigations were carried out by Headland Archaeology on behalf of The Scottish Fisheries Museum Trust between 2009-2010. The aim of these was to help broaden the range of contextual information about some of the collections in the care of the Scottish Fisheries Museum. The following activities were carried out:
Field visit to the site of former small vernacular boat-yard near Portree, Skye;
Initial desk-based assessment and case study looking at Cardy Net Works, Lower Largo, Fife;
Initial desk-based assessment and site visit to the locations occupied by the MacDonald Brothers foundry, Portsoy (March 2010);
Desk-based assessment and Level 1 (English Heritage 2006) historic building survey of the buildings, structures and archaeological features at the Montrose Rope and Sail Works, Montrose (February 2010).
Sources consulted: Atkinson, DR D.E. and Prescott, DR R.G.W.,'New Technology and the 19th Century Scottish Sailing Fishing Fleet'.
