Inverkeithing, 2-4 Bank Street, Thomson's Lodging

Houses in Inverkeithing.

(1) [NT18SW 87] The tenement at the north end of High Street on the east side, though considerably altered, dates from the late 17th century. The windows have back-set and moulded margins, and the entrance is a moulded doorway with an entablature, bearing on the frieze the date 1688 and the inscription: GODS PROVIDENCE IS MY INHERITANCE. On the keystone of the door are the initials I.B. for Isobel Bairdie, who erected the tenement, (en.1) and above the cornice is an oval garland enclosing an uncarved shield.

(2) [NT18SW 61] The large three-storeyed tenement, Nos. 39-40 High Street, dates from the same period. The only notable features it possesses are the heavy chimney-stalks set in each gable and the internal walls.

(3) No. 54 High Street is a three-storeyed house built of harled rubble. The windows have back-set margins, and the lintel of the northern window on the first floor is dated 1682. On the lintel of an outhouse are the letters, equally spaced, ·J·V I D E M·I 0·, probably four pairs of initials.

(4) On the lintel of a garden gate at 79 High Street are the initials W.B., I.B. and the date 1618.

(5) [NT18SW 91] No. 87 High Street is rather earlier than any of the foregoing and dates possibly from the late 16th century. It is a house of three storeys. The basement is entered from an archway set at the north end, while the first floor is entered from a forestair at the other end.

(6) [NT18SW 146] No. 97 High Street is modernised, but the forestair in front is of late 17th-century type. In the back of the tenement are two inserted pediments, one of which has the date 1679 and the initials R.F., B.D. for Robert Ferguson, a bailie, and his wife Beatrice Douglas (en.2).

(7) [NT18SW 88] No.4 Bank Street, which is opposite the cross, consisted originally of a two-storeyed oblong main block with a stair-wing at the south west end, these parts forming the back and one end of a two-storeyed lean-to, to which a third storey has been added. The entrance is at the stair-foot through a moulded doorway with a pediment [F 293], enriched with scrolls and thistle-shaped finials, which contains a shield, uncarved, surmounted by a merchant's mark and flanked by the initials I.T. and B.T., possibly for John Thomson, a burgess of Inverkeithing, and his wife Bessie Thomsoun (3). Below the shield is the quotation: EXCEPT . THE/ LORD. BVLD (sic) . THE. HOVS . THEY / LABOVR . IN. VAINE . THAT. BVILD/ IT. The reference has been erased and also part of the date, which was apparently [I6]17. Above the central window of the main block is a panel inscribed: CAIR . BOT . CAIR . NOT. IN/ORDINARUE* . FOR . AL . VL (sic) ./AS . VTHERIS . AND. VTH/ERIS . VIL .BE . ETC (sic).

(8) [NT18SW 93] There are several featureless houses of the late 17th century in King Street, while from another recently demolished, a panel inscribed: THE LORD IS / ONLY MY DEL/IVERER BLIS/T BE YE LORD, has been removed and rebuilt for preservation into the front of the house which now occupies the site.

RCAHMS 1933, visited 12 June 1928.

(1) Stephen's Inverkeithing and Rosyth, p. 38. (2) Ibid., p. 43. (3) History of Inverkeithing and Rosyth, by Rev. William Stephen, p. 30.

*'Beyond ordinary' or excessively, as in the adjective 'inordinary'.