East Wemyss

(Castleton)

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Wemyss, East, a village in Wemyss parish, in the S of Fife, is situated on the shore, about 1 mile SSW of Buckhaven, and 1½ NE of West Wemyss. It has a station, called Wemyss Castle, on the branch railway, opened in 1881, between Thornton and Buckhaven. Its houses are well built and comfortable; and its whole appearance is above the average of villages on the E coast. The red-tiled roofs give it an exceedingly picturesque appearance, as seen from a little distance. The pretty cemetery occupies the summit of a well-wooded elevation, a little to the NE. The parish church, an old cruciform building, estimated to hold about 1000 persons, stands near the centre of the village; and the Free church, an unassuming edifice, seated for 380, at the W end. There are two public schools at East Wemyss, already noted under the parish. An ornamental cottage hospital was erected by Mr R. G. Erskine Wemyss in 1883 at a cost of £1200. It contains a surgical and two medical wards, with 24 beds in all, besides accommodation for nurses. There is a reading-room in the village, with a library attached. There is a small brewery at East Wemyss, but the chief industry of the place is the manufacture of ducks, dowlas, sheetings, and dyed linens, carried on in an old-established factory employing 200 hands, and capable of turning out 2, 500, 000 yards of cloth annually. Pop. (1831) 753, (1861) 799, (1871) 777, (1881) 846.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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