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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Fife => Topic started by: Cramond Brig on Tuesday 23 February 10 22:59 GMT (UK)
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Would anyone have more information about this than I already have?
In 1866 a legacy from Alexander Adamson of South Callange left his estate in trust for the building of a hospital within the parish of Cupar. The trustees were mostly from Ceres, and chose to build the hospital on the edge of the village, albeit just within the parish of Cupar. The Adamson Institution opened in 1877, but was always short of money and unpopular because it was so far from the town. In 1895 it was leased, and six years later sold to the Leith Holiday Home. It later became Alwyn House, a training centre for blind people. Meanwhile the Adamson Trust continued, and in 1901 joined with the Cupar Sick Poor Association to plan a new hospital for Cupar. Funds were augmented by the proceeds of a bazaar to raise money for a permanent memorial to those members of the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry who died in the Boer War. The Adamson Hospital in Bank Street was opened in 1904, with seven beds in three wards. Cupar in the nineteenth century lay at 'the centre of a large district, dotted by numerous villages and a multitude of fertile farms, the wants of whose inhabitants were to a great extent supplied by the shopkeepers and tradesmen of the burgh; and this accounts for the number and respectability of the various places of business. Cupar on the eve of the First World War was a thriving town. Its economic base had not changed much, nor had its townscape, but its residents were now provided with a range of public services, and could join a growing number of charitable, social, cultural, sporting and recreational organisations. It has been extended and improved several times since then. According to the Third Statistical Account in 1952 'it can truly be said that there have been few, if any, Cottage Hospitals in Scotland where the patients were better nursed'.
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Alwyn House was my home, as my parents ran the rehabilitation and assessment centre for the blind there from 1953.
It had also been used as a billett in WW2 for Polish airmen training at Leuchars.
I remember one or two occasions when elderly people would arrive at the door hoping to have a glimpse of the place where they had been sent as children from Leith for some healthy country air, and they seemed to have very positive memories of the place.
The building has now been filletted into flats, and much of the wonderful garden sacrificed for yet more houses to be squeezed in - it's the way the rest of the village has gone, so obviously it's the way the Council's planning department likes it...
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P.S. I see that this post is classified under "Midlothian".
Leith may be in Midlothian, but Ceres is in Fife ! Maybe one of the team can fix this.
Topic moved.
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It was the Adamson Institute - not Institution when first opened. [reply to Cramond Brig]
The Leith Holiday Home and other reincarnations were before my time.
I remember it as a rehabilitation centre for the Blind in the fifties and sixties. I used to deliver 'messages' to Alwyn House as it was then known, firstly in wicker baskets by bicycle and later in wooden boxes by van.
I used to enjoy taking them into the immaculate kitchens and emptying them there. Mrs Fairlie could not have been nicer on the few occasions I spoke to her and was greatly admired in the village.
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Thank you for your kind comment about my Mum! I remember Harry Patrick delivering groceries from Mitchell's van in the 60s and 70s, but can't remember back to the bike deliveries...