THE first image in this week's trip down West Fife's Memory Lane was supplied by Press reader Heather Anderson, of Dunfermline, and is of Canmore School. The boys' entrance, where the picture was taken, was in what was once called Reform Street. The school was next to the old Opera House. It was a lovely building which sadly, was pulled down to make way for the Kingsgate. It's understood it was originally Queen Margaret School, before it was Canmore.

The next photograph is of the top of the New Row showing the range of shops that were once situated there. On the right-hand corner is the specialist food and wine shop of D I Hunter with Goldbergs and a Dunfermline Co-operative branch shop further down the hill. On the left of the street is a small millinery shop followed by the 'Hobby and Model Shop' and the electrical appliance and radio workshop of James Scott and Co. Beyond the office block and Masonic Hall can be seen the display of Kirkhope, later Somerville, the photographer. The 'No Waiting' sign on the pavement was to reserve space for deliveries to the cellars of the East Port Bar. The sign indicating this is still painted on the top of the close entrance today.

The next photograph is a view looking down Bruce Street with the photographer Peter Leslie's shop in view on the left. On the right is William Stevenson and Sons, auctioneers and furniture retailers, and with a department that stocked prams and cots. With McKissock, retailers and repairers of radio and TV sets, two public houses (the Bruce Tavern and the Green Tree) and numerous other small shops, this meant that Bruce Street in the 1950s was a popular and busy street when this photograph was taken. One-way traffic had been introduced but there were still no yellow lines.

Traffic wasn't a major problem at this time in the 1950s for the simple reason that there wasn't a large number of private cars around. The final photograph looking up Bridge Street shows traffic travelling in the opposite direction to that of today. Parking was on opposite sides of the streets on alternate days. The shops of David Hutton and Son can be seen on the left and 'Bruce and Glen' is just visible on the right. 'Hoy's' furniture shop is further up on the right. Bridge Street was so called as a result of it being constructed over the ravine of the Glen burn. The project was funded by George Chalmers, of Pittencrieff House, and opened in 1771, initially called the 'New Brig'. This created a new approach to Dunfermline from the west replacing the ancient road that had passed through the Urquhart Cut and over the present-day Coal Road, through Pittencrieff Park and entering the town below Dunfermline Abbey. This allowed Chalmers to then close Pittencrieff Park to the public. In an article in the 'Dunfermline Journal' in 1855, Bridge Street, with its hanging gardens behind, was described as "the most fashionable street in town, the 'Bond Street' of Dunfermline full of drapers shops".

More photographs like these can be seen in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries when it reopens to the public, and also at facebook.com/olddunfermline. 'Old Dunfermline' DVDs are available online from olddunfermline.com/shop.