In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described Lochgelly like this:
Lochgelly, a police burgh in Auchterderran parish, SW Fife. It stands 460 feet above sea-level, 5 furlongs NW of Loch Gelly, and ¾ mile S by E of Lochgelly station on the Dunfermline branch of the North British railway, this being 7¾ miles WSW of Thornton Junction and 7½ ENE of Dunfermline. ...
The headquarters till 1798 of a gang of notorious Gipsies, it dates mostly from modern times, and owes its rapid rise in prosperity and population to the extensive collieries and ironworks of the Lochgelly Coal and Iron Company (1850). It has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and railway telegraph departments, a branch of the Union Bank, 6 insurance agencies, an hotel, a police station, a public water supply (1880), a subscription library (1867), a floral and horticultural society (1871), a co-operative society (1866), a Good Templar's lodge (1871), a masonic lodge, a curling club (1831), and cattle fairs on the first Thursday of April o.s., the third Wednesdays of July and September, and the first Thursday of November. The Established church, built as a chapel of ease in 1855, in 1868 was raised to quoad sacra status. The Free church was built about 1860; the U.P. church, which was long the only place of worship in the town, contains 400 sittings; and St Patrick's Roman Catholic church (1877) contains 250. Two public schools, East and West, with respective accommodation for 390 and 310 children, had (1883) an average attendance of 367 and 294, and grants of £321, 2s. 6d. and £257, 5s. Loch Gelly, lying chiefly in Auchterderran parish, but partly in Auchtertool, measures 5¾ by 3½ furlongs, and is wooded and beautiful on its northern bank, but elsewhere bleak and tame. Lochgelly House, a seat of the Earl of Minto, stands near the NW corner of the lake, and has pleasant grounds. The municipal voters numbered 300 in 1884, when the annual value of real property within the burgh amounted to £4290, whilst the revenue, including assessments, is £480. Pop. of q. s. parish (1881) 3190, of whom 605 were in Ballingry parish; of police burgh (1831) 612, (1861) 1629, (1871) 2496, (1881) 2601, of whom 117 were in Ballingry, and 1242 were females. Houses (1881) 500 inhabited, 98 vacant, 4 building.—Ord. Sur., sh. 40, 1867.
Lochgelly through time
Lochgelly is now part of Fife district. Click here for graphs and data of how Fife has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Lochgelly itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Lochgelly in Fife | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/17385
Date accessed: 19th April 2024
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