THE KIRK

The Kirk at Balgonie was built in 1836 as a chapel for St Drostan's in Markinch (now known as Markinch Parish Church) and was paid for by the Balfour family. Located at the eastern end of Milton of Balgonie, the Kirk would have been used by workers from the large 19th century Balgonie flax spinning mill.  The church was built as a T-plan and could sit 650 people; it became a quoad sacra parish church in 1840. It united with Windygates Parish Church in 1956. In recent years the congregation dwindled. The church was converted to a private house in 1999, but retains many original features. To the north of the Kirk, there is a small graveyard which contains a selection of mid-nineteenth century tombstones and memorials.

MILTON OF BALGONIE - FIFE’S LEADING MILL TOWN

While there were several mills of different purposes around the area, all harnessing the power of the River Leven, the largest and most important one in the development of Milton of Balgonie was the Baxter and Stuart flax mill.

THE MILL

Originally built around 1800, the flax mill was extended in 1807 and employed around 270 people - 100 men, 120 women, and 50 children - who needed to be housed close to their place of work. The majority of the traditional stone cottages in the village were built by the Earl of Leven and Melville, and deeded to the owner of the flax mill, Willam Drummond. Drummond made his son-in-law Robert Baxter of Dundee his business partner, and on Drummond’s retirement, another relative, Joseph Stuart, joined the business.

The Balgonie flax mill imported 475 tons of flax every year from the Baltic, Holland, France and Ireland. From the raw materials, about 10,000 spindles of yarn were produced at the Balgonie mill every week, which were then sent to Dundee to be manufactured into canvas and sacking, chiefly for the London market. The finer yarns were either sold locally or exported to France. In the early 1840’s, Robert Baxter left the Company to set up a spinning operation in Lille in northern France, taking with him some of the Balgonie workers.

THE RIVER LEVEN

The 12-kilometre River Leven - on which Milton of Balgonie sits - runs West to East from Loch Leven near Kinross, right through Fife to meet the North Sea at Leven. In the 19th Century, the entire length of the river was a hive of industry. A description of the river appeared in the Gazetteers of Scotland in 1838, and reads:

“Few Rivers in Scotland of the same magnitude and running so short a course, are so serviceable in turning machinery as this beautiful stream, which is clad with mills as well as several extensive bleach fields.”

SCOTLAND’S FIRST WATER TURBINE

After Baxter’s departure, Joseph Stuart continued to successfully develop the business until his death in 1866. He positioned his mill at the very forefront of modern technology, installing the very first water turbine in Scotland, and possibly even in Britain.

Water wheels have been used for hundreds of years for industrial power, and would have been a common sight all the way along the 12 kilometers of the River Leven. But the main shortcoming was the size, which limits the flow rate and head that can be harnessed. The word ‘turbine’ is derived from the Greek word for “whirling” or “vortex”. The main difference between the early water turbines and water wheels is a swirl component of the water which passes energy to a spinning rotor. This additional component of motion allowed the turbines to be smaller than a water wheel of the same power. They could process more water by spinning faster and could therefore harness much greater head and energy.

Although Joseph Stuart passed his successful mill on to his son Alan, the young man died prematurely as a result of an accident in his horse-drawn gig on Milton Brae in 1884. The following year, the mill was sold but it only operated for one year before the machinery was sold off. The only item that was left was Stuart’s cutting-edge water turbine.