Fife sawmill focus of new museum exhibition

‘Pit Props, Pallets and Tattie Boxes’ opens at on Wednesday, featuring photographs from the long history of the sawmill, which was opened in 1967.

The business was started in 1840 by Allan Law, in Denhead, before being run in Kilmany by William Law. Allan Law took over the business at Front Lebanon in Cupar until the sawmill shut in 1953.

Fourteen years later, his son, Ronnie, would open the Cupar Muir sawmill, which employed 78 workers from all over Fife.

The site had two sawmills, two pallet shops, two jobbing shops, along with facilities for kiln-drying, timber treatment, dipping and dressing timber.

Waste timber was removed daily and sent to chipboard manufacturers. Bark waste was bagged up for use in horticulture.

Modern computer technology allowed the mill to scan the timber, read the maximum yield, automatically set the saws to cut 120 metres per minute. The computerised machinery in the pallet shop could fire off as many as 6500 nails per hour.

Visitors can see photographs covering the history of the mill, showing how it worked and the people who worked there, when the exhibition opens next month. Artefacts will also be on display.

The museum volunteers hope visitors might be able to identify some of the people in the photographs.

The exhibition will be open until June 30.