Town’s history will be brought to life in war years exhibition

Rosyth Garden City Association is presenting its annual exhibition next week.

Rosyth Then and Now will be held in Rosyth Parish Church from 10am to 4pm from April 30 to May 5.

It will also open from 6-8pm on May 2.

On display will be images featuring Rosyth during the Second World War.

As well as displays by local primary schools there will be an exhibition of shops, schools, the prisoner of war camp, the seaplane base and the surrender of the German fleet.

Rosyth as a town and as a dockyard was born out of the First World War.

The year 1918 is also of significance for both the town and dockyard as most houses had been completed by the end of that year and temporary and permanent shop buildings were being established.

A hut used to accommodate men building Rosyth was converted into a number of temporary shops and the association will be recreating some of those shops by means of visual backdrops and artefacts.

Adjoining Rosyth was a brickworks manufacturing bricks and tiles for house building in Rosyth and further afield.

In 1917-18 a small German prisoner of war camp was established next to the brickworks with the POWs working there.

In the dockyard area a seaplane base operated in 1917 and 1918, which became part of the Royal Air Force.

A tramway service was inaugurated in 1918 running between Rosyth and Dunfermline.

On November 21 1918 the German Navy’s surface fleet was surrendered to the Royal Navy in the Firth of Forth – the largest assembly of warships the world has ever seen.