The name was changed to Townhill due to the location of the village which is at the top of the hill leading out of Dunfermline.

Other (linked) industries included a brickworks (commonly using the other materials found alongside the coal) and a sandstone quarry.

[4] Those unfit for further work, including widows and injured persons, were housed in the town's purpose-built Poorhouse which stood around a mile to the south, on the road to Dunfermline.

As a teetotaller he introduced alcohol-free communion wine, causing a national debate in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, bringing the town into the limelight briefly in what became known as the "Townhill Question".

[4] In June 1901 a section of fossil tree (lepidodendron) was found deep in the Townhill Colliery and presented to the school.

[4] It is the site of the Scotland National Water ski Centre,[9] and is surrounded by a country park comprising pathways (some of which were originally railway lines for coal works) and a forest.

The school serves the villages of Townhill and Kingseat, as well as part of North Dunfermline.