UKAEA housing, 13-19 Green Court. View from north west

Description UKAEA housing, 13-19 Green Court. View from north west

Date 29/3/2017

Collection Historic Environment Scotland

Catalogue Number DP 258468

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content The Mount Vernon estate was built as part of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority’s fourth phase of housing construction in the early 1960s. It is situated on the east side of Thurso River and consisted entirely of modern ‘all-electric’ units which did not have coal fires so had no need for chimneys. Of the 99 properties, 16 were 4 bedroomed, and 83 were 3 bedroomed. Mount Vernon was planned with social integration in mind – part of the estate was occupied by UKAEA employees, with the reminder occupied by tenants in houses built by the local authority. The UKAEA houses at Mount Vernon are surrounded by ample green space, following dominant Modernist principles of the period. A ring-road around the estate provides vehicular access to the rear of properties, with the fronts reserved for pedestrian access. With the exception of the timber housing built quickly at the beginning of the housing programme, this house shows the type of construction which the UKAEA settled on for the majority of its scheme. These semi-traditional houses, which incorporated a prefabricated timber frame, brickwork and exterior harling, were built by Alexander Hall & Son of Aberdeen. These examples feature partial timber cladding to add visual contrast to the scheme. For the UKAEA, housing was allocated according to grade. This ‘A-type' house with garage (facing to the rear) would have originally been occupied by a Dounreay employee at senior level, with it believed that such staff required accommodation of high standard to both attract and retain them. UKAEA housing consisted of A, B and C types, with A being the largest for higher grade staff. If a staff member was promoted or their family increased, they became eligible for a larger house. No ‘C-types’ were built at Mount Vernon as experience had shown that these were unpopular with staff. As an aside to nuclear development, the built environment of nuclear townships in Britain is overlooked in favour of its technical and scientific elements. Yet the consequences of the atomic programme extend beyond the technological: the social infrastructure behind the science was integral to the success of many nuclear ventures. This had its most significant impact following the 1954 decision to site the country’s first fast breeder reactor establishment at Dounreay in Caithness, the most northerly county of the British mainland. The arrival of the UKAEA brought nuclear science to a rural landscape with an agricultural skills base. The chosen site was located close to the town of Thurso, the population of which grew from 3000 to 9000 as a result of the UKAEA ‘importing’ skilled scientists and engineers into the county to work alongside local workers to ensure the safe running of the establishment. To accommodate this influx the town underwent an extensive period of planning, with 1007 houses built to house the new citizens who were termed ‘the atomics’. By the end of the building programme in May 1963, four recognised estates of UKAEA houses had been built in Thurso: Castlegreen, Ormlie, Pennyland and Mount Vernon, with a small number of houses built at Scrabster and Castletown. Accommodating this population stands as an example of quick, complex change, triggered by a technical experiment with enduring social consequences. The housing developments were managed by the Thurso architectural firm of Sinclair Macdonald & Son, whose archives are held by Historic Environment Scotland. The UKAEA-built houses are now owned privately or by Pentland Housing Association.

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