Angus Folk Museum, Glamis, Angus

Date May 2014

Event ID 1084360

Category Recording

Type Desk Based Assessment

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1084360

AOC Archaeology Group was commissioned by the National Trust for Scotland to undertake a historical desk-based assessment of a row of single-storey cottages currently incorporating the Angus Folk Museum in Glamis, Angus. The work included study of local and national archive material and was undertaken in May 2014.

The research indicates that it is likely that Kirkwynd Cottages were built in 1793 in part over the footprints of two houses that appear on Allan’s plan of 1773, and that the cottages were potentially occupied by estate workers of the Strathmore Estate, such as ploughmen. The original accounts suggest that the cottages were roofed with thatch and straw. By the 1950s the row consisted of five adjoined single-storey cottages, of varying sizes, including a wash-house. They were then acquired and renovated by the Trust between 1955 - 1957. The cottages were at that point in a poor (essentially uninhabitable) state and were roofed with local stone slates, which were re-used in re-roofing the building, with the insertion of skylights in the eastern side of the roof and the construction of new roof timbers. Other alterations undertaken in the 1950s prior to the opening of the museum included the taking down of wooden internal partitions, the piercing of the stone gable walls between the cottages to aid movement, and alterations to the floor, including potentially the lifting of timber and slate flooring, and the removal of several inches depth of floor in part of one room, where a loom was to be displayed. It is understood that the external doors and windows were not altered in the 1950s, and therefore it is likely that the blocking of windows noted in the previous Historic Building Survey took place prior to the gifting of the cottages to the Trust.

This report acts as an appendix to the Historic Building Survey. The cottages are judged to be of ‘Regional’ cultural value, as a Category B Listed Building, and as significant examples of post-medieval rural habitation, albeit slightly altered. Works on the roof, if limited to the replacing/alteration of roof timbers and the replacing of slates, are unlikely to cause a significant negative impact on the cottages. Indeed, it is possible that the design of alterations to the roof might reinstate somewhat the form of the structure prior to the mid 1950s in a form consistent with other surviving buildings of this type. However, it should be noted that the original roofing is likely to have consisted of straw and thatch. As mitigation, it is recommended that access be given to a qualified historic building surveyor during downtaking works, in order to record the roof as presently existing, and that a historic building specialist be able to input to the design of significant alteration works.