Overview and Character Description of Clackmannan C20 Industrial Expansion Area of Townscape Character

Event ID 1149053

Category Recording

Type Characterisation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1149053

Overview and Brief History of Clackmannan

The following text has been prepared as part of the HES Urban Survey of Clackmannan, 2021-2.

OVERVIEW OF CLACKMANNAN C20 INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION AREA OF TOWNSCAPE CHARACTER

The Clackmannan C20 Industrial Expansion Area of Townscape Character covers much of the town to the north-west and south of the burgh core. Developments took place from the 1930s to the 1960s and mostly infilled open fields between the burgh and outlying mining hamlets which were replaced with modern streets and housing. Examples of this are found to the north-west, where the hamlet of Pottery was superseded by Tower Place, and to the south where the settlements of Duke Street, Green and Square were lost and replaced by South Pilmuir Place and nearby streets.

The origins of the Clackmannan C20 Industrial Expansion Area of Townscape Character lie within the growth of the coal mining industry during the 19th century. With an expanding workforce, most collieries provided their workers with accommodation in the vicinity of their workplace. In Clackmannan, this saw the creation of a handful of mining rows and hamlets outwith the municipal boundary of the time (Pottery, Westfield, Green, Square and Duke Street), giving easy access to places of work, and also facilities offered within the burgh. However, by the mid-20th century, the housing provided no longer met expected living standards, and new improved housing began to be built outwith the confines of the burgh core. Despite the continuing expansion of Clackmannan during this period, the main mines in the vicinity, operated by the Alloa Coal Company, had actually closed during the late 1950s/early 1960s: Craigrie Colliery (to the south-west of the town) had re-opened in 1942, but closed in 1952 and was abandoned in 1957; Zetland Colliery (near Helensfield to the north of the town) had commenced production in 1935 but closed in 1960 and was abandoned in 1961. While other industries (brewing and distilling, textiles, weaving and glassmaking) continued to offer employment in nearby Alloa and other towns, the 1970s onwards saw a shift in employment to more service sector jobs, and the growth in Clackmannan as a commuter town at the end of the 20th century and particularly into the early 21st century.

Overall, the Clackmannan C20 Industrial Expansion Area of Townscape Character displays a mixture of street layouts and plot sizes which are typical of this period (1930s to 1960s). On the whole, the earliest streets were wide and straight, with multiple occupancy four-in-a-block properties with no decorative features sitting in fairly large plots. Gradually, elements of Garden City design were incorporated into the layout and style of development, with curving crescents, cul-de-sacs, and open green spaces at junctions. Plots continued to be fairly generous, based around terraced or semi-detached housing, returning to many vernacular materials and details: pantiles, slate, or red tiles; whitewashed harling; design details around door/window openings; and interesting/varied rooflines. The later phases of development in this Area of Townscape Character saw a mix of semi-detached and terraced housing set in slightly smaller plots, often very simple in design with few details.

While the vast majority of the development from the mid-20th century survives in Clackmannan’s townscape, subtle changes have taken place over the late 20th/early 21st century, particularly when much of the local authority housing was bought under the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme of the 1980s. Many tenants bought their homes and proceeded to ‘personalise’ them by refurbishing them with different styles of windows and doors, re-harling, or painting in different colours. Despite this, the overall character of this mid-20th-century expansion of the town is still visible in the townscape.

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION OF CLACKMANNAN C20 INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION AREA OF TOWNSCAPE CHARACTER

1930s/40s

The earliest development within the Clackmannan C20 Industrial Expansion Area of Townscape Character appears to have begun to the south-east of the town during the inter-war period. Nos 78-112 Alloa Road (NS99SW 149) is a linear group of semi-detached, two-storeyed houses along the west side of the road. The development begins near the junction with what became South Pilmuir Road and is shown as unfilled blocks on the revised edition of the OS 6-inch map (Clackmannanshire 1924, CXL), which usually suggests that they were planned but not necessarily built at that time. The plots for these houses are rectangular and fairly large, with the houses set quite far back from the road and benefitting from front and back gardens. While many of these houses have been altered (re-harled in varying shades of cream or grey, replacement double-glazed windows in varying styles, some extensions or porches added), their original form can still be understood. They are spacious for properties of this type with hipped slate roofs (though the central pair at Nos 94-6 have an M-shaped double gable with swept eaves on the front elevation) bearing central chimneystacks, stringcourse below first-floor window level, and short canopies over the entrance doors.

The next phase of development followed in the 1930s/early 1940s, with streets being created to the south-west of Alloa Road, comprising two-storeyed blocks of flatted cottages, known as ‘four-in-a-block’. These formed Izatt Terrace (NS99SW 147) and Craigrie Terrace, which have been dated to around 1931-5, and the marginally later Zetland Street and Dundas Crescent (NS99SW 148) contain similar blocks. The four-in-a-block was a popular form of housing in the mid-20th century, built first by Scottish local authorities during the inter-war period. It provided residents with improved facilities within single floor living, but with their own front door, and shared garden space around the block. There are slight variations across the three streets, but there are still many common features: grey or brown harling, slate roofs (red-tiled roofs in Dundas Crescent) mostly hipped or some with gables to front elevations, no decorative features, and entrance doors to upper flats on the side elevations. Some blocks have slightly projecting end bays (almost all on Zetland Street; Nos 18-24 and 21-7 Craigrie Terrace), while Nos 32-6 and 41-7 Zetland Street are eight-bayed blocks with projecting gables in the third bays from each end, entrance doors on the front and side elevations, and central chimneystacks.

As the town expanded during the 1940s and into the 1950s, the style of development evolved, with more decorative features added. There was a gradual move from exclusively four-in-a-block developments, to include terraced blocks and groups of larger semi-detached properties. However, the scale, density and materials used remained similar, with properties being two-storeyed, brown harled, and mostly red-tiled rather than slate roofs. Tower Place (NS99SW 150) to the north of the town centre forms a long terrace of twelve flatted properties, with the upper flats accessed by external stairs on the north elevation -reminiscent of Edinburgh’s ‘Colonies’ housing of the late 19th century. The block is very simple, being brown harled with slate roofs and no decorative features. In contrast, the blocks around the junctions of Castle Street, north side of Lochies Road (NS99SW 153), into Bruce Street (NS99SW 139) and the east side of Garden Terrace (NS99SW 140) provide a Garden City-style character, with ‘shed’ dormers breaking the mostly bellcast eaves (slightly curving upwards at the ends/corners), tripartite windows at ground floor, varying gables and arched pends through to the rear of the blocks. In keeping with the Garden City design ethos, there is an open green space filling the area at the junction of Castle Street and Lochies Road. Towards the late 1940s/early 1950s, a small neighbourhood shop was built on the south side of Lochies Road, opposite this open space, and still operates today (2022). Many mid- and late 20th-century developments built outwith original burgh boundaries or town centres, had convenience stores included in the schemes to provide residents with the basic necessities, meaning they didn’t have to travel far for occasional groceries over and above their main weekly shop, as well as helping to foster a sense of community within the schemes.

This Garden City-style development is also in evidence just south of Tower Place, behind the High Street, where Kersegreen Road (NS99SW 151) and then Erskine Place (NS99SW 146) and Woodside Terrace were built. Here, the properties are semi-detached or terraced, with slate or red-tiled roofs, harled and mostly whitewashed, with a splayed open green space at the junction of Kersegreen Road and Erskine Place. There are decorative, though still relatively simple, mouldings to door surrounds, along with projecting corbelled gabled chimneystacks to side elevations of semi-detached, and stepped chimneystacks on end terraced properties. Just off North Street, Mar Terrace (NS99SW 152), also from the late 1940s/1950s period, displays the bellcast eaves and ‘shed’ dormers breaking the red tiled roofs of the Garden City style, along with the shaped simple moulded door surrounds but with added central keystone feature.

1950s

The details change into the 1950s, where Erskine Place (NS99SW 146) turns south and into Woodside Terrace. Brick bands form details to the door surrounds, and further brickwork is inserted between windows on both storeys. The same style is seen in the west side of Bruce Street (NS99SW 139) and north side of Garden Terrace (NS99SW 140) to the south of Main Street, along with the semi-detached and terraced houses along South Pilmuir Road (NS99SW 141). The small development off Cattlemarket (Nos 12-22) also retains elements of the brick banding around the entrances, as do the terraced houses in Mayfield Crescent (NS99SW 145), off Kirk Wynd.

However, new recreational facilities were also created during this time. King George’s playing fields were established on Port Street in the late 1940s/early 1950s. These fields were one of many ‘King George’s Fields’ established between 1938 and 1965 across the UK as a memorial to the late King George V. Over 500 parks were created during this period, all being protected in perpetuity by the Fields in Trust group, with Clackmannan’s protected since February 1952 (King George V Playing Fields | Fields in Trust (accessed 21st November 2022)). The Park currently offers a children’s playpark and football pitch, along with a pavilion and other open green space, though the site of the playpark was originally occupied by tennis courts. To the north-east of the town, Alexander Park was created between Clackmannan House and Riccarton marginally earlier, being shown as ‘Playing Fields’ on the revised edition of the OS 6-inch map (Clackmannanshire 1951, CXL). A drinking fountain and pavilion are drawn on the 1961 edition of the OS 1:2,500 map. This Park also offers a football pitch, and a children’s playpark was recently created, though the pavilion has gone.

From the later 1950s, styles changed again. In Port Street (NS99SW 143)/Lochies Road/Bruce Street, a group of eleven flatted, two-storeyed blocks were built. Of these, seven are similar to the four-in-a-block design with entrances to front and side elevations. The remaining four are longer terraced blocks offering two-storeyed living. All have shallow-sloping, red-pantiled roofs, and are of a very simple style, being white or beige harled, with no decorative features, and have been refurbished in the early 21st century.

1960s

Moving into the 1960s, a combined approach was taken in the town, with continued expansion and new build on the town’s southern edge, and major redevelopment of run-down areas in the town centre. This redevelopment was carried out by the County Architect for Clackmannan County Council, William Higgins Henry (1905-84), and is discussed within the Clackmannan Historic Core Area of Townscape Character (NS99SW 164). However, some of the ‘new builds’ from this period within the Clackmannan C20 Industrial Expansion Area of Townscape Character also bear the hallmark of Henry’s designs. In this Area, they continued to be mostly two-storeyed, harled and either terraced or semi-detached. Stone panels around entrance doors added interest to the designs seen in Castle Terrace (two blocks of four terraced houses at the western end), and along the length of Chapelhill (terraced and semi-detached properties). These features can also be seen at Nos 39a-d South Pilmuir Road (NS99SW 141), at the junction with Chapelhill, which is a terrace comprising two two-storeyed houses flanked by single-storeyed houses. During this period of expansion in Clackmannan, housing took over some of the areas which had previously provided recreational facilities such as the tennis courts and cricket field in the south where Chapelhill was developed.

W H Henry’s last notable work in the town was the small pocket of housing at Backwood Court (NS99SW 137), to the north of Kersegreen Road, built in 1966. This comprises a group of three semi-detached bungalows and a single-storeyed terrace of four on the north-east side of the street, and two five-storeyed blocks of flats (the only properties in Clackmannan over two storeys). All are of simple design: the bungalows/terrace are cream harled with yellow brick sections within the recessed paired entrances, brown corrugated tile roofs, and most retain the original tripartite windows with white painted panels below and white-painted timber panelling at entrances. The blocks of flats were refurbished c.2009 and are a mix of cream and beige harled, with some yellow brick detail at staircase bays. The flats are currently used as homeless accommodation. The setting of the flats, downhill and below the level of Kersegreen Road, means their extra height doesn’t impose on the townscape.

The end of the 1960s saw the beginnings of the drive to provide homes for owner occupation rather than rental. Perhaps some of the first homes built for owner occupiers in Clackmannan were the bungalows and semi-detached houses at The Glebe (NS99SW 138), off Port Street and just to the south of the Parish Church and manse. These were built sometime after 1964, only being visible on the 1970 edition of the OS 1:2,500 map. Most still retain the brown harling and brick detailing, along with the red tiled roofs seen elsewhere in the town in earlier developments. No 1 The Glebe was one of the earliest but was reconfigured and extended around 1970 as a flat-roofed property with interesting angles and clerestory glazing above the front elevation.

More in-depth discussion on the character of two further Areas of Townscape Character identified in the town can be found under:

-Clackmannan, Historic Core Area of Townscape Character (NS99SW 164)

-Clackmannan, C20 and C21 Commuter Expansion Area of Townscape Character (NS99SW 166)

Information from HES (LCK), 23rd November 2022