Bo'ness, Borrowstoun Area Of Townscape Character

This site covers the Borrowstoun Area of Townscape Character which was defined as part of the Bo'ness Urban Survey Project 2013. The text below relates to the whole area.

Historical Development and Topography

Lying due south of Bo’ness town centre, Borrowstoun is the settlement from which the town takes its name, although nothing survives of Old Borrowstoun, which is depicted on the 1st Edition OS map (1862) as a cluster of cottages and farms. The oldest surviving building is Borrowstoun House (on Borrowstoun Road, just north of Braefoot Road), dating from c.1820, which was once the property of the Caddells of Grange.

In the later 19th century, a range of single-storeyed, stone cottages were built along Borrowstoun Road, the main east-west thoroughfare through the area. Amidst these cottages is the former Borrowstoun School, which was built in 1877 to designs by John Paterson (1832-77). The building fell out of use as the town grew and needed larger school facilities, and it is now the Barony Theatre. The key north-south route through the area is Linlithgow Road at the western end of Borrowstoun Road. The area to the south of this, projecting into surrounding farmland, was developed in the mid-20th century as an estate of detached and semi-detached brick and roughcast houses with gardens.

Development in this area continued in the later 20th century on the western side of Linlithgow Road with the Bowmains Industrial Estate which includes the Fire Station (1981) by Central Region Architectural Services. The north-western corner of the area comprises a large brownfield site which is currently wasteland (2013).

Present Character

The area has a very small historic core at the junction between the two main roads running through it, comprising three cottages on Linlithgow Road and a range of semi-detached and terraced cottages around the former school on Borrowstoun Road. The rest of the area is divided into two distinct residential and industrial zones, with the Bowmains Industrial Estate to the west of Linlithgow Road. This is a typical 1980s industrial estate, with a group of industrial units of varying sizes with large parking/delivery areas around them, mostly built of corrugated metal with pitched roofs. The town’s fire station (1981), at the junction of Crawfield Lane and Linlithgow Road, is built of concrete breeze blocks and corrugated metal, materials which were widely used around this period for similar public buildings.

The housing estate to the east of Linlithgow Road is designed as a series of cul-de-sacs, but with differing layouts – some comprising blocks, others more crescent-shaped. There is a mixture of semi-detached and detached two-storeyed houses which are of fairly plain design, set within small to medium-sized gardens, mostly unenclosed to the front of the properties. Most are harled in a pale grey harling, with tiled roofs. However, there are some slightly later groups which are red brick-built, some bungalows, mostly on the south-eastern edge of the area, in Ritchie Place, Cathrine Grove, Henry Street and Braefoot Road. There are a range of housing styles which are spread throughout the area, giving variety to the streetscapes.

Information from RCAHMS (LK), 5th August 2013