Clackmannan, Port Street, General

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

The main component of the Clackmannan Historic Core Area of Townscape Character lies at the centre of the town, focused on the High Street (NS99SW 51) and Main Street (NS99SW 59), running East along a ridge leading from Clackmannan Tower all the way to Cattlemarket (NS99SW 162). Kirk Wynd (NS99SW 142) and Port Street (NS99SW 143), leading north and south from the junction with High Street and Main Street, and North Street (NS99SW 124) and Garden Place (formerly Archibald Place) (NS99SW 144), running parallel to Main Street, help form the core of the former burgh. For the purposes of this study, the small pockets of late 19th-century development on Port Street, Cattlemarket and Kirk Wynd, as well as remaining outlying buildings or areas formerly occupied by mining villages, have also been considered as part of the Clackmannan Historic Core Area of Townscape Character when studying how the town developed.

Clackmannan developed initially as a royal burgh and displays the stereotypical layout of Scottish burghs. The key feature is the herringbone street pattern, with Main Street and High Street leading east from the boundary of the Tower, and plots or riggs running off at right angles behind the main street. To the rear are the original back lanes, now North Street and Garden Place. This basic layout remains visible in the streetscape today.

Main Street retains many original buildings, including, at its widened west end, the market cross (NS99SW 3) and the surviving 17th-century section of the former tolbooth (NS99SW 2.0). Most of the street retains a range of 19th-century, traditional two-storeyed and two-storeyed-plus-attic terraced houses and tenements, with single-storeyed cottages at Nos 3, 56 and 62. All are either stone-built or harled/whitewashed, with slate or pantiled roofs, and timber-framed sash and case windows in varying glazing patterns. Both sides of the street have some areas of 20th-century redevelopment, designed in the ‘conservative surgery’ style (as at High Street) to maintain the integrity of the earlier Main Street streetscape (discussed in more detail later). No 2 Main Street (NS99SW 56), with its interesting-shaped Dutch-style gable facing Main Street, and crowstepped gables to Port Street, is the earliest building on the street, dating from c.1700. Originally the Royal Oak Inn, it was reputedly named after a locally owned ship, and was converted to flats in the 1990s.

Terminating the eastern end of the south side of Main Street is the imposing red sandstone Town Hall (NS99SW 103), which was a donation by the local mill-owner, John Thomson-Paton (1832-1910). The original library, reading rooms and billiards room were built in 1888 to designs by Adam Frame (c.1837-1901), but were soon extended in 1903 to Ebenezer Simpson’s (1854-1934) Art Nouveau design which incorporates carved panels ‘LIBRARY’, ‘READING ROOM’ and ‘PUBLIC HALL’ with an elaborate carved pediment containing the town’s coat of arms above the entrance doorway. An additional extension on the east elevation was added by the local authority in 1992-4, using artificial red/pink stone at upper level, harled and rendered at lower levels, and comprising dormer windows at roof level which mimic an earlier style.

Other notable buildings on Main Street include the former Co-operative Society building at No 61, with its central scrolled pediment with ‘COOPERATIVE SOCIETY LTD FOUNDED 1863’ carving and topped by a tall double chimneystack. This date refers to when the Society was formed rather than the date for the building, which was actually built in 1891 to designs by architect James Johnston (n.d.). The ground-floor shopfronts have been filled in and replaced by modern frontages occupied by two takeaways (at the time of writing, 2022; No 61 was occupied by the town’s post office until c.2016), but the first floor retains the original arched sash and case windows. The current (2022) Co-operative Food store occupies Nos 23-25 Main Street, in a late 19th-/early 20th-century former townhouse with a central pedimented dormer. The original ground floor has been completely replaced with a modern shop front, but the first floor retains original sash and case windows in a two-four-two pattern, with interesting nine-paned glazing in the upper sash. These are two of the more interesting buildings from the Victorian/Edwardian period on Main Street, and probably replaced earlier terraced houses, while retaining the scale of the streetscape. (Both of these buildings are noted at NS99SW 59 for Clackmannan, Main Street, General).

Main Street remains a predominantly residential street, whilst also forming the town centre. This is reflective of no deliberate commercialisation of a ‘town centre’, as seen in other small burghs and villages where they have become reliant upon another town -in Clackmannan’s case, Alloa. It currently (2022) has two public houses, a takeaway bakery/café, hairdressers, pharmacy, two takeaway/fast food outlets and the Co-operative Food store. Other social amenities are spread across all three Areas of Townscape Character identified in the town: primary school, health centre, neighbourhood shops, bowling green, churches, playing fields and pavilions, along with other individual retail and commercial units.

However, most of the key buildings within the town are found within the Clackmannan Historic Core Area of Townscape Character. The parish church (NS99SW 19) dominates the skyline, sitting on higher ground at the west end of Main Street, to the south of High Street. Designed in Gothic style by eminent architect James Gillespie Graham (1776-1855), it was built in 1815 on the site of an earlier, 13th-century, church, and has a four-stage square tower at the west front. The associated manse predates this church, being built in the mid-18th century to the south of the churchyard. This two-storeyed Georgian villa has had small extensions added to the side and rear elevations, but retains most of its original features and proportions, including a full-height bay window added to its westernmost bay in 1863 by James Maitland Wardrop (1824-82). The graveyard surrounding the church contains a range of stones, many dating from the 17th and 18th century. It was given a new entrance with a lych gate (see NS99SW 143 for Clackmannan, Port Street, General) leading off from the main junction of Main Street and Port Street, incorporated within the redevelopments of the late 1950s/early 1960s. The lych gate, dated 1966, is formed of stone walls supporting a red-tiled piended roof, and black-painted wooden gates. It forms a link between the two housing developments flanking the churchyard entrance.

Two other churches were built in the centre of Clackmannan during the late 18th and 19th centuries. The Relief Church was built in 1788 and stood on the corner of North Street and Kirk Wynd but was demolished c.1933. The manse for this church, another substantial stone-built villa built in the mid- to late 19th century, survives halfway down Kirk Wynd, at No 23, but is now in private hands. Finally, in 1845, the Free Church (NS99SW 104) was built at the north end of Kirk Wynd, to designs by John Burnet Snr (1814-1901). George Alexander Kerr (1865-1927) carried out alterations to the church c.1900, and it was converted to a masonic hall in 1938-9. Its key feature, a central bellcote, still survives and it retains its form and masonic function today (2022).

The lack of Georgian/Victorian development in Clackmannan is noticeable compared to other similar towns, which saw extensive expansion during this period. Apart from the key buildings discussed, only a few detached and semi-detached cottages were built on the roads leading out from the burgh core (Kirk Wynd, Port Street and Cattlemarket). Mostly single- or one-and-a-half-storeyed, these were generally plain, stone-built with slate roofs, though some have bay windows and dormers to attic floors. Those along part of Alloa Road tend to be more substantial, with some additional decorative features such as finials to dormer gables. In the north-east of the town, on Mill Road, Clackmannan House (NS99SW 65), built c.1815, remains a relatively unaltered typical Georgian villa although now surrounded by housing dating from the later 20th century.

Towards the end of the 19th century, there was a growing interest in leisure activities as a means of keeping the working population suitably occupied outwith their working hours. In particular, sporting pursuits were encouraged, and Clackmannan saw its fair share of sports clubs and facilities springing up. These were focused in the outlying mining hamlets on the edges of the town boundary, mostly around the southern edge, at Duke Street, Green and Square. The 1870s and 80s saw the establishment of cricket, rugby, curling, tennis and football clubs, and a bowling green was built at the south end of Castle Street. The 2nd edition of the OS 25-inch map (Clackmannanshire, 1900, CXL.5) shows the football ground and curling ponds on the site of what is now Chapelhill, which is where the tennis courts were also believed to have been from 1895. The bowling club still remains, and a new pavilion (NS99SW 160) was built for the club in 1892. Due to the nature of development within the town after the Victorian period, most recreational spaces now lie on the edges of the town and fall within the Clackmannan C20 Industrial Expansion Area of Townscape Character (NS99SW 165).

Alongside the residential, religious and leisure developments in the town, education was provided through a series of schools within the historic core of the town. The Public School (NS99SW 62), designed by architect Adam Frame (c.1837-1901), was opened on Alloa Road in 1897, with additions in 1924-7 by George Twigg (1873-1953) of the same architects’ firm. The school was still marked on the 1967 edition of the OS 1:10,560 map. It was closed and demolished when a new primary school (NS99SW 134) was built in 1971-2 to the south of the town on Lochies Road (lying within the Clackmannan C20/C21 Commuter Expansion Area of Townscape Character (NS99SW 165)). The site of the public school is now occupied by late 20th-/early 21st-century housing developments (Millbank Crescent (NS99SW 126) and Livingstone Way (NS99SW 121)). Ordnance Survey maps from 1863-6 (1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Clackmannanshire 1866, CXL) and 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Clackmannanshire c.1863, CXL.5)) show there were two other schools already in the town before the public school was built. One is noted on the maps just to the east of the Free Church on Alloa Road, and the other is on North Street, also noted as ‘School and County Hall (disused)’ on the OS 25-inch map of c.1863. This latter school has also been known as the ‘penny school’, and the building was used as a masonic lodge between 1922 and 1939, before being put to military use as a drill hall (NS99SW 107) during WWII and subsequently part of a Territorial Army Centre prior to its demolition in the early 1970s. The school connection remains in the street name of the red brick bungalows now occupying the site, in Pennyschool Place (NS99SW 125), dating from the 1990s.

Despite these fairly isolated developments across the oldest parts of the town, it was not until the mid-20th century that any major impact was felt in the burgh core. County Architect William Higgins Henry (1905-84) undertook the principles of Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) and sought to improve substandard properties in the High Street (NS99SW 51) and Main Street (NS99SW 59) by demolishing some of the 18th- and 19th-century tenements and terraced houses, by reusing significant elements from these in the rebuilding -termed ‘conservative surgery’. The replacement buildings were mostly built on the footprints of the original buildings, with some alterations on High Street to create small courtyard developments off the main thoroughfare, allowing more units to be created in the same space. Some additional development took place into Kirk Wynd (NS99SW 142) and along North Street (NS99SW 124), while Archibald Place, to the south of Main Street, was rebuilt and renamed Garden Place (NS99SW 144). Many of these new buildings incorporated recreated traditional features such as crowstepped gables, corbelling and carved skewputts, examples of which may or may not have been present on the original buildings they replaced (photographs of the street prior to redevelopment have not been able to be viewed at the time of writing to confirm (May 2022)). However, these details are appropriate for the townscape, particularly as traditional building materials (or appropriately sympathetic materials) have been used -harling in either white or cream/beige, pantiles, and some timber sash-and-case windows. Stone has been used for details around base courses, window dressings and door surrounds, as well as forming distinctive arched pends giving access to back courts.

At the west end of High Street’s (NS99SW 51) north side, are a group of adjoining single-storeyed cottages (Nos 64-72) with pantiled roofs, in traditional vernacular style. Next to these are more single-storeyed cottages formed in an L-plan off the street (Nos 44-8). These also have pantiled roofs and are a mix of stone base courses and gable ends, and harled. While the windows are traditional twelve-paned sash and case style, entrances have more contemporary (to 1960s) glazing patterns lighting small entrance halls, with a mix of large and small oblong and square panes. This style is also seen at the redeveloped Nos 32-8 Main Street (see NS99SW 59 for Clackmannan, Main Street, General), though windows have been replaced with later double-glazed units, and there are two-storeyed examples in the same style further west at Nos 26-30 Main Street. In the middle of the north side of Main Street, Nos 33-47 also replaced dilapidated terraced houses and display the same features of beige harling, stone base courses, pantiled roofs and sash and case style windows as at Nos 16-20 High Street.

Nos 22-42 High Street (see NS99SW 51 for Clackmannan, High Street, General) are simpler in design, with a mix of single- and two-storeyed terraced houses, comprising brown corrugated tiled roofs, beige harling, and sections of stone cladding around entrance doorways and pends. Glazing here is more contemporary and some have more recent replacements. As High Street reaches the junction with Kirk Wynd, some traditional details start to reappear with crowstepped gables, corbelling and twelve-paned sash and case windows at Nos 2-20. This continues round the corner into Nos 1-11 Kirk Wynd (NS99SW 142). There is a two-sided sundial on the corner at No 2 High Street, along with a carved panel above paired ground-floor windows. No 4 has a reused datestone above its entrance door. The east end of the south side of High Street has another row of adjoining single-storeyed, harled cottages (Nos 1-13) with pantiled roofs and sash and case windows with mixed glazing patterns. These lead into the group of cottages and two-storeyed house on Port Street which flank the lych gate entrance to the churchyard (NS99SW 143). Again, there is a mix of harling and stone finishes, but all mimic the vernacular style. Behind Main Street, Garden Place (NS99SW 144) displays a mix of styles from the Henry developments: single- and two-storeyed with stone dressings to doorways, red-tiled or slate roofs, arched pends in terraced blocks, and some corbelling and shaped skewputts as details at No 21. Similarly, North Street’s (NS99SW 124) redevelopment comprised both single- and two-storeyed terraces, simple in composition, but with rusticated stone surrounds around entrances and at base courses, the rest being grey/beige harled with red tiled roofs.

The 1990s saw some other alterations to the townscape of the historic core, with terraced housing at Nos 49-59 Main Street being replaced with a pair of two-storeyed flatted dwellings, and Nos 57-59 being truncated and infilled with a flat-roofed commercial unit. The town’s population growth justified the building of a new health centre around the early 1990s, and this one-and-a-half-storeyed building still sits at the junction of Main Street/Cattlemarket/North Street. Composed of red brick base course, cream cement render and brown corrugated tile roof, it has a small area of lawn in front and to the east side, and a car park to the rear, all enclosed by a section of boundary wall from earlier buildings.

Despite this major redevelopment of much of the main thoroughfares in the former burgh, Clackmannan has managed to retain most of its historic street layout at its core. By retaining the basic form of the burgh, the relative plot size, building height, materials and density of the town centre has also survived, aided by the sympathetic redevelopment carried out in the 1950s and 60s by W H Henry. This was recognised when the redevelopment works won a Civic Trust Award in 1959 for quality, sympathetic and sensitive design in a historic townscape.

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

-Clackmannan, C20 Industrial Expansion Area of Townscape Character (NS99SW 165)

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

Information from HES (LCK), 23rd November 2022

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