rocks and wheels social + historical legacy · rocks and wheels social + historical legacy The...

rawrocks and wheels

social + historical legacy

The purpose of this document is to brief theconsultants appraising the feasibility of theproposed historical and social cultural thematicstory for inclusion in the business plan for the AssetTransfer of Dalbeattie School and 7 acres of landfrom Dumfries and Galloway Council to DalbeattieCommunity Initiative ownership.

The aim of the document is to give a generalthematic background and to illustrate the scope ofthe proposed cultural story study leading to aBusiness Plan.

The document is to be read in conjunction with theBuilding Condition Report, Topographical andMeasured Building Surveys, Architect’s designproposal, and other supplementary informationappended.

dalbeattie community initiative - september 2018

dalbeattie community initiative october 2018

1

social and historical cultural identity

The landscape of the Galloway has been moulded and shapedover millions of years initiated by the gradual crumpling of theearth’s crust tectonic plates between what is now Englandpushing up the Lake District mountains and simultaneouslyforming Scotland’s Southern Uplands and the Solway flatsbetween.

Subsequent ice ages’ glacial ebbing and flowing revealed thehard granite hills of Criffel, Cairnsmore of Fleet and Merrickwhile the soft red sandstone pockets in Dumfries andLochmaben gave the region its future building materials andsubsequent character and identity to the built form of itsdisparate towns, e.g. making Dalbeattie’s granite streets andDumfries’ red sandstone townscape feel quite different.

The Southern Uplands are the southernmost and leastpopulous of mainland Scotland's three major geographic areas.The term is used both to describe the geographical region andto collectively denote the various ranges of hills and mountainswithin this region. The scale and diversity of these Uplandscreates a physical environment tricky to navigate except via itsextensive coastline on the Solway Firth and on the rivers thatflow south in the valleys between the ranges.

The Southern Upland Way path traverses all these ranges. TheSouthern Upland Way is Scotland's first and only official coast-to-coast long-distance route, running across the country fromthe Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea. From Portpatrick on thewest coast the route runs to Cove and Cockburnspath on theeast coast. The number of different accents found along theway is testament to the varied community identities notnecessarily reflected by ad-hoc political or administrativeboundaries but more by environmental domain and a specificplace to belong.

An overwhelmingly rural and mainly agricultural region, theSouthern Uplands is partly forested and contains many areas ofopen moorland. Galloway Forest Park alone covers an area of777Km2.

dalbeattie community initiative october 2018 2

historical + social backdrop collective memory through buildings

This is not meant to be an exhaustive historical account of theregion where the usually wealthy and significant personalitiesare trotted out, after all this is usually people who were eitherin the right place at the right time and events happened tothem rather than having any meaningful personal qualitiesworth discussing in a project about a community regenerationproject.

So, this is an interpretive appraisal to show why it matters toour project to learn from historical and cultural context andwhy it is important to weave this story in a meaningful andtangible way into our project.

Historical facts can be found in Dalbeattie Matters website andacademic research. This document is an account of howhistory may have affected ordinary people through communityevents and buildings in the past.


timeline

10000 BCE the first immigrants’ remains found in Wales haverecently been scientifically shown to be black skinned with blueeyes however this is only stated as it shifted culturallyconditioned perceptions of our ancestors and our commonDNA.

Local continuous habitation since 6000BCE is evidenced in theform of bronze and Iron Age community fortifications that canbe found in the startlingly fluid stepped ramparts of Mote ofUrr and the hidden Moyle in Dalbeattie Town Wood. Thesedefensive places were usually near a water course and werecapable of seeing off a siege by gathering food, livestock andthe extended group behind a timber palisade in a common goalof survival. This would have promoted a sense of security andcommunity; these structures were usually found on a strategicraised elevation, a symbol of longevity and certainty in a periodof lawlessness.

Other smaller sentinel forts are scattered like stumps along thecoast with defensible inland loch crannogs (timber piledstructures) much like the rest of the coast of Scotland duringthis period of exploration for which the sea provided thehighways.


brochs

Brochs are the most spectacular of a complex class ofroundhouse buildings found throughout Atlantic Scotland.Think multi-storey, timber-framed crannog, then wrap in a dry-stone diaphragm wall of astonishing engineering conception.

The origin of brochs is a subject of continuing research. Sixtyyears ago most archaeologists believed that brochs, usuallyregarded as the 'castles' of Iron Age chieftains, were built byimmigrants who had been pushed northward after beingdisplaced first by the intrusions of Belgic tribes into what is nowsoutheast England at the end of the second century BC andlater by the Roman invasion of southern Britain beginning in AD43.

Yet there is now little doubt that the hollow-walled broch towerwas purely a unique creative invention particular to this Atlanticedge; even the kinds of pottery found inside them that mostresembled south British styles were local hybrid forms. Theprecisely designed round form is redolent of modern coolingtowers and was copied right up the Atlantic seaboard bypresumably itinerant builders.

The distribution of brochs is centred on northernScotland. Caithness, Sutherland and the Northern Isles have thedensest concentrations, but there are a great many examples inthe west of Scotland and the Hebrides. Although mainlyconcentrated in the northern Highlands and the Islands, a fewexamples occur in separately in south-west Scotland. This smallgroup of southern brochs has never been satisfactorilyexplained.


candida casa

The sea also made it possible for an exchange of skills,materials, and ideas and in the 5C Ninian reputedly built hisCandida Casa (glittering house) at Whithorn. A Roman Scholarhe brought back ideas from mainland Europe with a mission,presumably, to bring enlightenment to the superstitiouspaganistic Gallovidians. The glittering house must have seemedmagical indeed, drawing people like moths to a flame. Thepower of a simple building as a physical representation of ideasand meaning and a place of destination and pilgrimage is oftenunderestimated.

Of course, like the rest of sea-faring Europe, others were on themove with various motives and the areas complex genetic mixis a result of Celtic Cumbrians, Romans, Angles, Irish,Scandinavians, et all and equally influenced language and place-name calling.


monasteries

Galloway was an autonomous territory from 1100 to 1300 andhad a pivotal position in Irish Sea trade between England, Isleof Man, Ireland and Scotland during which time sophisticatedland management ideas were introduced by the CistercianMonastic way of life such as at New Abbey, Dundrennan,Glenluce, Kelso, and Melrose and this lasted until the late1500’s when the Scottish Reformation caused the lands to fallto the crown and the monasteries fell into disuse.

The ideological Cistercians were systematic in agriculturalmethods, improved the land, and made sustainable agriculturalchanges that had a huge effect on the population as it reliedheavily on a local workforce, providing a stable environmentwith both self-sufficient and exportable goods.

Dundrennan Abbey was constructed with robust greysandstone and its form is noted for representing, in built form,the austere Cistercian ideal representing purity and restraint.

These monasteries were relatively sophisticated groupings ofbuildings with dormitories (a place to sleep), hospitals (a placeto heal), refectories (a place to eat), libraries (a place to learn),kitchen gardens (a place to cultivate) an abbey (a place ofcommunity congregation) usually arranged around an orderingcirculation idea like a cloister. The group would be carefullysituated near a watercourse and a water supply would be pipedto through the locations for various uses.

Technically these medieval buildings required skilled travellingimmigrant European master craftsmen and masons who passedon skills and techniques to locals. They must have seemed trulyfantastic creations to subsistence-living locals and be a tangiblephysical representation of community, well-being and hope.

New Abbey and Balliol College, Oxford was founded by Dervorguilla, wife of John de Balliol, and mother of John (born in Buittle Castle near Dalbeattie ) who was to become King of Scotland in 1292. This demonstrates the power and influence this Gallovidian family apparently had in Europe and not least the wealth they had accumulated. They were not inward looking and had a respected and credible place in international affairs.


tower Houses

History shows that the following War of Independence with England,in which Robert Bruce proved successful in Glen Trool, deep in whatis now Galloway Forest Park, led to his cousin Edward Brucebecoming Lord of Galloway in the 14C. Robert never came back.

Buildings represented power and community investment in modestTower Houses such as Buittle, Comlongon, Threave and Cardonessand sophisticated castle design such as at Caerlaverock with itstriangular plan flourished between 12C and 17C. These robustly-builtstone structures symbolise a different world from the monasteries,one of perpetual conflict and fear due to constant power struggles.

These Tower Houses are an evolution of the Brochs in the sense thatthe massively thick stone walls had secondary accommodation withinsuch as staircases, a place to cook, a place to sleep, a place to sewand a place to read were carved out the solid leaving quite magicalplans.

Notwithstanding that, Caerlaverock had a banqueting hall supportedby a range of kitchens with the intention to provide social activities ofa quality seen in the courts of London and would have a full range ofstorage facilities and accommodation to enable it to survive a lengthysiege. Like the mottes that expanded and added layers over timethese castles adapted and evolved over the hundreds of years ofcontinuous occupation.


witches and other innocents

The Reformation in the 16C and 17C was a period of conflictand easily shifted realignments of allegiances and in Gallowaythe Covenanters and Crown fought through “The Killing Times”of the late 17C with Covenanters’ martyrs’ graves witnessed inevery Gallovidian graveyard.

The common rural people were living in a time of extreme fear,not least from over-zealous Presbyterian fervour and as aconsequence many innocent people were executed for being a“witch”. Elspeth McEwan from Balmaclellan was one of the last;however, witchcraft laws were not repealed till 1736. The threefemale Solway Martyrs, drowned at the stake forreligious/political reasons, is a harrowing story of lunaticfanaticism and human courage, two well-known extremes ofthe human condition.


agrarian revolution

The Agrarian Revolution of the 18C saw the landowners of theregion seek to transform the subsistence farming that had beenreverted to once the monasteries had fallen. Communities inferm-touns had infields (better) and outfields (rougher) thatwere divided into individually maintained run-rigs rather thanthe monastic efficiencies of scale. At this time there were nowalls and cattle-droving created conflict as the herds movedfrom common-good ground across ferm-toun fields.

The improving landowners cleared the land of stones utilisingthis readily available material to create dry-stone dykingenclosures to protect crops and separate herds for controllingbreeding and fattening for markets. The improvements also sawthe introduction of new crop experimentation, drainage ofsodden ground and fertilisation.

The legacy of the stone wall building programme 300 years agocan be seen all across the man-made landscape of Gallowaywith over 12000 linear kilometres recorded from the seawardraised beaches to the exposed moorlands and due to theirdistinctive construction methods with their through-stones atcertain levels the walls have a character and identity unique tothe place and the reflect the skilled hands of the itinerantlabourers that built them.

The Galloway Hedge is a hybrid of drystone wall andblackthorn grown through it with the roots at the base of thewall binding the stones together making it a stronger and alsoproviding wildlife habitat at the same time as being awindbreak. In today’s language an eco-friendly sustainablestructure, a living wall.

Of course, all change comes with its detractors and TheLevellers took the loss of common grazing and simultaneousnotice to quit their tenant farms with the deserved contempt ofa disenfranchised community by flattening as many of thesewalls as they could.


rocks to roads + lighthouses

Cynically motivated improvements did bring benefits for themajority in the form of road and bridge construction, designedfor efficient mobilisation of troops to keep the oppressed ruralcommunities in order, were gleefully utilised by the taxavoidance “export/import” entrepreneurs. The roads andbridges also connected communities and created markets, thepower of which is not to be underestimated in a time of whenpeople rarely interacted with another ferm-toun only 10kmaway.

Notwithstanding the impact new roads had, harbourinfrastructure and boat trade was still a significant economicdriver for the region with even Dalbeattie having a dock on theriver Urr, Palnackie a river harbour for larger boats, Kippfordhad ship building yards, Carsethorn a pier for steam shipconnection to Liverpool, even land-locked Gatehouse of Fleetbuilt a canal to enable goods being loaded onto ships from thetown at Port McAdam. Of course, Kirkcudbright and Garliestonstill have working harbours albeit all were tidal.

The granite quarries of Creetown and Dalbeattie exploitedbeing in proximity to the sea edge permitting the export of highquality granite to make the Stanley dock walls and granite settsat Liverpool and Eddystone Lighthouse, the ThamesEmbankment in London and robust lighthouses and harboursaround the world.

Although much diminished the granite quarry industry still ticksover although the hand-working lathes and sett splitting tentsof hard labour are long gone with material now used for roadbuilding substrate.

With new technology comes uncomfortable and exhilaratingchange and in the mid 19C the railway came to the regionbringing tremendous economic growth whilst sounding thedeath knell for older industries. People moved on. New workwas created, and opportunity saw ferm-touns grow into markettowns and planned new towns.


industrial revolution

Inspirational industrial thinking ahead of its time (1917) is manifest in Tongland, a concrete framed multi-storey factory with brick and glass infill panels with factory precedents in Detroit, had, amongst other facilities, its own hydro-electric plant, workers’ swimming pool, a piano in the recreation area, and open-air tennis courts on the flat roof.

Almost entirely staffed by women due to a shortage of men away fighting in the First World War, the women were taken through aero-engineering apprenticeships demonstrating intelligence and application beyond any male counterparts and when the war ended the trained and skilled female workforce continued making cars specifically for other women called “The Galloway”.

This attracted the attention of the national suffragette movement and showcased feminist ideals. The building still stands as evidence of the creative thinking that brought all these new ideas together and today some are claiming this mix of work and leisure is somehow a new concept.


hello hydro

Hydro-electricity is a sustainable source of energy albeit withecological issues of flooding valleys and river level control andGalloway has its fair share through a dam building programmein the 1930s. Serving the National Grid the facilities were notjust a local utility.

Elegant concrete curved dams span between natural rockpromontories with white modernist highly glazed buildingscontaining lofty and light filled turbine halls, a symbol ofprogressive ideas and new technology embracing internationalarchitectural modes. The electric palaces set in the countrysidewere held in high esteem by Gallovidians at the time,contemporary design representing a forward-thinkingcommunity outlook in a time of economic depression.


nitroglycerine

As we have seen from the mottes, castles and aero-enginefactory conflict often generates new scenarios for land use andcommunities affected. During the Second World War a largemunitions factory was established on the outskirts ofDalbeattie employing nearly 3000 labourers (living in workencampment) in a bid to construct the factory as quickly aspossible. The site was chosen for environmental reasons with arequirement for a voluminous quantity of treated water, frost-free climate, and isolation from other industrial targets butconnected with national infrastructure.

Located with access to the “Paddy Line” for its delivery ofcordite and nitroglycerine and shipping of shells back to thefront lines there were in fact two mirrored factories in case onewas damaged either by accident or by enemy action.

Some buildings mimic the defensive motte shapes in that theywere half buried under mounds of earth and grassed overgiving them a pre-historic appearance. This was not to hidethem from aerial attack but to direct any internal explosionvertically rather than a more catastrophic and destructivehorizontal blast. Other resemble medieval defensive towerhouses.

2,000 women from around the UK worked at the explosivesfactory, together with 200 men (mostly explosives scientists)and this had a big impact on accommodation in Dalbeattie,adjacent villages and towns and presumably created its owneconomy.

Local GP’s report that their experience was that womenworking with hazardous cordite and nitro-glycerine whoremained in the area were later in life treated for symptomsdirectly related to this work.

These unsung women and men were instrumental in the wareffort and are currently not acknowledged in any formal way,the only personal legacy being their graffiti etched into thefactory walls.


intervia

In 1965, nearly 100 years after the bold concept of connectingrural communities with the railway, to enable economicgrowth, to connect national and international infrastructure, ashort-sighted decision was taken to cut this umbilical cord andshut the “paddy line”.

Stations and their buildings are a symbol of an outward-lookingmindset, status and connection with the wider community.Witness the economic power of re-opening the borders railwayto Tweedbank to Edinburgh.

This environmentally smart transport system could now havebeen used to transport commercial shipping containers to theEuropean Sea port terminal at Stranraer or even Cairnryan asthe latter had its own railway connection during the SecondWorld War. Unfortunately, the ubiquity of the car and thefreedom it offers partly caused the trains to falter economically.The price for this lack of forethought puts unsustainablepressure on the roads and just calling the A75 a “Euro route”doesn’t change the detrimental effect the amount ofinternational road shipping has on towns and communities.However, the Euro route A75 and its closeness to Dalbeattieoffer the town a direct connection internationally for the carowner.

One health benefit of the south western railway redundancyhas been the introduction of safe cycle-ways using somesections of the old tracks and viaducts through someparticularly spectacular wilderness, unfortunately its fullpotential of a east-west path between Dumfries and Stranraeris not feasible due to its piecemeal selling-off of land, somesimple joined-up strategic thinking could have created acontinuous 75 mile long regional cycle route through thestriking landscapes of the Southern Uplands, an economicequivalent of the West Highland Way. However, the sectionsthat are available are easily reached for a Dalbeattie base.


farming culture

Galloway at one point changed its farming focus from beef todairy to serve the industrial central belt with the railwayensuring fast fresh products reaching the demand efficiently.The creative technical development that sparked the IndustrialRevolution wasn’t just reserved for heavy industries of ship-building and mining but mechanisation of the agriculturalindustry with such devices as the crop harvesters and milkingmachines meant specialist buildings and economies of scaleturned farmers into process factories with science now playingas much a part as animal husbandry. Generic politically derivedquotas are now driving economic and farming decisions andseemingly random closure of milk processing plants.

The various agricultural shows held throughout the regionenable the exchange of ideas, technologies and skills, thebringing together fellow farmers and their families, sometimesa pursuit of often lonely endeavours and relentless timetables,so these temporary encampments allow the parades anddemonstrations, a place to show off and relax. The regularlivestock exchange markets bring together farmers under oneroof, albeit in financial competition, also offer an opportunity tocatch up with distant neighbours, a place to meet.


fishing culture

Fishing fleets have also waxed and waned with the traditionaltidal river Haaf net fishing for salmon introduced by the Vikingsall but extinct and with it a way of community life. Fishing onopen water has changed dramatically, restricted by politicalquotas and open sea stock sustainability the boat crewsinextricably linked to the culture of the towns they are based infind themselves seeking work on the sea but now asmaintenance crew for the off-shore wind farms. No longer thefresh catch being brought in on the high tide to be unloaded bythe quayside to the demanding screeches of seagulls with theconsequent closure of fish processing plants.


forestry culture

Forestry is a sustainable industry that employs a hugerange of different expertise and support industries.Processing factories require good infrastructure andconnections with markets and this is at odds with thelocation of the majority of the plantations. The Beechingcuts that decimated rural railway connections erased the“Paddy Line” that runs through the Galloway ForestPark......

The equivalent of the Agricultural Show there are Forestrycommunity festivals held with APF 2016 having 315international exhibitors and over 22000 visitors areflection of the importance the industry has.

As well as the big forestry processing plant at Dalbeattiethere are numerous small light-industrial and serviceindustry economies that have ebbed and flowed over thedecades and continue to serve the region and Dalbeattieprovides the workforce for this. The nature of this worktypifies the inhabitants of Dalbeattie.


winds of change

Windfarm investment, both off-shore in the Solway Firth and extensively on land, has seen the development of a global economy industry and piecemeal token community benefit. Some communities have profited directly from amenity funds to varying degrees depending on the impact of the turbine fields however it is difficult to see how this industry contributes anything lasting to community culture. Community Councils’ decide autonomously what to do with cash windfalls to varying degrees of effectiveness. Joined-up thinking here might create bigger more meaningful projects.

Unlike the 1930’s Hydro schemes the turbine fields have no buildings or structures that have the illusion of being occupied with busy workers. The wind turbines seem like robotic elegant trees set mostly in a carpet of moorland connected by a tightrope of electrical wires disappearing off to the metropolitan areas. The shallow Solway Firth turbine blades animate and punctuate the horizon although with the firth’s tidal race would it not have been feasible to harness this in a hidden way too making the region experimentally self-sufficient in electricity, building on the bold ambitions of the Hydro projects of the 1930s?


our futures

Dalbeattie has a stable population and a new learning Campus,does not suffer from the same second-home syndrome ofneighbouring, arguably more picturesque, Kippford andRockcliffe but is feeling the same effects of national High Streetturmoil with all banks now having left the town.

Naturally, competing for commercial partners withneighbouring towns such as Castle Douglas, with itsconsequent angst created by supermarket economies and theonslaught of internet shopping, small rural Scottish towns areperpetually looking for ways to stabilise their economicposition and encourage investment.

Tourism is seen by the Government as a key economic driverfor the region’s economic development however, the regionautomatically competes with other regions and internationalvisitors for unique, rewarding and fulfilling experiences andreturning trade.

From this overview of a much abridged Historical, Social andCultural context we have seen that identity and a community’sself-esteem can be reflected in the buildings and civic spacesthat we inhabit as much as the work that we do to create aneconomy. The value of this social “return” is difficult tomeasure financially but nonetheless if designed well townscapecontributes to wellbeing, identity and meaningful experience.

A pro-active attitude about healthy, active living, at grass rootslevel and from an early age for all degrees of physical andcognitive abilities should logically lower the financial burden onthe NHS e.g., in other words small interventions can impact thewider community.


rocks and wheels social + historical legacy · rocks and wheels social + historical legacy The...

Documents

Transcript of rocks and wheels social + historical legacy · rocks and wheels social + historical legacy The...