A Study of a Wee Toun

I’m Lynn Kilpatrick, part of HES’s Heritage Research Team, and I’m going to introduce you to my recently completed Urban Survey study looking at the ’wee toun’ of Clackmannan.  These surveys aim to research and document the townscape of the selected town or village, from the earliest built heritage right up to present day. I look at whatever’s distinctive, prevalent or changing within the townscape of the study area. Clackmannan offered an opportunity to study a small town with an interesting historic burgh core which had experienced large scale redevelopment in the 1950s and 60s while still retaining its original form and characteristics. Its rapid and continued expansion since the mid-20th century also offered the chance to explore the social history reasons for urban growth in Scotland. 

When I begin a survey, I carry out desk-based research which allows me to identify the draft boundaries for the study. Clackmannan was identified as being small enough to walk around in a day and under-represented within our records, so some improvement was long overdue. I check what information we already hold in  Canmore , what’s  listed , or designated as an existing  Conservation Area . I also use maps and aerial survey data to help better understand an area before I visit.  I try not to do too much in-depth historical research before going out in the field, as I want to learn about the town by experiencing and observing the built environment first. I can then answer any questions which arise following these initial investigations in the field. 

So next fieldwork. I walk my planned routes, examining and documenting on maps and in notes, a range of elements including street patterns, plot size and density of development, architectural styles and features, buildings’ scale and materials, and any other key characteristics which begin the process of defining the first draft character area boundaries. Back in the office, I then review my notes and embark on some in-depth research to discover, where I can, the stories of the streets and buildings I’ve mapped. I revisit historic maps and use other social and architectural history sources.  In the case of Clackmannan, the  Scottish Mining  website gave a valuable insight into the history of mine-workers’ housing in and around the town. The background to changes in housing provision in Scotland was found on Shelter Scotland’s website and an article on  SCRAN ‘The History of Scottish People: Urban Housing 1840-1940’  by WW Knox. 

Several key findings were established from this phase of investigation into Clackmannan. I discovered that the town’s original burgh street pattern, scale and other features have been retained despite substantial redevelopments in the town centre by County Architect  William Higgins Henry  in the 1950s and 60s.  His work influenced character across the town during this period, and elsewhere in Clackmannanshire.  

The town does not have substantial Victorian and Edwardian expansion, as the significance of the town as the main County burgh had passed by this period. The railway wasn’t a particular success in driving development - its impact on the town was short lived, and Clackmannan was soon bypassed by the rail route to and from larger towns. The main period of expansion for the town, in the mid-20th century, was due to the growth of industries such as coal, glassmaking and weaving, and changes in housing provision and legislation which saw a boom in the construction of social housing for industrial workers. Then, like many small towns in Scotland, Clackmannan reinvented itself in the late 20th century to become a commuter town, with improved road transport links making it more accessible to the likes of Stirling, Edinburgh and Glasgow. 

As I developed my understanding of Clackmannan, it became apparent that dating was going to play a prominent role in visually explaining the historic character areas of the town in our maps – especially where older elements of the town’s built fabric overlaps with later development.

For instance, in the north-east of the town, Clackmannan House and the woollen mill were built in the 19th century, subsequently Alexander Park was developed in the 1950s, and finally Cherryton Drive was built on and around this area during the 1980s. It’s important to note each of these periods as different phases of development each of which have some bearing on the present character of the area. 

Using  GIS  to create polygons upon the map, I identified three broad Areas of Townscape Character in the town, each of which was further refined into ten date ranges. These three broad area polygons are subdivided into 48 smaller parts, showing how often the date ranges change from street to street.  

Finally, once all the research and recording is complete, I write-up the study and make it available to the public. To finalise each study, descriptive texts are prepared for each Area of Townscape Character and uploaded onto  Canmore . I make sure the sites in Canmore are accurate by amending or upgrading map grid references, adding thesaurus terms and dates.  I also make any final amendments to the boundaries of my GIS polygons and produce any other maps I need to illustrate the texts. An important part of Urban Survey is to upgrade our photographic coverage of the area and new archival images are created by the professional photographers in our Heritage Research team.  

The  Clackmannan survey  is now available in Canmore as a connected network of records where you can access the written descriptions and photos. The Areas of Townscape will soon be available in Canmore Mapping. You can currently see the Urban Surveys completed in  Bo’ness ,  Rothesay  and the Edinburgh areas of  Canongate  and  Fountainbridge in Canmore .

So, what’s next? Clackmannan demonstrated another approach I can take to analyse townscapes and their character, providing another avenue for presenting results of future Urban Surveys. I hope that the methodology I have developed can support the work of other areas of HES, and indeed more widely, with the growth of placemaking, local place-planning and other heritage-led regeneration initiatives across Scotland. There is much more to explore and explain! 

Lynn Kilpatrick is a geographer by training, who has worked in Scotland’s heritage sector for most of her career. She has managed the Urban Survey carried out by HES since 2009.