GLENROTHES: 1948 to 1998

A geographical study of the New Town in its 50th year

Malcolm A. Sutherland
(Revised July 2012)

CONTENTS
Authors note Site and Layout of Glenrothes Reasons why the site was chosen How did the layout reflect the principles of a New Town? How successfully have the New Town standards been achieved in Glenrothes? Changes in Employment over the years Changes in population and industry The tertiary sector in Glenrothes Southfield industrial estate 4: References Appendix 1: CSYS Geography Field Report and Strategy Appendix 2: Annotated Map of Field Survey Area Appendix 3: Field Notebook: selected pages Appendix 4: Responses by Industrial Unit Companies to Questionnaire Appendix 5: Analysis Sheet 1: the Site and Layout of Glenrothes Appendix 6: Analysis Sheet 2: Changes in Employment over the years 2 3 3 4 11 14 14 17 18 20

AUTHORS NOTE
This report is a compilation of data contained within a batch of posters, log books, letters, drawings, photographs and a report, all of which were submitted and which satisfied the requirements for the CSYS (Certificate of Sixth Year Studies) in Geography, completed in May 1998. Most of the original material has been preserved in the appendices. I completed this project at Madras College High School in St Andrews, Fife, under the guidance of Ms L Thomson. It was an ambitious project, requiring dozens of visits to Glenrothes by bus or taxi (both Glenrothes and St Andrews were deprived of their railways by the egregious Beeching in the 1960s). The project included posting questionnaires to hundreds of local businesses, and received over 20 responses not bad for a school pupil a social sciences post-doc would be feeling envious. Moreover, I completed face-to-face interviews with over 100 patient local residents and shoppers in Glenrothes. Traffic surveys were conducted during rush hour at various roundabouts, in the receding daylight, often in freezing winter weather. A few days before the report and associated paperwork was submitted to the school, I answered a random phone call from the director of the Tullis Paper Mill in response to the questionnaire. In both 1948 and 1998, Tullis Paper Mill was the largest industrial site in Glenrothes. It is a survivor. Larger paper mills in Guardbridge (near St Andrews) and in Dover (the subject of my BSc dissertation) closed a few years after 1998. Glenrothes has not been the subject of a great many social or geographical studies. During the project, the background literature on Glenrothes was found to be very limited. Nevertheless, the information sourced was sufficient enough to suggest that Glenrothes 50 years on turned out to be very different from what was envisioned back in 1948. The information gathered from local residents, shoppers and businesses and local newspapers indicated that the town had not lived up entirely to peoples expectations either. This report revised 14 years after the completion of the project provides an intriguing snapshot of one of Scotlands five New Towns 50 years after its foundation. Today this report is a window into what could be regarded as the tail-end of a previous age: just after the fall of the Tory government and shortly before Holyrood; when heavy and light manufacturing were still predominant; and, when the Ethernet, digital TV and mobile phone technology were still in their infancy. This project and its strategies could not possibly be repeated. Today (in 2012), the general public fear and loathe anyone carrying a clipboard, and often resort to whipping out their mobile phones in defence. Company directors and managers of the surviving industrial units are probably inundated with more red tape and paperwork than ever before, what with Twitter, Facebook, text messaging, email, faxes (they still exist), and the increasing proportions of junk mail in the post. Indeed, for many people in Scotland, 1998 was probably the last year without the internet, email or the now-indispensable mobile phone. Much correspondence was performed using good old paper and pen or a typewriter, and recipients probably had much more thinking space back then. Maybe working life back in 1998 wasnt so different compared with 1948 after all.

SITE AND LAYOUT OF GLENROTHES

Reasons why the site was chosen
The town of Glenrothes one of Scotlands five New Towns is located centrally in the Fife region, directly 10 km north of Kirkcaldy and directly 10 km west of Leven once major heavy industrial towns with railways, ports and access to coalfields.

Figure 1: designated location of Glenrothes from a contemporary map (Muirhead, 1947). Note the abundance of railways - including links to Kinross, Kincardine (linking with Stirling and Glasgow) Leven (and to the East Fife coast), and the railway to Leslie all of which were dismantled by the 1970s.

In 1946, the Health Board - under the radical Attlee Labour party government pronounced the formula for designating and building several New Towns throughout Great Britain. This was a vision born not so much from the rubble of the bombings, but also from the damp, polluted and infested squalor of many inner city districts, namely the slums in Glasgow, in the case with Scotland. In 1948, Glenrothes was designated as one of the sites for this grand social experiment to create decent, habitable housing and nurture new communities and industrial centres. A third reason for establishing Glenrothes was to provide a repository for re-housing a portion of Glasgows over-spill population.

Scotland in the mid-1940s was an economy of coal, steel and both heavy and light manufacturing, all of which depended strongly on rail and sea transport. The rural districts around the Glenrothes site were sparsely populated; adequately served by rail transport; and seated on top of some of the most bountiful coal reserves in the country. Leslie and Markinch (two small towns which are nested on either side of Glenrothes) were paper mill towns, and there were plans to expand the coal mining in the local area. To the south, a small village Thornton served as a vital railway junction (and still does today) leading to the once significant port town of Leven, and the (now former) coal mining towns of Cowdenbeath and Lochgelly. The location for Glenrothes posed excellent road and rail communications, with short and easy access to major cities including Dundee, Dunfermline and Edinburgh. In accordance with the News Towns Act, a balance of mining and other industrial trades were proposed for the Glenrothes site, along with the paper mill industry along the River Leven. Fifes coalfields were registered for a major coal mining project (as part of a national drive to increase production following the war). The aim was to house over 30,000 miners and their families. Not surprisingly, there was no accommodation available in the existing towns and villages to meet such a demand, with the result that a massive new-build project was mandatory.

How did the layout (in 1998) reflect the principles of a New Town?
The concept of the New Town stemmed back to the late Victorian era, when many British businessmen, philanthropists and civil servants became sickened with the squalor, depravation, social delinquency, lack of planning and poor transport infrastructure endemic in many of Britains rapidly growing industrial towns and cities. Ebenezer Howard was the first to coin the phrase in his book, Garden Cities of Tomorrow, published in 1891: They must stop the migration of people into the towns
A quotation from Sir John Gorst

If it be true that great cities tend more and more to become the graves of the physique of our race, can be wonder at it when we see the houses so foul, so squalid, so ill-drained and so vitiated by neglect and dirt?
A quotation from Dean Farrer

What, some may be disposed to ask, can possibly be done to make the countryside more attractive to workday people than the town to make wages, or at least the standard oh physical comfort, higher in the country than in the town; to secure in the country equal possibilities of social intercourse, and to make the prospects of advancement for the average man or woman equal, not to say superior, to those enjoyed in our large cities?

As early as the 1890s, the government was beginning to visualise the possibility of people living in respectable towns, away from the dingy inner cities. Indeed, such an experiment already existed before the 20th century: Washington a town near Lincoln in England was a Victorian new town with garden spaces and open woodland areas provided for the benefit of local residents. By the 1930s, the need for New Towns in Scotland was being fortified with economic and logistical issues. Until then, Lanarkshire was the prime coal-producing region in Scotland. During the 1920s, the Lanarkshire coal seams were becoming exhausted, and alterative seams (namely in Fife) were being prospected. In the lates 1940s, the National Coal Board noted that coal production in Fife was around 2 million tonnes per annum, and decided this needed to be raised to over 6.6 million tonnes per annum hence the need for an overspill population of miners and their families from the Greater Glasgow region. Under the drive of an almost socialist Labour government, the principle of the New Towns was designed as an abrupt break with major city planning at the time: Absence of cramped slum conditions No traffic congestion and reduced air pollution Healthy provision of public services and employment Attraction of businesses and people to a scenic rural setting

The development and expansion of Glenrothes was gradual, with only a few thousand houses by the end of the 1950s. More prolific expansion occurred during the 1960s and 1970s, with more northerly expansion during the 1980s and 1990s. The age of the districts of Glenrothes is illustrated in Figure 2 over-page: (dark brown) the oldest districts include Woodside and part of Auchmuty, which were built by 1955; (red) west Auchmuty, east Rimbleton and South Parks (up to 1965); (pink) Tanshall, Caskieberran, Macedonia, Pitteuchar and west Rimbleton (up to 1975); (orange) Stenton (south); Cadham, Pitcoudie, and west/central Balgeddie (up to 1985); (yellow) the rest of Balgeddie; Collydean and Balfarg up to the mid-1990s.

The style of the housing and street layout changed subtly over time. Nevertheless, the general principles of habitable housing with garden space, wide roads, pedestrian access, local facilities and nearby business spaces were retained throughout the first fifty years of the town. 1950s housing: the earliest Glenrothes district, Woodside, is characterised by short terraced housing separated by trees, paths and wide open roads, each house with a sizable garden, and each street bound with grass belts (Figure 3).

Figure 2: the growth of Glenrothes. Grey areas indicate industrial units. The dark blue line is the designated Glenrothes boundary.

Figure 3: housing in Woodside, Glenrothes

1960s housing: Glenrothes was almost completely spared the onslaught of the tower block. Only one tower block was constructed: this reasonably respectable tower still stands across the main road from the designated Glenrothes town centre. However, some of the 1960s housing might still be considered grim by todays standards. The housing in Tanshall and west Auchmuty includes low multi-storey concrete tenement housing (Figures 4 and 5, respectively):

Figure 4: multi-storey housing in Tanshall, Glenrothes

Figure 5: multi-storey housing in west Auchmuty near the town centre

Housing in the 1970s: the developers turned away from building high and wide, and focussed increasingly on double-floor and single-floor housing, although tenements were still a popular choice of design. Examples include the housing in the Pitteuchar (early 1970s) and Newcastle districts (late 1970s, far west end of Glenrothes) (Figures 6, 7):

Figure 6: bungalow and 2-storey housing in Pitteuchar

Figure 7: housing in Newcastle

1980s housing: Glenrothes witnessed a major northward expansion, as well as the growth of a housing estate in Stenton, south of the dual carriageway passing through the industrial estates on the south side of Glenrothes. Housing was more detached, with semi-detached and single houses replacing tenement structures. In Leslie Parks (south

end of Pitcoudie), the houses are separate and surrounded by their own gardens with tree and bush barriers (Figure 8).

Figure 8: detached housing at Leslie Parks, Glenrothes

Late 1980s/early 1990s housing: the most recent housing observed during this project was located at least a mile outside the centre of Glenrothes, and had a more distinctly remote setting, with small detached houses surrounded by wild grass, forestry and unused land. The houses in Balfarg (Figure 9) tended to be closer together than those in Leslie Parks, probably because by the 1990s, most of the designated Glenrothes site had been developed.

Figure 9: Balfarg housing (poor weather conditions affected the photo quality)

The Glenrothes Greenbelt: the Glenrothes Development Corporation, which was responsible for the development and regulation of Glenrothes during the 1950s through the 1970s, established a boundary for the designated area (refer back to Figure 2).

The purpose of the green belt was to effect a buffer, in order to tame the rate of town expansion, and avoid the worst elements of urban sprawl. Buffers were also created interally, with green barriers alongside major roads and surrounding industrial parks: these comprise high fences, wild grass, trees, bushes and even ponds (Figure 10). Road network: as shown in Figure 2, Glenrothes is a distinct tapestry of housing and industrial estates, effectively woven together by a network of principal (A and B) roads. The main industrial estates south of the town are served by a B road dual carriageway. Shopping precincts: these were provided for every two or three housing estates. In addition, Glenrothes has a designated town centre, which includes the Kingdom Centre shopping precinct and bus station, which both dominate the town centre district. There are five designated local shopping precincts in districts including Woodside, Pitteuchar, Cadham, Glenwood and Stenton:

Figure 9: shopping precincts in Glenrothes

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Parkland: in addition, Glenrothes has some designated parkland spaces, including the expansive Riverside Park (Figure 11) along the River Leven around the mid-north area of the town. The Riverside park extends from the picturesque Leslie down to the Tullis Paper Mill site, which in turn is obscured by forestry. There is parkland between Auchmuty and Pitteuchar; along the east side of Woodside; and between Pitcoudie and Balfarg in the north (refer back to Figure 9). Two golf courses occupy the northeast and southwest corners of Glenrothes.

Figure 10: the B921 dual carriageway connecting the industrial estates, south Glenrothes

Figure 11: Riverside Park, looking south

How successfully have the New Town standards been achieved in Glenrothes?
Despite these successes in creating employment, decent housing and services in a clean environment, it was discovered that some local residents and shoppers expressed some dissatisfaction of Glenrothes. Interviews were conducted at the five local shopping centres (Woodside, Pitteuchar, Cadham, Glenwood and Stenton), whereby ten people in each precinct were surveyed.

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Interviewees were asked two questions: 1 Are you satisfied with this residential area, and what improvements do you think are needed around here?

The results are provided in Figure 12 and Table 1. The majority of responses were negative at three of the five shopping precincts; most responses were positive at the Woodside and Stenton shopping precincts. Several respondents wanted more parks, shops and/or youth clubs, and expressed concern about crime, litter and poor street lighting. 2 Are you satisfied with Glenrothes itself, and what improvements do you think are needed?

The results are provided in Figure 13 and Table 1. Respondents in Cadham and Stenton expressed mixed negative and positive views. Respondents in Woodside were mostly satisfied with Glenrothes; the opposite reaction was observed in Pitteuchar and Glenwood. Those in Pitteuchar and Glenwood complained about the lack of shops and clubs; developers building on green areas; and the need to reduce crime. The respondents in Woodside wanted a wider variety of shops and more shopping precincts around Glenrothes. Respondents in Stenton and Cadham wanted to see more playgrounds and more nightlife in the town.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Woodside Pitteuchar Cadham Glenwood Stenton Yes No

Figure 12: Are you satisfied with this residential area? Responses from shoppers (N = 50; n = 10)
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Woodside Pitteuchar Cadham Glenwood Stenton Yes No

Figure 13: Are you satisfied with Glenrothes? Responses from shoppers (N = 50; n = 10)

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Table 1: recommendations from shoppers

Shopping precinct Woodside

Improvements needed in local area

Improvements needed for Glenrothes More shopping precincts More shop variety Stop building on green areas More clubs and nightlife Combat crime Cut down bushes More playgrounds Prioritise spending More clubs More shops Combat crime More clubs More nightlife

Pitteuchar

Cadham Glenwood

More shops Youth clubs Sports facilities Brighten up shopping centre and playgrounds More clubs Combat crime More shops More garden space Clear up litter Repair housing More parks Better street lighting

Stenton

Further information including survey results are contained in Appendices 3 and 5.

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CHANGES IN EMPLOYMENT OVER THE YEARS

Changes in population and industry
The original designation of Glenrothes as a coal-mining settlement back in 1948 was forgotten almost as soon as the first houses were constructed. The railway to Leslie was closed to passengers shortly after the war, and plans to sink a coalmine within the vicinity of the town did not come to fruition. (Incidentally, open-cast coal mining has witnessed a resurgence in the years after 1998, with a large open-cast coal mine just shy of Thornton.) By the 1960s, coal production and dependency quickly became replaced by electrical power and gas supply, especially when gas was discovered in the North Sea. Mining gradually disappeared from Fife, and the railway line to Leslie was torn up by the end of the 1960s. Glenrothes had to accommodate modern industry, or face an early decline. Towards the 1970s, new industries (including electronics and manufacturing) were establishing themselves, and contributing to the earlier fast population growth in the town (Figure 14):
45000 40000 35000 30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0 0 6704 12499 18579 28067 32978 40250

1948 1953 1958 1963 1968 1973 1978 1983 1988 1993 1998
Figure 14: population of Glenrothes between 1948 and 1995

In terms of employment, Glenrothes specialised in light industry twixt the 1950s and 1970s, with a rise in engineering and logistics companies. More recently, the retail sector became the dominant source of employment in the town, particularly following the difficult economic transitions of the 1980s (Figure 15). While retail stores have multiplied rapidly in and around Glenrothes town centre, heavy manufacturing and intensive engineering declined during the 1980s and 1990s. Service materials are increasingly dependent on retail businesses. Nevertheless, the rate of job creation plunged from positive values in the 1960s to negative figures in the 1980s. Figure 16 shows the rate of job creation from 1952 to 1976, which was often in the lower-mid hundreds per year, and which exceeded 1000 jobs a year in the mid-1960s.

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By contrast, around 1650 jobs were lost in Glenrothes during the 1980s, and between 1990 and 1997 another 350 jobs were lost. Figure 17 details the jobs, which were lost between 1990 and 1997: nearly all these jobs were industrially based, including glassworks, paper manufacturing, ceramics and automotive engineering.
160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1975 1998
Other Building Retail Engineering Electrical/computing Transport Health

Figure 15: changes in occupancy of industrial units in Glenrothes (no. of units)

12000

10000

8000

6000

4000

2000

0
19 52 19 yr 53 19 yr 54 19 yr 55 19 yr 56 19 yr 57 19 yr 58 19 yr 59 19 yr 60 19 yr 61 19 yr 62 19 yr 63 19 yr 64 19 yr 65 19 yr 66 19 yr 67 19 yr 68 19 yr 69 19 yr 70 19 yr 71 19 yr 72 19 yr 73 19 yr 74 19 yr 75 19 76 yr yr

Figure 16: job growth in Glenrothes between 1952 and 1976 (annual rate and cumulative rate)

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18 12 40 100

(Glasspress) (Actuator) Paper mills Engineering

45

Automobile Ceramics Windows

65

70

Figure 17: job losses in Glenrothes between 1990 and 1997: sectors affected

The Conservative government abolished the Glenrothes Development Corporation during the 1980s. The double-recession of the 1980s and the economic winds of change did not bode well for manufacturing or engineering. Opportunities dwindled, and by 1998 youth unemployment had become an endemic problem in Glenrothes: Glenrothes is part of the ten-worst affected area of youth unemployment in Scotland, according to new figures released by local MP Henry McLeish. Thirty and a half percent of all benefit claimants in the Central Fife constituency covering the town are young people just 2.2 percent behind the countrys top blackspot in Cumbernauld and Kilsyth it was also claimed that 4,700 households in the constituency 19 per cent of all non-pensioner homes had noone in work.
The Glenrothes Gazette, 2nd January 1981

By then the newly-elected New Labour government had ear-marked some development funding for the town, although one councillor (Christine May) from Fife Council believed it insufficient Fife is to get 1 million over three years to help deprived areas. The funding is on top of the 4.8 million of Urban Programme resources. Glenrothes will not benefit directlyas it [the money] is ear-marked for Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Benarty, Buckhaven, Methil and Methilhill. Christine Maysaid: While 1 million seems like a substantial amount, it simply isnt sufficientaround 50 per cent of our project shall suffer and there will be little scope for new ones.
The Glenrothes Gazette, 20th March 1998

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The strength of the pound ( sterling) during the early to mid-1990s was also detrimental to larger industries, which relied heavily on profits through exports abroad. Appendix 4 contains the responses from 28 companies, many of which exported products abroad. Between 1995 and 1998, the / Deutschmark exchange rate increased from 2.25DM/ to 2.95DM/.

The tertiary sector in Glenrothes

Before the 1980s, very few shops existed outside the five local shopping precincts around Glenrothes (refer back to pages 10 through 13). The retail sector and consumer spending increased substantially from the mid-1980s onward, and encouraged a new-found focus on generating retail and service industry-based employment in the town. The hitherto under-developed town centre was transformed radically with the construction of the expansive Kingdom Centre shopping precinct (see Figure 18). In early 1998, this shopping centre contained over 90 retail units, with at least 10 clothes shops, 13 newsagents and supermarkets, 9 banks, 9 entertainment/appliance stores; 8 cafes and bakeries; and also a library (the Rothes Library).

Figure 18: the Kingdom Centre looking to the west entrance (names of companies are confidential)

One worrying observation was the 9 unoccupied fronts with To Let signs on the windows, around 10% of all available fronts. Nevertheless, during several visits to Glenrothes in early 1998, it was observed that the shopping centre was always busy during the day, and it may be suggested that the Kingdom Centre does have a good sphere of influence, drawing in people from outside the town. Of 50 shoppers 17

interviewed for this project, 32 were resident in Glenrothes; 5 lived around Glenrothes (Leslie, Markinch, Thornton, Coaltown of Balgonie; and the other 12 lived further away. It may be considered that the Kingdom Centre drew attention away from the local shopping precincts around Glenrothes. Local shopping precincts are accessible, but only provide a limited range of services and little entertainment, as mentioned above. The shopping centre is surrounded by nine car parks, most of which were mostly or even fully occupied during one day visit to the town: 1250 spaces were taken; 328 were available. (It should be noted that the Fife Council central offices are located beside the Kingdom Centre, and this will have affected the car parking data collected.)

Southfield Industrial Estate

The Southfield industrial estate is the largest in Glenrothes, and in 1998 it included some of the largest firms in the town, including Canon and Apricot, and where engineering firms still existed, although computographics and servicing materials were of increasing importance. Of the 50 units surveyed, there were 17 engineering firms, 13 electrical firms, 12 retail-based firms, 2 domestic services firms, 1 health products firm and 5 other companies. Eight of the fifty Southfield industrial estate companies responded to the questionnaire (details in Appendix 4). The results showed that the proportion of workers living outside Glenrothes varied widely: proportions were typically between a quarter and a half, although over 80% of workers in one company lived outside the town (refer also to Appendix 6). This reflects a similar pattern seen in the responses from all 28 companies throughout Glenrothes, which responded to the questionnaire (Figure 19).
91 - 100% 81 - 90% 71 - 80% 61 - 70% 51 - 60% 41 - 50% 31 - 40% 21 - 30% 11 - 20% 1 to 10% <1%

Figure 19: proportion of workers in Glenrothes industrial estate companies resident outside the town (n = 25; 3 companies did not provide a figure)

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The above figure was an indication that, as a job market, the Southfield estate not only catered for local residents, but also served on an inter-regional basis. Some companies (which responded to the questionnaire) even employed foreigners. Of the eight Southfield industrial estate companies, the majority of them chose Glenrothes for easy access to their markets, and easy availability of premises. Half of them mentioned that low rent and rates and grants were incentives. The issue of Glenrothes being a New Town and having an abundance of open space were less common reasons (Table 2).
Table 2: reasons why companies chose Southfield industrial estate (details of companies are confidential)

Incentive for locating in Glenrothes Easy access to market Open space Grants Located in New Town Available/good premises Low rent/rates

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

Movement of workers during rush hour: traffic surveys were conducted at the roundabouts and junctions surrounding Southfield industrial estate between February and April 1998. Each survey was junction-specific: only one junction could be surveyed at a time, although the surveying time was fixed (5pm to 5.30pm). Few conclusions may be drawn from such a dispersed set of results (refer to Appendix 6). One observation of some validity was the significant increase in parking outside the Safeways* supermarket nearby the estate, from 126 vehicles at 1pm to over 210 vehicles at 6pm (Figure 20). This may have been an indication that some of the Southfield workers chose to go shopping shortly after completing their shifts.
250 211 200 163 150 100 50 0 1pm 3pm 6pm 126

Figure 20: number of vehicles outside the Safeway supermarket * Safeway is no longer a trading retail company

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Despite all the major changes in industry in Glenrothes, the geography of the Southfield industrial estate in 1998 was an indication that not all the changes made a negative impact. There were traits of industrial stagnation and departure, including some empty premises. However, Southfield industrial estate was still a thriving hub for engineering and electrical companies, most of which had been operating there for over 20 years.

References and other sources of information

Aldridge. The British New Towns a programme without a policy. Chapter 1. Copyright 1980 Champion, Clegg and Davies. Facts about the New Towns. Copyright 1977 Dept of Health for Scotland. New Towns Act 1946: Draft New Town (Glenrothes) Designation Order 1948. Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Scotland. Pages 3, 4. Glenrothes Development Corporation. Glenrothes. Copyright 1973 Glenrothes Development Corporation: firms, their directors/managers and telephone numbers (sourced from the Rothes Library, Glenrothes, 1998) Howard, Ebeneezer. Garden Cities of tomorrow. Chapter 1: page 45. Published 1891 Osborne, F J; Whittick, A. New Towns. Pages 363 415. Copyright 1963 McGraw-Hill Scottish Geographical Magazine. Glenrothes: some geographical aspects of New Town development. Copyright 1966 PJ Smith Wirz, H M. Social aspects of planning in New Towns. Page 24. Copyright 1975

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