HERITAGE AND DESIGN IN THE BORDERS
Mark Douglas
12th October 2005

Sixty members of the Old Gala Club attended in the Upper Volunteer Hall to hear Mr. Mark Douglas, who is an architecture graduate of Heriot-Watt University and 'has been a Principal Officer with the Scottish Borders Council for the past twelve years in charge of "Heritage and Design in the Scottish Borders" talk about his responsibilities. He said that the "Heritage" part of his job included listed buildings, conservation areas, small towns, buildings at risk, archaeology and promotion whilst the "Design" part included master planning, briefs, new settlement, urban design and landscape and sustainability. There are 40 conservation areas in the Borders. They come in all shapes and sizes including St. Abbs Head, St. Boswells' Green and part of Hawick. Three new ones are being proposed, Gala's Bank Street, Channel Street and Corn mill Square area, the Saxon Settlement round the green in the centre of Midlam and one in Nisbet near Jedburgh. A lot of local detail goes into a conservation area like boot scrapers, cobbles (the relaying of sets in Halliwell Close in Selkirk has been part of a recent enhancement scheme), wrought ironwork, and special dormer and sash windows. Trees also come under his remit either trees with an individual history or those within a conservation area. A conservation area can be described as a "Low hurdle over which developers have to jump".

The listing of buildings is done by Historic Scotland on a parish by parish basis not by the Council. 'A' Listed buildings are those of national and international importance and comprise about 7% of the total, 'B' Listed ones are those considered to be of regional importance (50-60%), C(S) are the next down (S standing for "Statuary") and the 'C' list is the rest. In the Borders there are 182 on the 'A' List including Floors Castle, the Roxburgh Viaduct with its little footbridge, Bernat Klein's old studio just outside Selkirk by Womersley now being restored as a private house and the 19th century cast iron pissoir in Walkerburn. Included in the 1248 on the 'B' List are Fernilea and the Midlam Smithy whilst on the 1374 strong C(S) list are the water pump at Yetholm, the Harelaw Steading and the Fouldan War Memorial. There are 2985 items in total. In Galashiels there are 3 As, 26 Bs, 8 C(S)s and 3 Cs making 40 in all. The Kingsknowes Hotel, the Clapperton War Memorial and the Industrial Bank are all As, whilst Sutherland's Yard and Maxton Church and Graveyard are Bs. Unlisted buildings include the government building (ex College of Textiles), and the Lochcarron buildings the oldest of which is 1805. The Council has the power to put a Preservation Notice on a building to stop demolition but if Historic Scotland does not subsequently list it the Council is liable for full compensation to the developer so the Council is very wary of doing this. The last time an Historic Scotland inspector (Mr. Mark Watson who is good at industrial buildings, the other five are all Art Historians!) visited Galashiels was in 1989 when, surprisingly, no old mill buildings were listed and we have lost several since then. Historic Scotland is currently resurveying the town. This is due to be completed by March 2006 when one or two mills may be included together with the Gala Bowling Club, which deserves a B.

An example of "Buildings at Risk" is Greenlaw Town hall, built in 1850/60 when Greenlaw was the local "capital". When this ceased to be the case, the building became redundant and has been allowed to fall in to disrepair. It is a fine building but would cost £200m to restore and then to what use could it be put? Another example is the Tower Mill in Hawick with its water wheel built by Aimers Maclean of Galashiels. Archaeology includes the bronze age village on top of Eildon North, the Hermitage Castle at Newcastleton, Trimontium at Newstead and Roxburgh Castle where the Time Team did such a good dig a little while ago. Mr. Douglas also has to keep an eye on modern architecture. Coopersknowe got through though it is a bit of an American Theme Park rather than in Borders tradition whilst the Orchard at Newstead and Oregon Cottage are of much better modern
design. He recently approved of a cottage with two wind turbines, one on each end gable developing 1 Kw between them!

Reported by D.R.T. 13th October 2005