Glenrothes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Glenrothes (disambiguation).
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Background
  Map sources for Glenrothes at grid reference NO281015
|
Glenrothes (Gleann Rathais in Gaelic) is the UK's most northern post war new town. It is situated in the Fife region on the east coast of Scotland and was established in circa 1948, from an amalgamation of small farming communities. Originally the new town was going to be centred on Markinch, however the village's infrastructure was deemed unable to withstand the substantial growth required to realise a new town. Leslie and Thornton were also considered but as a consequence the area that sits between all three was chosen. The land taken was previously an area of great landscape value with some of the richest farming land in Scotland, at a time farming was beginning its long post-World War 2 decline. The land was sub-divided into areas or "precincts" which were named after the hamlets already established (e.g. Woodside, Cadham), the farms which once occupied the land (e.g. Rimbleton, Caskieberran, Collydean) or historical stately homes in the area (e.g. Balgeddie, Balbirnie, Leslie Parks).
The name Rothes comes from the association with the north-east Scotland Earl of Rothes, family name Leslie, who owned much of the land historically and after whom the largest local settlement Leslie, pre-Glenrothes New Town, was named, and still exists to the north-west of the town. Glen (Scottish for valley) was added to prevent confusion with Rothes in Moray, and because the town lies on the Leven valley.
Originally the main industry in Glenrothes and the surrounding area was paper-making (Tullis-Russell and the other mills along the Leven Valley) and coal mining. Unlike East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire Glenrothes was not originally to be a Glasgow overspill new town (although it did later take this role). It was however populated in the early 1950s in large part by mining families moving from the West of Scotland, particularly the Glasgow area, though many re-settled from the declining Lothian coalfields too.
[edit] The Rothes Pit
The primary reason for the designation of Glenrothes was to house miners who where to work at a new super coal mine. This was to be the most modern of the day and was built west of Thornton, an established village south of Glenrothes. The Super Pit was named the Rothes Colliery and it was officially opened by the Queen in 1956. Iconic photographs of the young Queen going down the Rothes Colliery in an all-white boiler suit and helmet are still regularly shown in programmes about the royal family. About 5,000 miners were to be required to produce 5,000 tonnes of coal per day, and huge railway yards were established. The pit was to have a working life of 100 years. The planned long-term benefits were to be huge, and the driver for economic regeneration for central Fife. Within 2 years, the huge investment was written off and the mine run down because of un stemmable flooding. Interestingly, miners who'd worked in older deep pits in the area had fore-warned against the development of the Rothes Pit for this very reason. The state-of-the art engineering and design was closed, leaving the huge enclosed concrete wheel-towers standing at Thornton for many years as a forlorn symbol of the collapse.
[edit] Developments since 1960
The loss of the pit was devastating and further development of the town was almost stopped. It did however help change the fortunes of the town. Glenrothes became an economic focal point for Central Scotland and as a result a plethora of modern electronics factories moved into the town. The first big overseas electronic investor was Beckmans Industries in 1959 followed by Hughes Industries in early 1960s. A number of other important companies were to follow making Glenrothes a hub in Scotland's Silicon Glen.
Glenrothes' central location, good road connections and space for large scale development began to pay off. A further boost to the town during the 1970's saw it become the centre of Fife Council's operations. This took the role from Cupar which was formally the County Town of Fife. Fife House(the headquarters of Fife Council) and other Fife Council buildings are situated in Glenrothes' town centre. Fife Constabulary also have their headquarters in the Viewfield area of the town. Considering all of this it is fair to say that Glenrothes is now the administrative headquarters for Fife.
[edit] Glenrothes Today
Glenrothes has never fully achieved the full potential envisaged for it. It never reached its 70,000 strong population target, currently standing at around 40,000, and while the number of jobs in the town remain high (approx 36,000 jobs), it has not been enough to combat the high unemployment levels of the wider Kirkcaldy and Levenmouth travel to work area.
Although much of the townscape consists of unexceptional 20th century developments the town does host many surprises within its designated area. Early precincts of Glenrothes present some of the best examples of post war social housing, two of which (at the time) won Saltire Society Awards. Three of the towns earliest churches, St. Margaret's, St. Paul's and St. Columba's, are listed buildings. There are also historical stately homes; Balbirnie House, Leslie House and Balgeddie House. Balbirnie and Balgeddie Houses are now luxury hotels, and Leslie House is set to become luxury apartments. Collydean precinct hosts a ruin of a 17th century laird's house called Pitcairn House. Ancient stone circles can be seen at Balfarg and Balbirnie in the north east of the town. There is a variety of artworks and sculptures scattered throughout Glenrothes (around 132) ranging from giant flowers and hands, a dinosaur, toadstools, a horse & chariot, dancing children, a great wall of china and crocodiles to name but a few. Milton Keynes has its famous Concrete Cows, but before these Glenrothes had its Concrete Hippos. This combination of old and new, mixed in with high quality landscaping and scattered with unusual artworks helps add variety and gives a unique identity to Glenrothes.
[edit] Town Centre and Shopping
Glenrothes is home to one of the largest indoor shopping centres in Scotland (Fife Council, Oct 2006, Glenrothes Town Centre Profile). 'The Kingdom Centre' was started in 1964 and has evolved with the growth of the town. It is situated in the town centre and has been built in a number of phases. It forms a major part of the town centre and contains around 120 shops, most of which are well known high street retailers including Dunnes, New Look, Woolworths, Boots, Argos and Co-Op. There are plans in the near future to significantly expand the shopping centre with proposals for a large food-store and also a new department store.
The shopping centre also contains a variety of cafes, the Rothes Halls- the town's theatre and the Fraser Bowl- a ten pin bowling alley.
Town centre retailing and leisure has overspilled to sites at adjacent Queensway. This includes two foodstores, McDonald's, a Kwik Fit and a Bingo hall. An out of centre retail park has also been built at the Saltire Centre with large bulky goods retailers such as Homebase, Focus, MFI and Carpetwise.
[edit] Parks and Sports
Glenrothes has a number of well maintained parks at Riverside, Balbirnie, Warout, Gilvenbank and Stenton pond. The town also boasts very good sports facilities with 2 golf courses, a football stadium at Warout and a main sports complex at the Fife Institute (which is set to be enhanced in the near future).
[edit] Employment
Glenrothes is an important employment centre in Fife and provides the highest number of jobs (approx 36,000) of any single town in the district (see Glenrothes Economic Profile). Its Silicon Glen background continues to play an important role in its economy. A number of high profile industrial companies are located in Glenrothes largely specialised in electronics and engineering manufacturing. One company in particular, Semefab, is the UK's Primary Centre for the development of Micro Electric Mechanical Machines (MEMS) and Nano Technology. This is expected to contribute £53 million to the Scottish Economy. Other companies include Raytheon, CRC Group, Bosch Rexroth, Galgon, Compugraphics, Velux, Fife Fabrications, Cullen and Amazon.co.uk. The latter is the most recent company to locate in Glenrothes and take advantage of it as an employment base.
There are signs now however that the town's economy is beginning to diversify to service sector and other forms of employment in line with national trends. This is evident with new office developments at Viewfield and a mix of uses in Queensway and at Bankhead.
Glenrothes is the Administrative Centre for Fife containing the Local Authority's prominent headquarters building at North Street in the town's centre. A large number of other Council Departments are contained in a number of the town centre's office blocks. Fife Constabulary have also established their modern HQ at a site on Detroit Road in Viewfield.
[edit] Town Precincts and Surrounding Villages
Glenrothes is sub-divided into different areas or "residential precincts". Each precinct has its own styles of housing and most have their own local shops, primary schools and community halls. The precincts are;
Woodside, Alburne Park, Auchmuty, Rimbleton, South Parks, Macedonia, Tanshall, Caskieberran, Newcastle, Pitteuchar, Stenton, Pitcoudie, Cadham, Balfarg, Collydean, Balgeddie, Whinnyknowe, Leslie Parks, Forresters Lodge, Pitcairn, Coul, Finglassie, Balbirnie, Prestonhall, Formonthills and Bankhead.
The industrial and employment sites have also been named, these are;
Queensway, Warout, Viewfield, Whitehill, Southfield, Eastfield, Bankhead, Westwood Park, Pentland Park and Fife Airport.
Glenrothes also serves a wider area as both a service, employment and retail centre. There are a number of attractive villages surrounding the town each unique in their own respect. The surrounding villages are Markinch, Leslie, Thornton, Coaltown of Balgonie, Star of Markinch, Milton of Balgonie and Kinglassie. Slightly further afield are Falkland, Freuchie, Windygates, Kennoway, Muirhead, Auchmuirbridge and Scotlandwell.
[edit] Famous People
Famous People include the trumpeter John Wallace, the actor Dougray Scott and Henry McLeish, the former first minister who lived there, having been brought up in neighbouring Kennoway. Glenrothes town centre is home to the building involved in the notorious "Officegate" scandal, which led to McLeish's resignation in 2001.
[edit] Twin Town
Glenrothes' twin town is Böblingen in Germany. Glenrothes High School, founded 1966, has operated a school exchange with the Albert Einstein Gymnasium in Böblingen for several years.
[edit] Transport Links
[edit] Bus
A central bus station is located in Glenrothes Town Centre where Stagecoach operate regular services to adjacent towns and cities.
[edit] Train
Glenrothes-with-Thornton railway station (shortened to 'Glenrothes' on tickets) is located in the village of Thornton, between Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy. Markinch railway station is also quite close to Glenrothes, although most trains continue to stop at Kirkcaldy, requiring visitors to travel onward by bus.
[edit] Airports
Edinburgh Airport is the nearest major airport to Glenrothes. It is within an hours drive of the town and has regular flights to London, other UK destinations and beyond. Dundee Airport also to a lesser extent operates daily flights to London and is within 40 minutes drive of the town.
Glenrothes is also home to an airfield (ICAO code EGPJ) used by Tayside Aviation to train pilots. In 1998 it was voted the best airfield in the United Kingdom by 'Flyer' magazine. There is also a small restaurant on site.
[edit] Ferry
Within 20-25 minutes drive is a ferry terminal at Rosyth which has daily links to Zeebrugge, Belgium in mainland Europe.
[edit] Education
[edit] Primary
Glenrothes has 12 non-denominational primary schools. These are:
- Carlton Primary School
- Caskieberran Primary School
- Collydean Primary School
- Newcastle Primary School
- Pitcoudie Primary School
- Pitteuchar East Primary School
- Pitteuchar West Primary School
- Rimbleton Primary School
- South Parks Primary School
- Southwood Primary School
- Tanshall Primary School
- Warout Primary School
There is one denominational school in Glenrothes. This is:
- St. Pauls Primary School
The John Fergus School, adjacent to Warout Primary, serves children with learning difficulties.
[edit] Secondary
The town also has 3 non-denominational High Schools:
- Auchmuty High School
- Glenrothes High School
- Glenwood High School
The nearest denominational secondary school is St. Andrews High School in Kirkcaldy.
[edit] Further
Glenrothes also has its own college campus at Stenton Road adjacent to the Fife Institute. Formally Glenrothes College it has recently merged with Fife College in Kirkcaldy to become the Adam Smith College. This college has particular strengths in Media and the Creative Arts. This to be improved in the near future with a new campus to be built on the site of the existing one.
St. Andrews, Scotland's oldest university, is within 30 minutes drive of the town. Glenrothes is also within commuting distance of the universities at Dundee, Edinburgh and Stirling.
[edit] Religion
Glenrothes is home to a number of churches. The three earliest are now listed buildings. These are St. Margaret's Church in Woodside (Grade-C listed), St. Paul's RC Church in Auchmuty (Grade-B listed), and St. Columba's Church on Church Street (Grade-A listed) in the town centre. St. Paul's RC was designed by architects Gillespie, Kidd and Coia and has been described as "as the most significant piece of modern church architecture north of the English Channel"[citation needed].
Other churches in the town are;
- The Glenrothes Baptist Church, Town Centre
- St. Lukes Church, Auchmuty
- St. Ninians Church, Tanshall
- Christs Kirk, Pitteuchar
- Christs Kirk on the Hill, Pitcoudie/Cadham
- Collydean Baptist Church
- The Salvation Army, Caskieberran Road
The town also has places of worship for Jehovah's Witnesses and for Muslims.
[edit] Census 2001 Analysis
Scotland's Census 2001 showed that Glenrothes has a population of 38,679. The demographic make-up of the population is much in line with the rest of Scotland, with 30-44 year olds forming the largest portion of the population (23%). Despite the aging population in Scotland, Glenrothes has 2% fewer pensioners than the Scottish average. Detailed information about Glenrothes from the Census can be obtained from this Executive website.
[edit] External links
- Film- New Day, Glenrothes
- Scotland on Film new town archive
- Glenrothes on FifeDirect
- Glenrothes on Undiscovered Scotland
- Glenrothes Spoon - community site
- Kingdom Shopping Centre, Glenrothes
- Rothes Halls, Glenrothes
- Glenrothes Economic Profile
- Adopted Glenrothes Area Local Plan 2003
- Pictures of Glenrothes
