Glenrothes - History

History

Glenrothes was designated in 1948 under the New Towns (Scotland) Act 1946 as Scotland's second post-war new town. The name Rothes comes from the association with the north-east Scotland Earl of Rothes, family name Leslie. The Leslie family historically owned much of the land upon which Glenrothes has been built. Glen (from the Scottish Gaelic word 'gleann' meaning valley) was added to prevent confusion with Rothes in Moray and location of the town within the Leven valley.

Prior to the development of Glenrothes the main industries in the area were papermaking, coal mining and farming. Unlike Cumbernauld, East Kilbride or Livingston 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 part by mining families moving from the declining West of Scotland coalfield areas. The original town plan was to build a new settlement for a population of 32,000 to 35,000 people. The land which Glenrothes now occupies was largely agricultural and once contained a number of small rural communities and the hamlets of Cadham and Woodside which were established to house workers at the local paper mills. 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 as possible locations, but finally an area of 5,320 acres (2,153 ha) between all of these villages was zoned for the new town's development. Much of the historical Aytoun, Balfour, Balgonie and Rothes estates were incorporated into Glenrothes' assigned area along with the historical country houses Balbirnie House, Balgeddie House and Leslie House. The different areas (precincts) of Glenrothes have been named after the hamlets already established (e.g. Cadham, Woodside), the farms which once occupied the land (e.g. Caskieberran, Collydean, Rimbleton) or historical country houses in the area (e.g. Balbirnie, Balgeddie, Leslie Parks).

The planning, development, management and promotion of Glenrothes was the responsibility of the Glenrothes Development Corporation (GDC), a quango appointed by the Secretary of State for Scotland. The corporation board consisted of eight members including a chairman and deputy chairman. The first meeting of the GDC was in Auchmuty House, provided by Tullis Russell on 20 June 1949. The first town masterplan sub-divided the town's designated area into self-contained residential precincts with their own primary schools, local shops and community facilities. Separating industry as far as possible from housing areas in planned industrial estates was a key element of the plan. This was a step change from the unplanned, congested and polluted industrial towns and cities of the previous centuries where cramped unsanitary housing and dirty industries were built in close proximity to one another. The vision for Glenrothes was to provide a clean, healthy and safe environment for the town's residents.

The primary reason for the designation of Glenrothes was to house mining families who would supply the labour for a newly established coal mine. In 1944 the Scottish Coalfield Authority condemned the segregation of miners in mining villages and emerging paradigms sought to encourage miners to be housed away from collieries and to integrate with a mixed community where members of their family would also be able to find suitable employment. An additional benefit to this form of social engineering was communities would be less vulnerable to depressions in the coal industry. This was largely driven by a national energy strategy developed by the Government following the Second World War and was further developed in a report produced in 1946 by Sir Frank Mears to the Central and South-East Scotland Planning Committee which made the case for a new town in the Leslie-Markinch area to support growth in the coal mining industry in Fife. The new mine which would became known as the Rothes Colliery was built on land to the west of Thornton, an established village, south of Glenrothes. The mine which was officially opened by The Queen in 1957 was promoted as being a key driver in the economic regeneration of central Fife. However, un-stemmable flooding and geological problems in the area had a significant impact on the mine and resulted in its closure in 1965. Ironically, miners who had worked in older deep pits in the area had fore-warned against the development of the Rothes Pit for this very reason.

The coal mine's closure almost resulted in further development of Glenrothes being stopped. However shortly following the closure Central Government decided to change the town's role by appointing Glenrothes as one of the economic focal points for Central Scotland as part of a National Plan for economic growth and development. The Glenrothes Development Corporation were successful in attracting a plethora of modern electronics factories to the town as a consequence. The first big overseas electronic investor was Beckmans Instruments in 1959 followed by Hughes Industries in the early 1960s. A number of other important companies followed establishing Glenrothes as a major hub in Scotland's Silicon Glen. During the middle of the 1970s, the town also became the headquarters of Fife Regional Council; effectively the county town of Fife, taking over the role from Cupar.

Major industrial estates were developed to the south of Glenrothes, largely due to the proximity to the proposed East Fife Regional Road (A92) which was developed in 1989 giving dual carriageway access to the main central Scotland road network. The Silicon Glen era peaked in the 1990s with Canon developing their first UK manufacturing plant at Westwood Park in Glenrothes in 1992. ADC Telecommunications, a major American electronics company, established a base at Bankhead in early 2000 with the promise of a substantial number of jobs. By 2004 both companies had closed their Glenrothes operations with the promised jobs growth never materialising to any substantial level. The electronics industrial sector in Glenrothes was dependant upon an inward investment strategy that led to almost 43% of employment in foreign-owned plants which were susceptible to changes in global economic markets. Around the start of the 21st century, a decline in major electronics manufacturing in Scotland has had a serious impact on the town's economy.

The GDC left a lasting legacy on the town by overseeing the development of 15,378 houses, 5,174,125 square feet (480,692 m2) of industrial floorspace, 735,476 square feet (68,328 m2) of office floorspace and 576,977 square feet (53,603 m2) of shopping floorspace. Since the demise of the GDC Glenrothes continues to serve as Fife's principal administrative centre and serves a wide area as a service, employment and retail centre. Glenrothes gained national publicity in 2009 by winning the Carbuncle Award following an unofficial contest operated by Urban Realm and Carnyx Group which was set up to criticise the quality of built environments in Scotland. Glenrothes was awarded the category of the most dismal place in Scotland for its "depressed and investment starved town centre". This generated mixed views from locals and built environment professions alike. Contrary to this the town has also won awards for the "Best Kept Large Town" and the most "Clean, sustainable and beautiful community" in Scotland in the Beautiful Scotland competition and was the winner in the "large town" category in the 2011 Royal Horticultural Society Britain in Bloom competition achieving a Gold award in the UK finals.