IN SEARCH OF THE "TRADITIONAL VILLAGE"
Carnbo
In a lecture to the Kinross-shire Civic Trust entitled "The Villages
of Perth and Kinross",
Trust Chairman Dr David Munro explored a wide variety of settlements
in search of villages
that could be described as truly Scottish and distinctively local in
character. It was
clear, he suggested, that our notion of what villages should look like
has been coloured by
an English stereotype of olde world rose-clad cottages looking out
onto a village green.
It is precisely this type of "English" village that we see at Fortingall,
Kenmore, Forteviot,
Spitalfield, Pitcairngreen and Meikleour. Each was built by a landowner
for a specific
purpose during the past 200 years and each was laid down to an orderly
plan that reflected
the landowner's desire to create a picturesque setting. Between 1720
and 1850 over 150
such planned villages appeared throughout Scotland adding a new dimension
to the existing
landscape. But were there any villages in Scotland before then?
Pitcairngreen, four miles north-west of Perth, was created in the 18th
century by Lord
Lynedoch to house textile mill workers. Built around a village green
it has the typical
appearance of a English village.
Until the 18th century, the trading monopoly of the royal burghs and
later the burghs of
barony prevented market villages springing up at the centre of every
parish as they did in
England. But apart from individual farms dotted throughout the early
rural landscape of
Scotland what did exist was a pattern of agricultural fermtouns comprising
clusters of
houses thrown down as if at random in a shape largely determined by
the lie of the land.
Most often without church, pub, shop or market green, this type of
settlement has survived
to the present day although the buildings themselves may not appear
that old. It was only
in the early 18th century that stone replaced turf and thus allowed
domestic housing to
remain part of the landscape much longer.
Wester Balgedie (as it was in 1807) is a typical fermtoun nucleated
settlement that has
evolved over many centuries.
Many of these traditional fermtoun settlements survive to the present
day in
Perth & Kinross but surprisingly few are protected by designation
as Conservation Areas.
Out of 28 Conservation Areas listed in Perth and Kinross District only
four are of this type
Does this mean that the old pre-18th century Scottish settlement is
of little architectural
or historic interest?
Kinnesswood (as it was in 1915) is another old fermtoun village
whose shape has been
distorted by its proximity to what was once a main road from Kinghorn
to Perth.
In Kinross-shire, all but two of the pre-20th century villages have
evolved from early
agricultural fermtoun settlements. Blairingone is essential a planned
single row late
18th century mining and weaving village, while Maryburgh, built earlier
in the same century,
is the embryo of a estate village that never developed to the full
extent of its plan.
Apart from Blairadam, few landowners in Kinross-shire attempted to
build the kind of
estate or industrial village so often seen in Perthshire or north-east
Scotland.
In the County of Kinross the agricultural Revolution was a long drawn
out process that
left most villages relatively unchanged.
Blackford. Destroyed in 1716 by retreating Jacobites, it was rebuilt
as an orderly
double-rowed planned village.
If we are to maintain the truly distinctive character of our Kinross-shire
rural landscape
at least ten other traditional fermtoun settlements (outwith Kinross,
Milnathort and Crook of Devon)
should be considered with a view to extending the protection of both
individual buildings
and whole areas. Scotlandwell, Kinnesswood, Easter Balgedie, Wester
Balgedie, Dalqueich,
Carnbo, Cleish, Duncreivie, Drum and Keltybridge each have their own
special charm and
historical associations that make the settlement worth exploring. Their
buildings, lay out
and surrounding field patterns all provide a lesson in local social
history that reveals
the way in which man has changed and continues to change the rural
landscape.
THE KINROSS-SHIRE CIVIC TRUST
Fact Sheet No. 4 May 1992 |
