Rocks and Wheels Social + Historical Legacy

raw rocks and wheels social + historical legacy The purpose of this document is to brief the consultants appraising the feasibility of the proposed historical and social cultural thematic story for inclusion in the business plan for the Asset Transfer of Dalbeattie School and 7 acres of land from Dumfries and Galloway Council to Dalbeattie Community Initiative ownership. The aim of the document is to give a general thematic background and to illustrate the scope of the proposed cultural story study leading to a Business Plan. The document is to be read in conjunction with the Building Condition Report, Topographical and Measured Building Surveys, Architect’s design proposal, and other supplementary information appended. dalbeattie community initiative - september 2018 1 dalbeattie community initiative october 2018 social and historical cultural identity The landscape of the Galloway has been moulded and shaped over millions of years initiated by the gradual crumpling of the earth’s crust tectonic plates between what is now England pushing up the Lake District mountains and simultaneously forming Scotland’s Southern Uplands and the Solway flats between. Subsequent ice ages’ glacial ebbing and flowing revealed the hard granite hills of Criffel, Cairnsmore of Fleet and Merrick while the soft red sandstone pockets in Dumfries and Lochmaben gave the region its future building materials and subsequent character and identity to the built form of its disparate towns, e.g. making Dalbeattie’s granite streets and Dumfries’ red sandstone townscape feel quite different. The Southern Uplands are the southernmost and least populous of mainland Scotland's three major geographic areas. The term is used both to describe the geographical region and to collectively denote the various ranges of hills and mountains within this region. The scale and diversity of these Uplands creates a physical environment tricky to navigate except via its extensive coastline on the Solway Firth and on the rivers that flow south in the valleys between the ranges. The Southern Upland Way path traverses all these ranges. The Southern Upland Way is Scotland's first and only official coast- to-coast long-distance route, running across the country from the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea. From Portpatrick on the west coast the route runs to Cove and Cockburnspath on the east coast. The number of different accents found along the way is testament to the varied community identities not necessarily reflected by ad-hoc political or administrative boundaries but more by environmental domain and a specific place to belong. An overwhelmingly rural and mainly agricultural region, the Southern Uplands is partly forested and contains many areas of open moorland. Galloway Forest Park alone covers an area of 777Km2. dalbeattie community initiative october 2018 2 historical + social backdrop collective memory through buildings This is not meant to be an exhaustive historical account of the region where the usually wealthy and significant personalities are trotted out, after all this is usually people who were either in the right place at the right time and events happened to them rather than having any meaningful personal qualities worth discussing in a project about a community regeneration project. So, this is an interpretive appraisal to show why it matters to our project to learn from historical and cultural context and why it is important to weave this story in a meaningful and tangible way into our project. Historical facts can be found in Dalbeattie Matters website and academic research. This document is an account of how history may have affected ordinary people through community events and buildings in the past. dalbeattie community initiative october 2018 3 timeline 10000 BCE the first immigrants’ remains found in Wales have recently been scientifically shown to be black skinned with blue eyes however this is only stated as it shifted culturally conditioned perceptions of our ancestors and our common DNA. Local continuous habitation since 6000BCE is evidenced in the form of bronze and Iron Age community fortifications that can be found in the startlingly fluid stepped ramparts of Mote of Urr and the hidden Moyle in Dalbeattie Town Wood. These defensive places were usually near a water course and were capable of seeing off a siege by gathering food, livestock and the extended group behind a timber palisade in a common goal of survival. This would have promoted a sense of security and community; these structures were usually found on a strategic raised elevation, a symbol of longevity and certainty in a period of lawlessness. Other smaller sentinel forts are scattered like stumps along the coast with defensible inland loch crannogs (timber piled structures) much like the rest of the coast of Scotland during this period of exploration for which the sea provided the highways. dalbeattie community initiative october 2018 4 brochs Brochs are the most spectacular of a complex class of roundhouse buildings found throughout Atlantic Scotland. Think multi-storey, timber-framed crannog, then wrap in a dry- stone diaphragm wall of astonishing engineering conception. The origin of brochs is a subject of continuing research. Sixty years ago most archaeologists believed that brochs, usually regarded as the 'castles' of Iron Age chieftains, were built by immigrants who had been pushed northward after being displaced first by the intrusions of Belgic tribes into what is now southeast England at the end of the second century BC and later by the Roman invasion of southern Britain beginning in AD 43. Yet there is now little doubt that the hollow-walled broch tower was purely a unique creative invention particular to this Atlantic edge; even the kinds of pottery found inside them that most resembled south British styles were local hybrid forms. The precisely designed round form is redolent of modern cooling towers and was copied right up the Atlantic seaboard by presumably itinerant builders. The distribution of brochs is centred on northern Scotland. Caithness, Sutherland and the Northern Isles have the densest concentrations, but there are a great many examples in the west of Scotland and the Hebrides. Although mainly concentrated in the northern Highlands and the Islands, a few examples occur in separately in south-west Scotland. This small group of southern brochs has never been satisfactorily explained. dalbeattie community initiative october 2018 5 candida casa The sea also made it possible for an exchange of skills, materials, and ideas and in the 5C Ninian reputedly built his Candida Casa (glittering house) at Whithorn. A Roman Scholar he brought back ideas from mainland Europe with a mission, presumably, to bring enlightenment to the superstitious paganistic Gallovidians. The glittering house must have seemed magical indeed, drawing people like moths to a flame. The power of a simple building as a physical representation of ideas and meaning and a place of destination and pilgrimage is often underestimated. Of course, like the rest of sea-faring Europe, others were on the move with various motives and the areas complex genetic mix is a result of Celtic Cumbrians, Romans, Angles, Irish, Scandinavians, et all and equally influenced language and place- name calling. dalbeattie community initiative october 2018 6 monasteries Galloway was an autonomous territory from 1100 to 1300 and had a pivotal position in Irish Sea trade between England, Isle of Man, Ireland and Scotland during which time sophisticated land management ideas were introduced by the Cistercian Monastic way of life such as at New Abbey, Dundrennan, Glenluce, Kelso, and Melrose and this lasted until the late 1500’s when the Scottish Reformation caused the lands to fall to the crown and the monasteries fell into disuse. The ideological Cistercians were systematic in agricultural methods, improved the land, and made sustainable agricultural changes that had a huge effect on the population as it relied heavily on a local workforce, providing a stable environment with both self-sufficient and exportable goods. Dundrennan Abbey was constructed with robust grey sandstone and its form is noted for representing, in built form, the austere Cistercian ideal representing purity and restraint. These monasteries were relatively sophisticated groupings of buildings with dormitories (a place to sleep), hospitals (a place to heal), refectories (a place to eat), libraries (a place to learn), kitchen gardens (a place to cultivate) an abbey (a place of community congregation) usually arranged around an ordering circulation idea like a cloister. The group would be carefully situated near a watercourse and a water supply would be piped to through the locations for various uses. Technically these medieval buildings required skilled travelling immigrant European master craftsmen and masons who passed on skills and techniques to locals. They must have seemed truly fantastic creations to subsistence-living locals and be a tangible physical representation of community, well-being and hope. New Abbey and Balliol College, Oxford was founded by Dervorguilla, wife of John de Balliol, and mother of John (born in Buittle Castle near Dalbeattie ) who was to become King of Scotland in 1292. This demonstrates the power and influence this Gallovidian family apparently had in Europe and not least the wealth they had accumulated. They were not inward looking and had a respected and credible place in international affairs. dalbeattie community initiative october 2018 7 tower Houses History shows that the following War of Independence with England, in which Robert Bruce proved successful in Glen Trool, deep in what is now Galloway Forest Park, led to his cousin Edward Bruce becoming Lord of Galloway in the 14C. Robert never came back. Buildings represented power and community investment in modest Tower Houses such as Buittle, Comlongon, Threave and Cardoness and sophisticated castle design such as at Caerlaverock with its triangular plan flourished between 12C and 17C. These robustly-built stone structures symbolise a different world from the monasteries, one of perpetual conflict and fear due to constant power struggles.

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