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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Group Conference in Stirling on 3 Oct

18/9/2015

I have been a member of this Group for 'longer than I care to remember'. This year, for the first time in a long time, the AGM and Conference are in Stirling. The theme is 'building materials' and I will be speaking on the building materials of early-modern Stirling.
It's to be held in Cowane's Hospital (beside the kirk). I gather that there are still a few places left so, though the formal period is past, you might still be able to book. Find all the details and the booking form here.

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Broad Street, Stirling

9/8/2015

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Today, I opened volume 38 of Vernacular Building, the annual journal of the Scottish Vernacular Building Group. The first thing to catch my eye was a familiar drawing on the front cover of houses which used to stand on Stirling's Broad Street, till demolished in the 1920s.

On opening the volume I found an interesting article by John R Hume entitled 'Houses in Broad Street, Stirling' pp. 99-115.

The article is a 'must read' for anyone interested in the Scots urban vernacular and particularly, of course, for myself, who have written about parts of this row of houses in the past (indeed, John cites one of my papers).

Most of these houses, sad to say,were demolished in the 1920s, though some facades etc remain further up the street.

John says;
"Even in its altered state, the north side of Broad Street is one of the finest ensembles of burgh buildings in Scotland and the photographs suggest that before the 1924 demolitions it could claim to be the very finest, both in terms of the quality and interest of the individual buildings and of the ensemble as a whole."

This is not a judgement I am likely to dispute!

I wish I could be confident that such destruction was safely in the past. But, with the demolition of Forthside House just a few years ago and the creation of intrusive 'hard standing' on a green field right below Stirling Castle, such confidence would be misplaced!

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Forth Naturalist and Historian - new online material

5/8/2015

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The Forth Naturalist and Historian has been publishing important information about the history, wildlife and archaeology of the Stirling area since 1976.
A few years ago, many of the old volumes were scanned and put online for free, in word-searchable format.
Now, thanks to generous grants from The Mercers' Company and The Marc Fitch Fund, the balance (except for the last few volumes) have also been launched.
At the same time, two larger and more general volumes have been published;
The Stirling Region (edited by Timms) (1976) and
Central Scotland, Land, Wildlife, People (edited Corbett and Dix)
You can now download all this material from the FNH website

http://www.fnh.stir.ac.uk/journal/back_issues/index.php

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The mythical Battle of Airthrey

28/9/2014

Over the years, I have tried to reply to hundreds of enquiries, from professionals and others, about a range of Scots historical topics. Sometimes I am stopped in the street, sometimes people write or email or phone. I try to be helpful and clear and most people appreciate that. But a few, a very few ...

My reply to a telephone enquiry about the Battle of Airthrey was more or less as is set out here, though without the references, of course. To my surprise I now hear, via another enquiry, that I am credited with supporting the idea that such a battle took place. That is far from the truth.

The Battle of Airthrey is a myth. There is no reason to believe that such a battle took place. And, even if there was a battle between the Picts and the Scots around the year 840 AD, it was not the decisive event which gave rise to modern Scotland.

You can read some of the evidence here and get further detail via the references. The story could be amplified - but more evidence will not make the battle more real.

Note that this story is about myth-making, not about 9th century Scotland!

Vernacular Buildings - a new publication

26/8/2014

It was whilst working on the landscapes of the Battle of Bannockburn that I discovered a document, in the National Records of Scotland, which described the buildings of the Bannockburn estate in the early eighteenth century.

The document was compiled following the forfeiture of Sir Hugh Paterson of Bannockburn for his involvement in the 1715 Jacobite rising. As such, it is one of many surveys of forfeited estates at the time - but seems to be the only one which has such a detailed description.

Most (though not all) of the buildings are described as being built of stone and mud, most were thatched with straw and in some cases further structural details are given.

It was immediately obvious that, with around 100 buildings described, it was an important document, joining earlier hints of the importance of clay build in the Stirling area.

My paper on this topic has just appeared as 'Clay and the Buildings of the Bannockburn Estate in 1716' Vernacular Building, volume 37, 73-86. I have also included a brief outline of the economic developments of the immediate area at the time of the survey, including the development of new markets and fairs and the existence of coal, lime and stone workings; these are crucial parts of the context of the buildings themselves.

It is particularly gratifying to see it appear in a volume commemorating the work of the late Sandy Fenton, whose work on vernacular buildings in general (and clay build in particular) was so important.

Stirling's Early-Modern Gardens

17/11/2013

Saturday 16th Nov was the annual Forth Naturalist and Historian Conference. This year, with the focus on wildlife, it drew the biggest audience for several years. But the focus was also on change, particularly over the last 40 years or so, since the journal Forth Naturalist and Historian, began to appear. And, in that sense, all the papers were historical. I found it fascinating to see detailed examples of how human activities impact in such different ways on a wide variety of taxa and species.

The event also saw the launch of Volume 36 of Forth Naturalist and Historian which includes a paper I have intended to write for years on Stirling's early-modern gardeners and their gardens.

It starts by discussing what gardens (very valuable assets in the 17th and 18th centuries) can reveal about the development of the town plan. But most of the paper is devoted to the produce - fruit and vegetables, salads, herbs and such important incidentals as honey and wax from bees; and there were also flowers so that, though most gardens were utilitarian, there was also an element of delight.

Perhaps surprisingly, many of the best-documented gardens were commercial enterprises run by 'market gardeners' who probably managed several gardens at the same time.

Of course, the journal includes many other papers, including Digney and Jones on the recent survey work at the King's Knot. the history of botanical discoveries at Ben Lawers and an interesting item on prehistoric pottery found in the King's Park earlier this year; there are also some intriguing looking wildlife papers.

It usually takes a week or two for copies of the journal (£10) to be distributed to the University bookshop and the Smith Museum. For details see the website; http://www.fnh.stir.ac.uk/journal/index.php

Gravestone of John Simpson, gardener, one of those discussed in the paper.

New tenements paper published

11/11/2013

It's always (well, almost always) a relief to finally see a long-term project come to fruition in print. And this week it was a real pleasure to get the final version of my latest paper.
'Houses in Early Modern Stirling: Some Documentary Evidence', published Review of Scottish Culture, volume 25 (2013) p. 42-59, really is the fruit if 'years of work'.
It is astonishing how much detail about the structure and internal arrangements of early modern tenements and town houses survives in the archives. It was when I was asked to speak at the English Vernacular Architecture Group some years ago, that I realised how little systematic information was in print. So I decided to do some extra work to supplement my old notes. And this paper is the outcome.

There are few surviving upstanding examples of 16th to early 18th century tenements, archaeology has often been destroyed and is not really applicable above ground level and photographs of facades tell is little about the internal spaces, where the people actually lived. That is why the information from the archives is so helpful. And I hope that this paper will be a useful supplement to earlier work. To some extent, indeed, it gets us off the ground and behind the facades, looking at the real spaces that real people occupied (halls, chambers, kitchens, lofts, wardrobes, vaults and all).

Vernacular Buildings - Conference

17/9/2013

The Annual Conference and AGM of the Scottish Vernacular Buildings Group will be held at the premises of the Royal Commission in Edinburgh on 3rd October. You can find further details here where you can also download the booking form.

I have been a member of this group for 'longer than I care to recall'. And will be giving a talk about Archives and the Vanished Vernacular.

It's obvious that most buildings from the past have vanished beyond any physical recall - even archaeological remains have been obliterated. There may be no documentation for those which do survive.

But documents which relate to some types of buildings and to some geographical areas can be found, in surprising abundance. My talk will concentrate on a survey of the buildings of the Bannockburn estate in 1716 and on the evolution of tenement buildings between the late 16th and early 18th centuries.

By taking two such contrasting themes (one rural and one urban) I hope to show that documents can give broad, general insights which even the best-preserved buildings cannot do.

If you are interested in Scotland's older building traditions, then this is a group for you.

King's Park, Stirling's Overlooked Jewel - Report

1/9/2013

I had grave fears about this day - particularly that we would end up with an audience of one or- at the other extreme - that we would be turning angry people away at the door. 'But I've traveled 40 miles to be here... '.

Perhaps such worries were inevitable given the impracticality of taking bookings and the uncertain relationship between enquiries and actual turnout on the day - and at least two people who said they would be there, were not recognisable amongst the audience!

Anyway, an audience which had reached 65 when we kicked off and gained a few more - albeit a few filtered away at lunch time as expected - was a very respectable crowd. And a pretty varied one, too, with locals and visitors, academics and postgrads and an age range which must have approached 60 years. I tried to chat to as many as possible but did not manage all of you.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it - there were even pleas for another next year. Quite a lot stayed on for the walks round the immediate landscape -for which the threatened rain did not materialise though it wasn't far away. The presentations were very well received - and, to my relief, the technology worked apart from the failure of the remote mouse part way through the final talk (Sorry about that, Douglas, but I did press the buttons on the laptop very beautifully, I thought).

Perhaps there will be some sort of 'publication' - format as yet uncertain. Watch this space! And feel my unmitigated relief that it worked and is over and done with so life can return to its usual hectic whirl.

King's Park; Stirling's Overlooked Jewel

30/7/2013

This important conference will he held in the Smith Art Gallery and Museum on Saturday 31st August. Get an outline flyer here or full details here; this is a FREE EVENT but you need to make your own arrangements for lunch.

It is an honour to be speaking at this conference, the first attempt at an overview of the history of the park and its changing role. It is held at a critical time, when the future ownership and management of these major landscapes is under discussion.

The local importance of these landscapes is obvious; for leisure, for tourism, for views, for wildlife. Culturally, they are important at a European level, rare survivors of the royal past.

So, whatever your interests, come along, listen and contribute.

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John G Harrison is a historian, working on a wide range of topics related to Scottish history, from architecture to wildlife. Take a scroll through the site to find out more. And feel free to contact John or to comment via the blog.

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