THREAT TO DEMOLISH HOUSE SPARKS PROTEST AND CALL FOR SCOTTISH NATIONAL ENGINEERING MUSEUM

Threat to demolish house sparks protest and call for Scottish national engineering museum

Published: 05:31PM Feb 8th, 2012
By: By Hugh Dougherty

A Strathclyde University academic has called for a Scottish national engineering museum to be set up to celebrate the country’s great engineers, many of whom had a worldwide impact when Britain was the workshop of the world.

Threat to demolish house sparks protest and call for Scottish national engineering museum

Derelict Seafield House is threatened with the bulldozers.

The call from Dr Nina Baker was sparked by news that the former home of Sir William Arrol, the Victorian engineer responsible for famous British engineering triumphs, such as the Forth and Tay railway bridges and London’s Tower Bridge, is to be demolished.

Dr Baker, who is a member of the Architectural Heritage Society for Scotland, said: “To allow the home of one of our best-known engineers to fall into a derelict state without making a serious effort to achieve a use for it is an outrage.”

Sir William had Seafield House in Ayr built for him in 1897 when he retired from leading his world-famous engineering firm and lived there until his death in 1913. The red sandstone house bears his initials ‘WA’, carved in stone above the door and stands in 50 acres of ground. It was donated to the Red Cross after his death and used as a hospital for First World War battlefield casualties, before being bought by the local health board and finally closing as a hospital in 1991. It was then used as the headquarters of the Ayrshire and Arran Health Board until 2005 and has lain unused since. The health board has now applied for planning permission to demolish the listed building. South Ayrshire council is to consider the application later this year and Historic Scotland will be asked for its views.

Dr Baker said: “The fact that so many have forgotten Seafield House’s eminent past is regrettable. It is also true that Scotland has no national museum of engineering which is lamentable for a country which gave the world developments such as Watt’s steam condenser and an engineer such as Sir William Arrol. The National Museum of Scotland does have a technology collection, but there is no national museum. It is tragic to propose demolishing Seafield House.”

Sir William Arrol was born in 1839, and apprenticed to a blacksmith in Paisley. He opened Dalmarnock Iron Works in 1871. The works became famous for playing its part in building Britain’s reputation as the workshop of the world, exporting its products across the empire. As well as icons such as the Tay, Firth and Tower Bridges, an Arrol Gantry was built at Harland & Wolff’s Belfast shipyard to allow the construction of ‘Titanic’ and her sister ships to take place. Arrol’s also built shipyard hammer head cranes and bridges round the world. Specialist bridges such as the Warrington Transporter Bridge are also Arrol products.

Dr Nina Baker is urging readers to write to South Ayrshire council to oppose the demolition of Sir William’s Seafield House. Full details of the planning report and how to respond are available at www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk