Terraced housing and flats were predominantly developed with the fronts of houses designed to face onto public footpaths and open spaces. Car parking was kept either to the rear of properties or in parking bays located nearby in efforts to reduce the likelihood of road accidents occurring.
Housing precincts from the s onwards were largely developed by the private sector with the majority of this housing developed in low density suburban cul-de-sacs. Landscaping around the town included the blending of housing into the northern hillside through the use of structural planting and tree belts.
The Glenrothes area's geology is predominantly made up by glacial deposits with the subsoil largely consisting of boulder clay with a band of sand and gravel in the area to the north of the River Leven.
The river valley largely comprises alluvium deposits and there are also igneous intrusions of olivine dolerite throughout the area. Productive coal measures were largely recorded in the southern parts of Glenrothes, approximately south of the line of the B Kinglassie road. These coal measures form part of the East Fife coalfield and prior to the deposits there were to be worked by the Rothes Colliery, until it was found that there were severe issues with water penetration and subsequent flooding.
In the population in the Glenrothes designated area was approximately 1, people who were located in the hamlets of Woodside and Cadham and in the numerous farm steadings that were spread throughout the area. Population growth in the early phases of the town was described as being slow due to the dependence on the growth of work places at the Rothes Colliery.
In the town population was shown to have increased to 12, people rising to 28, by The town experienced its greatest levels of population growth between and with an average inward migration level of 1, persons per annum. In Glenrothes' population was estimated to have risen to 35, and at the time the GDC was disbanded in it was estimated that the town's population stood at just over 40, people. The census recorded a 1.
The total population in the wider Glenrothes area was estimated at 50, based on mid-year estimates from the National Records of Scotland. The number of households in Glenrothes in was recorded at 16,; The age groups from year olds The working age population of the town in was 29, as recorded by the census. The percentage of population economically active in Glenrothes was recorded at In Glenrothes was the first town in the UK to appoint a town artist.
This is now recognised as playing a significant role, both in a Scottish and in an international context, in helping to create the idea of art being a key factor in creating a sense of place. Both artists, supported by a number of assistants, created a large variety of artworks and sculptures that are scattered throughout the town.
Other artists have also contributed to the creation of the town's artworks. The town has won numerous awards locally and nationally for the quality of its landscaping; something that is promoted by the "Take a Pride in Glenrothes" TAPIG group. The Glenrothes Development Corporation devoted around one third of land in Glenrothes to the provision of open space.
The Lomond Hills Regional Park borders and enters the town to the north and east. The Rothes Halls complex is the town's main theatre, exhibition, conference and civic centre venue. The town's main library and a cafe also form part of the complex. When the new town of Glenrothes began construction, a number of small venues served the community for entertainment purposes.
However, despite frequent requests from the community, no plan for a larger-scale theatre or community hall made it past the planning stages. By the s, calls from the community and District Council for an entertainment venue increased. In , a working party was formed to investigate potential sites and designs for such a building; designs for a town centre complex were agreed upon, but financial constraints meant they were not followed through.
In , proposals were put forward for what would become Rothes Halls. Again, financial constraints delayed construction, but in the building was finally constructed, offering state-of-the-art facilities and some of the biggest, most flexible theatre spaces available in Fife.
Since then, Rothes Halls has played host to a vast range of local, national and international shows; popular music and entertainment acts, and amateur societies have all performed there. The heritage centre is run by local volunteers and operates from a shop unit in the Kingdom Shopping Centre. It focuses on the history of the Glenrothes area from a period between the early 19th century to the late 20th century. Glenrothes Hospital is a community hospital located in the Forresters Lodge area to the northwest of the town centre.
Opened in October the hospital has over 80 nursing staff and over 60 beds, as well as around 20 day hospital beds. Glenrothes Hospital provides a wide range of services including; speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy , dietetics , district nurses, health visitors, podiatry, hospital pharmacy and x-ray services. There is, however, no accident and emergency service within this hospital. A war memorial was constructed in Glenrothes in following the deaths of two local Black Watch soldiers in Iraq.
Prior to this Glenrothes was in the unusual position of not being able to host its own Remembrance Sunday commemorations. Unlike traditional memorials, the Glenrothes war memorial consists of two interlinking rings of standing stones. There are a number of social clubs and organisations operating within Glenrothes which contribute to the cultural and community offerings of the town.
These include an art club, various youth clubs, a floral art club, amateur theatre groups, a choral society and a variety of sports clubs.
Glenrothes hosts an annual gala which is held at Warout Park and has a variety of family activities including a dog show, highland dancing and a travelling funfair with stalls.
Summer and winter festivals were held in Riverside Park in The summer festival included sporting events along with arts and crafts, food stalls and fairground shows. The winter festival coincided with bonfire night celebrations and included the town's annual fireworks display which was previously held at Warout Park. Markinch and Thornton each host an annual Highland Games and the other surrounding villages host their own annual gala days and festivals.
The town has a large variety of established sports facilities including two hole golf courses Glenrothes and Balbirnie , a football stadium at Warout and a major sports complex, the Michael Woods Sports and Leisure Centre. The sports centre was recognised for its architectural quality in the Scottish Property Awards, coming second place in the Architectural Excellence Award for Public Buildings. The local football club is the Glenrothes F. Glenrothes also has a rugby club based at Carleton Park and a cricket club who play at Riverside Park.
The Road Running Festival in Glenrothes is the largest annual sporting event in the town with over people of all ages and levels of fitness taking part and has been held annually since As early as a local councillor had suggested that the town might "twin" with a town on the Continent.
Since then there have been a number of exchanges on official, club and personal levels. Famous people associated with the town include the actor Dougray Scott who grew up in Glenrothes and attended Auchmuty High School.
Douglas Mason, known as one of the engineers of the " Thatcher revolution" and the "father of the poll tax" set up home in Glenrothes in the s and spent most of his adult life living there.
Glenrothes town centre is home to the building involved in the notorious Officegate scandal, which ultimately led to McLeish's resignation as First Minister in The most prominent landmarks in Glenrothes are the River Leven Bridge, the Tullis Russell factory chimneys, Raeburn Heights; a residential tower block and Fife House; an office block, both of which sit at the western corners of the town centre.
The River Leven Bridge, which spans Riverside Park and carries the town's Western Distributor Road, is a cable-stayed bridge that was completed in The bridge was constructed by Balfour Beatty Construction Scotland and it was the first reinforced-concrete cable-stayed structure ever built in the UK. A number of Glenrothes' artworks and sculptures act as landmarks at major gateways into the town, such as the "Giant Irises" at Leslie Roundabout, and the Glenrothes "Gateway Totum" at Bankhead Roundabout.
The sculpture was the winner of the John Brown Clydebank award for the "Most Original and Amusing Artifact" and following the festival, it was re-erected at Leslie Roundabout. A number of other sculptures were relocated in to more visually prominent locations around the town creating new landmarks. Four pieces of Glenrothes artworks have been awarded listed status by Historic Scotland.
Historic Scotland has also produced a website, a video and an information brochure dedicated to the Glenrothes town art. Glenrothes is home to the remains of ancient stone circles which can be seen at Balbirnie and Balfarg in the northeast of the town. The Balfarg henge was constructed around 3,BC and contains the remnants of a stone circle which has been partly reconstructed.
The henge was excavated between and prior to the development of a new housing estate. The Balbirnie henge which is only located approximately m away from Balfarg was excavated between and In order to allow widening of the A92 the stones were moved a short distance to a new location at North Lodge and reconstructed as nearly as possible in the original way.
The stone circle has been carbon dated as being from the bronze age. The GDC map of shows a clear dualling of this stretch of the A This winding single lane section of the A92 has many speed restrictions and warning signs for those approaching the Cadham Road End junction, the Car Wash and the Tullis Russell roundabout.
It is known that land was purchased on the eastern side of this roadway from Balbirnie Golf Club for road development. See GDC Map. Currently this road leading to the north of Scotland is a single lane and winding road. Roads north, east and west of the Tay Bridge are all dual carriageway.
The Tay and Forth bridges should in this 21st century be linked by a modern roadway able to cope with all modern traffic situations and assist in a plethora of economic and social improvements to the people of Fife, the Edinburgh and Dundee conurbations and indeed to the whole of Scotland. Statistically, while the Red House roundabout is the worst area by far for accidents, there are hazards and recorded accidents at all junctions on the A92 north of here.
Safety has indeed improved since the Glenrothes area alterations, but not enough. Accidents continue, as does the perception of this stretch of the A92 as very dangerous. Bankhead, Prestonhall, Tulliss Russell and Balfarg experience recorded accidents of varying degrees. And not recorded are the unreported accidents, near accidents and the perceptions of this stretch of the trunk road.
From its inception, the road junctions around Glenrothes have been moderated by roundabouts I think they may be called circles in other jurisdictions rather than traffic lights. This was always fine with the locals, but not so much with visitors to the town, who, confused by the ubiquity of them and the generally excellent soft landscaping hiding anything approaching landmarks in a mostly low-rise environment, tended to get lost. To be fair this was probably compounded by a the delayed invention of satnav and b the fact it took someone about thirty years of town development to hit on the idea of naming the roundabouts.
This meant that even long-term inmates tended not to be able to give sensible directions to the lost out-of-towners, many of whom gave up on their quest to find anything anywhere in the town, moved into one of the reasonably-priced dwellings they had happened upon just beyond the nearest roundabout, and started intermarrying with the locals, thus helping the depth of the gene pool.
Come to think of it, maybe that was the plan. Anyhoo, back to the rhododendrons. They are, quite simply, fantastic, especially in late May, when these pictures were taken.
Or indeed none at all. Instead, they went for a plant that, for all its glossy green leaves year-roud, for maybe a month or slightly less erupts into a riotous, blowsy beauty that risks disorientating those explorers from Kirkcaldy even more. This is Rexy. He used to be on another roundabout in an estate, and the Council, without a full-blown consultation process, decided to move him. I know, right? Sometimes I really do wonder.
Year-round, Rexy tends to appear in a range of different outfits. Like the rhododendrons, he helps to. Beuatiful scent, which tbh is somewhat wasted on a roundabout, unless you get up close as I did.
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