INTRODUCTION

Modernity came to the Borders in various guises: milk bars and tearooms, supermarkets, illuminated advertisements, pedestrian crossings and roundabouts. Architects and builders experimented with new forms of design and construction; new housing schemes, inspired by the innovative New Town designs, sprang up in Galashiels and Hawick. At Church Square, in Galashiels, a scheme designed by architect Peter Womersley for Galashiels Town Council was considered by the Saltire Society to be the best designed housing scheme in Scotland in 1963. Peter Womersley also won awards for his ‘brutal’ concrete design for the Gala Fairydean Football Club stand and for the Bernat Klein Studio, located at High Sunderland, near Selkirk.

The rate of development, as measured by the number of planning applications received across the four counties, fluctuated during the 1960s before increasing from about 1,000 per annum in 1967 to over 1,300 in 1974. The vast majority of applications related to residential development, principally rented housing by the various town councils, supported by the SSHA, and an increasing number of private housing developments. Applications for PFSs and related signage in town and country reflected the growing car usage for leisure, as well as travel to work. The ‘swinging sixties’ also brought with it such diverse proposals as discotheques and youth clubs, bingo halls and a plethora of chewing gum machines outside corner shops in Galashiels and Hawick. The number of applications refused was relatively low; for instance, in 1972, only 7 per cent of the 540 applications received by RCC were refused, reflecting the practice of seeking to achieve a compromise rather than a refusal.

There was a more positive attitude towards urban development with the establishment of technical working parties in Jedburgh, Melrose, Kelso, Hawick and Galashiels. However, most development proceeded by way of amendments to the increasingly out-dated county development plans. Through such formal amendments, land was allocated in all the main towns for both industry and housing in an effort to stem depopulation. Non-statutory plans were prepared for the redevelopment of town centres in Hawick, Jedburgh, Kelso, Melrose, Eyemouth and Duns.