In the archives: Livingston Skatepark (2)

One of the more popular posts on this blog has been about the skate park in Livingston, so I thought that I would simply post some pictures from back in the 1980s, when skating was new to Scotland, and clothing style was a little different too. All the pictures date from 1980 or 1981, except the ones with the kids at the end, which come from 1979 - before the park was built.

I love the pipe!

From the opening ceremony, 1982

Livingston Skate Kats, 1979. Taken at Craigsfarm Community Centre.

Housing Visitor Report for the Month Ending the 28th February, 1973.

Ladywell, Howden, Knighstridge

 By and large the tenants of Knightsridge feel they are ‘pioneering’ and have a feeling of being out of contact with the rest of the town.

The feeling is partly engendered by being in West Lothian and the children attending schools in eans, Bathgate and Broxburn. As a good number have taken tenancy over the dark winter period there does not seem to have been the usual neighbourliness. One charming little staff nurse is feeling particularly ostracised but implies this is because she is coloured. She would have been happier in Deans where she has friends. She occupies a ground flat and the neighbours upstairs upset her while she is studying, although they are not unduly noisy. She may settle in better in April when her sister comes to live with her.

At one point where there are OAPs facing on to a cul-de-sac there is some ill feeling about it. A) They do not have cars themselves but have them parked there – in one case the cars are parked almost against the gable wall. B) The cars are a disturbance C) People are tending to use the parking bay for repairing cars.

Untaxed cars are lying about in various places on the schemes.

The residents in Knightsridge would like the mobile library service extended to their area and this is apparently under consideration. Several tenants in Ladywell have expressed the concern that they think the Corporation has been niggardly by installing false drawers in the kitchen where there was room for proper drawers and also the area under the sink is open.

There are complaints also that the plants put in by the LDC at the front are too near the house and impede window cleaning.

A picture of the community space in Knightsridge, 1979

The 10,000th House in Livingston was opened in Deans in the 1970s



Deans Community High school under construction in the 1970s



Housing Visitor Report for the Month Ending the 28th February, 1973.

Craigshill and Deans

This month I had a four day absence from work and consequently visited 138 tenants, 49 of these being new to the town, the rest included in two surveys we are carrying out at present. The surveys brought me into contact with many people I might not otherwise have met until some distant future date and about 80% of these people had problems they wished to discuss – mostly relatively minor and easily dealt with, never-the-less this slowed down both the survey and the visiting of new tenants.

The foremost problem of the month came from Deans where tenants are awaiting with trepidation the arrival of their electricity bills. [A tenant] and friend from two doors away drew my attention to this, though others followed. In [the tenant’s ] case, the Electricity Board representative had called and explained that she would need to pay £14 per month to run her heating (electricity warm air system) which only heats the lower regions of the house. Upstairs she has one night storage heater and the Electricity Board Rep warned her that she was better not to use this as the monthly payment would have to be higher still. [The Tenant] is in a five apartment house, so far the seven apartments in the area have not come to my attention as they have not been let.  [Another tenant] has the same system with just one storage heater upstairs which certainly does not heat the whole upper floor, she tells me her bill is going to top £50 for 3 months (and the house has not really been warm) since she has read her meter weekly and then calculated the cost. She is a very worried woman, as are others I spoke to.

I am still in some doubt as to who is responsible for elderly people and disabled people’s gardens. When Councillor Duggan raised this matter at a recent Old Peoples’ Welfare Committee meeting he was told LDC would investigate, although when I raised the question Mr Leitch concerning a tenant on Melbourne Street, and his garden I was told that this was a matter for Mr Drummond who in turn told me the matter was a question for the property department of the LDC. Perhaps it would be possible to raise the questions – could disabled persons have their invalid carriages garaged at a cheaper rate? These small contraptions appear to be a target for petrol pilferers and hooligans looking for something ot damage and they are of course a necessity in the life of these crippled people.

A tenant on Brisbane street has at last succumbed to the efforts of Mr Leitch and myself and has ‘cleaned’ up her house. The house is still very iffused, full of condensation and dirty but in comparison to last we week we had to admit there had been some improvement. She also paid a further £10 off her rent arrears.

Arrangements have been made with Miss Sill for one of her visitors to call on a [named tenant] in the evenings to help ease her loneliness problems.

A tenant on Spruce Grove has been supplied with a wardrobe and dressing table since she was short of these two articles and has a big family, she is trying very hard to please us.

The most problematic case in Craigshill is that of XXXX. In six months she has only paid £21 rent and with legal fees now owes us £70. I have taken her into the Mall office to discuss the situation with Mr Leitch but her story is very incomprehensible. It appears her husband is... [away]  and hasn’t been sending her money. Throughout the six months that I have visited the girl I have not heard a really coherent version of what is going on and I rather think there is some dire marital difficult here. She has a baby, her house is very clean and well furnished. Mr Leitch and I are awaiting the outcome of our conversation with her which ended in her saying she would try to pay us £41 these weekend the 2^nd March 1973.

Throughout the past months I have been trying to forestall this situation by calling on her because I felt there was going to be a problem here, she does not appear to fully realise her financial predicament, or alternatively she is so worried by the circumstances that the financial problem is insignificant. I am worried about what is going to happen here.

There have been problems with newcomers in Craigshill this month, one a hysterical woman with shattered nerves – I called in the Doctor and she was given tranquilisers with good effect, I am calling regularly to see her meantime. The other problem was marital difficulties for [a named tenant]. This problem could be sorted out now after a long talk with her, she has our card and phone number in order to contact me should things not run smoothly.

Since the appearance in the evening papers of the names and addresses of the people responsible for letting their dogs run loose and the fact that they were fined, this has resulted in a few less dog roaming about the town. How long this improved situation will last is a mute point.  

Findings from Visits to New Arrivals, in response to letter from Washington Development Corporation, County Durham.

It has been found that there are three phases to the ‘settling-in’ process in the new town. While this is a general finding, the length of each ‘phase’ varies for each family.

Phase 1: Honeymoon period. During this time the family is so excited by its new home that everything seems perfect. It is difficult to point out the problems and drawbacks. This ends when all the furniture has arrived and been placed, the new carpets are fitted, husband is settled in work again, and children at school. It is common for the family to revisit Glasgow/Edinburgh etc. at weekends or for parents/in-laws to visit the family here, so that there is little opportunity to explore the possibilities of the town.

Phase II: this begins when there is no longer the flurry of finding the shops, the school, the doctor etc., and the worry of evaluating the decision to come here commences in the ligh to fits consequences. A feeling of isolation is common and doubts are very strong, homesick feelings being quite usual.

                Contributory factors:

1.       Wrong expectations. Ofter a family will expect some long standing family problem to be solved by this move, although they very rarely admit this, even to themselves. This can greatly increase anxiety at this time. There is also misinformation about the town itself and anger results when the truth is discovered (usually wrong ideas about employment situation, shops, buses)

2.       Bus services. The absence of rail services and the comparative infrequency of buses compared to the city makes it very difficult for people to travel to work and drop in on their old haunts. This causes great frustration, as families are made to feel completely dependent on the town right from the start without gradually ‘growing away’ from their previous home.

3.       Telephones. Corner telephones are very important to the new arrival for him to keep in contact, especially with elderly relative whom he may feel he has abandoned . This is accentuated by delays in installation of private lines (several months at times).

4.        Day nurseries. A young mother’s feeling of isolation can be increased to desperation if she cannot escape from her under-5s. While we have play groups in the town, these can only take a child for two sessions a week at most, and there are waiting lists, even for this facility. It is not enough for a mother coping with several under 5s.  There is no facility for under 3s. A young mother may miss extended family where grandmothers, aunts etc., could keep children while mum went shopping, to the hairdressers.

5.       Absence of commercial facilities which town dwellers expect. This includes shops, cinema, restaurant, Barrows, swimming pool. Although these facilities may never have been used by the family in the city, they miss the availability and the opportunity. Shops are really missed as a day at the shops cannot be spent here.

6.       Strangeness of layout. Whilst this is not important in itself, frustration is felt at not knowing the area and segregated pathways are initially confusing. Although street plans are given out with other town information, this is often put away during the first phase and not remembered when it is needed.

Phase III:             This is the time when the family will settle (or not), and depends largely on the effect of the above factors on the family, especially wrong expectations. Most families do settle perfectly well, and enjoy living here. If a visit can be made to the family during phase II (about 8 weeks after arrival) this can make an enormous difference to anxiety level.

Those who do not settle –

1.       Families coming ONLY for the sake of a house. Usual comment “If I could only take this ho use back with me to....”

2.       Families coming with a problem – unemployment, debt, truancy, marital problems. They expect too much, and cannot find their traditional forms of help in the area. Thier sense of failure can be increased in a new town as they feel they have no reason to fail. A visitor can greatly help this type of family.

3.       Older parents (40+), who have no family in the area.

Those who do settle:

1.       The vast majority of people, who are happy within their own family unit and appreciate the housing and environment which gives them an opportunity to be part of something new.

2.       Those with a special interest in some club or other, as they have plenty of scope here to develop this and the town is very glad of their help and interest. They can build up tremendous morale in their own family and in the town.

3.       Ex-service families, who are used to moving around a lot and settling quickly. They do not expect much in the way of facilities, and like the idea of a new town. They are often a bit older than the average young family.

4.       Pensioners. Our pensioners are exceptionally happy here, possibly because they have an extra last chance to have a good time. Their clubs and activities thrive, and there is also an outlet for those who wish to help the old.

5.       Families returned from Canada/Australia etc. For some reason these people settle very well, perhaps for the same reasons as ex-service people.

Janet & Joan.

 

Housing Visitor's Report For Month Ending The 31st December, 1972

Craigshill And Deans

During this month I made 137 visits, 65 of these being to new tenants and 27 of these were abortive visits but cards were left. A point is often is often made of leaving a card with a new tenant who is in when I call just in case a problem should arise and they feel they have someone to contact. People expressed pleasure at the advantages of their house were settling in well. No one so far would care for an open fireplace and seemed surprised that the question should arise. I noted that in 9 out of every 10 houses they had the imitation grates with electric fires irrespective of the type of central heating in the house. Each person, when asked why they had installed the imitation grate and electric fire, told me that they liked the glow from the imitation coals. This is their compromise in place of the open grate.

I found no discontent regarding the workings of the Social Security Dept., at Bathgate except in one instance and that was not the Social Security’s fault. The problem that arose was a family McGregor at 63 Fremantle Street, a young couple, who paid their rent and found they had left themselves with no money they had expected their Social Security payment that day and it had not arrived. I ran them into Bathgate to the Social Security and the payment had been made out but not posted, they were paid then and there without any further preamble. They said they had always got their money regularly and the fault was theirs that they were without money and food.

Once more complaints were made to me about the bus services, especially to Glasgow, people tend to feel very cut off from their “home” town especially the younger ones. The older influx tend to have their younger families here and consequently do not use the buses to Glasgow except for an infrequent visit to shop.

I have had one Jewish family named XXXX at XXXXX who had asked me to put them in contact with other Jews in Livingston, Mr is a purser and away for long periods of time and his wife is lonely. Unfortunately I have had no success in this direction, I contacted Mr. Orr but so far we have had no success in this direction, I contacted Mr. Orr but so far we have had no success in tracing other Jews in Livingston. I shall make a point of calling on Mrs to cheer her up.

This past month in Craigshill I have had one marital problem which, after some very careful handling, appears to have resolved itself, Loneliness has troubled several younger woman who have come here from Glasgow. I have made a point of several calls on them until they appear to have revised their ideas and then left a card so that they can contact me should they feel depressed.

Regarding Deans area, there seems to be some thawing out of people in this are now, since I have made repeated visits to Deans in the past month, either to visit new people or to investigate rent appears. It would appear to be a question of “getting known” as a part of the general scene and thence being accepted. I have had one or two family problems in this area, now running smoothly, and hope that the word will get around that we are here to help not to pry.

(this entry was slightly edited for data protection reasons)

In the Archives: Alternative Livingston Town Centres



Livingston was, largely, a town planned from scratch. There were a few villages, but there was nothing that you might call a town centre with shops, services, leisure facilities and the rest.  Clearly, quite a lot of what defines a town is this centre.  One of the more interesting challenges for those first town planners, who decided what Livingston was going to be like, was how to design a town centre that meant had character. It must have been quite an exciting challenge to design something so monumental from nothing. However, it was a challenge that soon ground on beyond endurance for most, the planning stages lasting over six years, and the shopping centre at the heart of the town centre not opening until 1977 – some 15 years after ideas were first put forward.

Early design concepts for Livingston town centre. c.1965.

 It was a task complicated by the designation of Livingston town centre as a regional centre – there had to be a massive shopping centre incorporated into any plans for the new town. Unsurprisingly this shopping centre, known today simply as The Centre, has come to dominate the town.

The evolution of plans for Livingston’s town centre can be traced in the archive. There are some quite interesting alternatives to the final scheme which I want to look at here. Today, Livingston’s town centre is found south of the River Almond in on a site that is contained in a rectangular grid of roads, just off the A889. It is quite a simple, utilitarian design that gets the job done.





Initial plans for the town centre were more ambitious. Plans to build the town centre on both sides of the River Almond were quite far advanced. The town centre was to be linked across the river by a series of bridges and was to include a number of river side squares and shops – there was also to be completely segregated pedestrian zones. This scheme was thwarted by the extra deep glacial silts surrounding the River Almond – these silts required deeper than average foundations, which made what was quite a nice sounding idea too expensive.  On a more fortunate note, the town centre was originally planned to incorporate high rise residential flats, these were dropped at a late date and there are no high rise dwellings at all in Livingston, having been developed a little after these fell out of architectural favour.

A second idea was to damn the River Almond to create two artificial lochs, which could be used at the heart of a park and to create space for boating and fishing etc. This was too expensive as well.



A plan from when artificial lochs were still envisaged (c.1966)



A final nail in the lid of any kind of imaginative town centre design came in 1971. The Livingston Development Corporation had wanted to fund the building of the town centre itself. This would have allowed the town to be built in phases across a number of sites over a number of years.  In 1971 the Scottish Development Department decided that the shopping mall had to be funded by a private company. This meant that the plans for various phases and sites had to be altered, to allow the private developer a single site for the new shopping mall. In the end, despite 6 years of planning,  the shopping centre project was sent out to tender in 1972. Ravenseft Properties won the bid with a plan that would create one of the largest indoor centres in the UK. The shopping centre was also to include Scotland's largest superstore. Almondvale Shopping Centre was opened in the autumn of 1977, with 320,000 sq ft of retail space available. This was subsequently known as Phase I.



 As early as 1979 plans were explored to expand the shop

A model of the 'regional centre' when its planning had become more concrete



ping centre in Almondvale Phase II, but difficulties in funding, and proposed rival 'mega' shopping centres in Bathgate and at Gyle in the suburbs of Edinburgh, delayed the expansion of the shopping centre until the 1990s. Ravenseft, renamed Land Securities, and owners of Phase I, agreed to fund Phase II developments by Amec and the Safeway group. Phase II was opened on the 17th August 1996 and contained three department stores and an additional 41 shop units. The Centre continued to develop after the dissolution of the Corporation. Phase III was completed in 2008. As of 2012 retail space at The Centre is now over 1 million sq ft and dominates Livingston's town centre.



Livingston town centre under construction, 1970s







Phase 1 of Livingston Regional Centre complete, c.1977







In the Archives: Advertising Livingston

Livingston new town was created with two main aims – the first was to build houses that could take people from Glasgow who were being displaced by slum clearances in the city. The second aim, and one which was increasingly important during the 1970s, was to develop in Livingston as an economic base for the Lothians. The idea was that there would need to be a drive to counteract the decline of the old heavy industries that employed so many in the area – especially mining.

Livingston was created with jobs as a focus then, and it was here that it was perhaps most successful.  In 1975 there were 7,930 people employed in Livingston, by 1995 this had risen to 25,694.

To encourage firms to locate in Livingston there were various beneficial rates available and to advertise the benefits of making it in Livingston there were various advertising campaigns.  The first, shortlived slogan was “Livingston: The Pacesetter”, but this was soon replaced by two or three slogans that were to last twenty years. These were “Make it in Livingston” , “Locate in Livingston” and, to a lesser extent, “Livingston: Europe’s Most Logical Location.” The Livingston Development Corporation at first used an advertising consultancy, Halls of Edinb

urgh, to lead its marketing campaigns, but as the expertise of staff grew, more and more functions were brought in house. The advertising campaigns used by  the Corporation were seen all over the world, from newspapers in the US and Japan, to the walls of the London Underground.

The increase of advertising knowledge at the Corporation was echoed by its technical and commercial staff who became experts at designing factories that could be used by the most demanding of technology companies. The burgeoning technology industry was an area of high growth, and brought with it changes in the job market and also to society more widely.  A skilled workforce and an appropriate environment for technology combined to make Livingston capital of Silicon Glen.  In the 1970s the Livingston Development Corporation developed Kirkton Campus, a technology park, at a time when many advanced technology companies from the USA and Japan were seeking an appropriate location for their European operations.  The LDC kept tight control on Kirkton Campus, keeping it as a place that only technologically demanding firms could locate – this made it one of the first high-technology parks in the UK.

This combination of facilities and successful advertising (and wining and dining) made Livingston quite successful in attracting international firms. The Japanese connection included NEC (Nippon Electric Company), one of Scotland’s seven semiconductor companies, as well as Shin-Etsu, the UK’s only producer of silicon wafers, the industry’s raw material.  The Japanese companies not only brought jobs and wealth to Livingston but added a touch of the exotic to the town.  Special efforts were made to make the overseas visitors feel at home such as arranging a Saturday school for Japanese children.  The new families introduced Livingston to Japanese cooking through the International Club at Craigs Farm and to their culture during festivals and special occasions. 

NEC made one of the largest ever investments by a Japanese company in Europe and became one of the town’s largest industrial employers.  Its closure in 2002 was a major blow to the local economy.

Women in Livingston in the 1970s

As it is International Women’s Day on Friday the 8^th March, I thought I would look at how women are portrayed in these Visitor Reports, and then take a wider look at women in Livingston in the 1970s.

One of the reasons I like these assistant housing visitor reports so much is due to the way they capture reflect the way out society has changed in the last forty years. This week, I thought I’d look at the changing role and perception of women. In previous entries women are mentioned in ways which, I hope, reflects how much things have changed since the 1970s, when the 1950s ideal of a housewife still held sway...

There were three comments that jumped out at me:

“It is now obvious that a percentage of women work either part time of full time and that it is not possible to make contact with them during working hours. Perhaps evening visiting might be considered in appropriate cases.”

This implies to me that the housing visitor is expecting to find a woman at home at every house at which she calls. As though it is a shock that they are out working... Then this is followed up by -

“It would appear that there is a shortage of jobs for the under twenties as well as part-time work for women and according to tenants, the Department of Employment & Productivity hold out very little hope of any immediate improvement.”

Which again implies how women really only work part time, definitely a sign of an age before it was considered women could have careers and a family. Finally comes this comment -

“Three homes were revisited because the assistant housing officer considered on her first visit that the women were unsettled and depressed.”



Were women in Livingston in the 1970s
restricted to being mothers and housewives?



Although probably an issue for all women across the country at home all day with the baby,  this last issue was particularly acute in Livingston because the population was made up of immigrants, people who had moved away from their friends and family to start a new life in Livingston. This meant that, for all the women not out working, they could not call on their parents friends. There, was, also, at the beginning, a lack of established groups and societies. The problem was such that Leslie Higgs, Livingston Development Corporation’s head of Housing and Social Relations for twenty years summed up the problem like this:

“It cannot be overstressed enough that probably one of the greatest problems facing community workers in new towns is the housewife with a baby to look after and who is then unable to take a job, or has to leave one, and is then alone all day.”

Given all that, I thought I would have a root around in the archive to see if I could find any other records which reflect how women were living their lives in Livingston in the 1970s. 

Firstly, some statistics for you. Livingston Development Corporation was great at collecting statistics as it had to plan services and future developments in the town around its population. An example of this is that when the town was first occupied, it had a very young age structure. As the town matured, so did its population and suddenly the town needed to provide such facilities as day centres for the elderly. Anyway, as a result of this planning there are plenty of statistics available on Livingston. Here are some stats from the Livingston Household survey in 1977 (which includes comparative information from the 1972 survey too) on employment:

In 1972, 34% of Livingston’s population was a “working population” – of that 34%, a third were women. So, assuming a total population  of 50% men and 50% women (and also assuming that I have got my maths right!), only 1 in 5 women in 1972 were looking for, or already in work. Another stat from 1972 – women made up 94% of part time workers, although that figure is still about 75% today across the UK, it shows how women were expected to look after the kids.

Another comment from the Household Survey comes in the recreation section. Whilst teenagers were apparently outdoors (an age before computer games...), and OAPs were gardening, “women were more likely to be home doing housework, knitting or reading.”

That’s in the evening, but what about during the day? Moving away from the Household Survey, there were a variety of groups set up in Livingston and a lot of them were aimed at women. Take, for example, the short course run by the Electrical Association for Women. The course was intended for “students of any age, many of whom may have no formal knowledge of science or electricity. It is intended that they handle as many appliances as possible and do practical work such as meter reading, rewiring a fuse, wiring a 13 amp plug. The information given, must, of course, but accurate but it should not be too technical otherwise the students will get bored.”

For some reason this group flopped the first time it was run in 1973.

Finally, to take us back to International Women’s Day I thought I would have a quick look at... “Women’s Fayre”, events held as part International Women’s Year (more information on which can be found in our collections in LDC/PS/3/3/37/7)

Livingston was one of five towns in Scotland to hold 2 days of events over the 21^st and 22^nd October. In Livingston the fayre was held at Howden House.  Over the two days 2000 people attended the event and it raised £173.57 which went towards the International Women’s Year African Water and Indian Literacy projects.

Again, reflecting slightly different attitudes at the time (and not just relating to women), notes for possible stalls at the event included:

“Police: recruitment effort Community Liaison information, attractive policewomen for help with stewarding etc?”

“Knitting Machine demonstrations and mannequin parade”

“Scottish Gas Board Demonstrations of economic cooking”

“Demonstration by Beautician from Bangour Hosptial...”

I  have been slightly cruel there, because there were plenty of stalls that are perhaps a bit more positive, the Department of Employment was there to talk about retraining, equal pay and equal opportunities for women for example, whilst Livingston’s Voluntary Organisation’s Council had a stall to try and channel people into voluntary groups in Livingston. Bangour hospital, as well as there to give beauty courses, were also appealing for new nurses, or trying to get old nurses to return to work.

In fact, 40 groups expressed willingness to be involved in the exhibition “to draw attention to women’s needs, publicise their potential role in society, and enlighten them of the prospects open to women who want to work voluntarily or for payment.”

So, although the Housing Visitor still expected to find the majority of women at home when she called at a house, times were a-changing. How much they have changed is, of course, open to debate.  

Craigsfarm in the Archives

This week I thought I would look at the records we hold relating to Craigsfarm, which is a community centre that has been integral to the development of Livingston’s community since 1967.



Craigsfarm was in a state of

dilapidation before renovations took place

 

The renovations used a lot of volunteer support



A little history – when construction began on Livingston in the 1960s, Craigshill was the first area of the town to be built. Livingston Development Corporation Policy at the time was to demolish older buildings that were in the way of their housing developments. Craigsfarm was scheduled for demolition once Craigshill had been completed, but a campaign in the then fledgling community of Livingston, led by Med Cruickshank, who was a church of Scotland Youth Worker, saved the building from demolition. The Church of Scotland agreed to take on a full repairing lease and to contribute to the costs of renovation, whilst the Corporation agreed to make the building water tight. The agreements changed over time, but for the next twenty years renovation work took place, turning Craigsfarm and its outbuildings in to a community centre.



By 1993 £250,000 had been spent on renovation costs by the LDC and the Manpower Services Commission, whilst Lothian Regional Council provided revenue grants to provide staffing costs. John Hoey was, for many years, the manager of the community centre.



Over the years Craigsfarm has hosted many initiatives for the betterment of the community around . These include a community laundrette, a nearly new shop, a catering service a rock school for teenagers, film and television workshops, all of which helped the long term unemployed or were aimed at disadvantaged kids. This is in addition to rooms in the building that were available to community groups and “Newsflash”, a newsletter aimed at local residents and run by volunteers.

We have a lot of records about Craigsfarm in the archives. The Reverend Dr Maitland was in Livingston from 1966, and he was there as the campaign to save Craigsfarm from demolition was launched; his papers include correspondence with the Church of Scotland when the building was bought and initially refurbished. It was a not straightforward process, with various building firms and chartered surveyors offering bleak views on the chances of success, one firm, from Glasgow wrote:

“These are very old buildings, and in our opinion near the end of their working life. We do not think they justify the expenditure on modernisation.... we would that say in our experience, the reconstruction and modernisation of structurally poor buildings is never satisfactory.”  (Letter is found in WL26/1/1/4/1)

The Church of Scotland Home Board also had its doubts. However, local campaigners persevered and the renovation went ahead.

Craigsfarm went on to be a lynchpin of Craigshill's community

There are many, many files, mainly technical (architects papers, engineering contracts etc) in the Livingston Development Corporation’s records about work done on the building of Craigsfarm showing how the building was redeveloped; there are also minutes of meetings of the Board of the Corporation which explain why they invested money into the community centre. The Corporation minutes, record, for example, that even after the Church of Scotland had taken on the lease, the Corporation was still suggesting that the building should be demolished:

“the general manager reported a meeting he had had recently with the Rev Hamish Smith, Appeals Secretary of the Craigshill Community Development Project... he [the General manager] had suggested that the building should be demolished and that the Corporation consider erecting in its place a building suitable for community purposes. The Board delayed consideration, pending hearing from the Project Committee.”  (Minutes of the Livingston Development Corporation Board, 178/d, 1967)

Newsflash kept the community informed
- through volunteer labour, for nearly 20 years

The main collection that we hold is, of course, that of Craigsfarm itself (WL20). I am currently cataloguing this collection and have got as far as a rough list, which means I don’t have any specific examples, but the papers of the collection include minutes of meetings from the Craigsfarm management committee, reports of the Annual General Meetings, copies of the newsletter Newsflash, financial information about funding from government bodies and the yearly accounts, copies of advertisements, information about the rock school, about the catering business, about the Craigshill Initiative (which aimed to help long termed unemployed with work) about the Community Forum which sprang up in 1996 to give a voice for residents in Livingston (especially against the proposed waste incinerator at St John’s hospital) – the archive captures a wide variety the activities of Craigsfarm over the decades, showing us how it was at the centre of the community of Craigshill. In a few hundred years when Livingston is no longer young but old, the Craigsfarm archive will remain an important resource for anyone looking at how the community in Livingston formed, about what the people of Livingston found important at the time; about what the everyday community cared about in day to day life and how they fought for it.

The New Town Blues

I am a bit pressed for time this week so I thought I would just write a short entry explaining the title – the New Town Blues. I was going to wait until it came up in the housing visitor reports but I’m going to have to jump the gun –

“I have been discussing the problems of loneliness with quite a number of tenants. This problem is known as the New Town Blues and is widely recognised.  Its avoidance lies in the development of a sense of community.”

This problem was oft commented upon at the time. New Town Blues came to represent hte isolation and loneliness people felt in this new town, cut off from friends and families, and, often even without a house telephone on which to ring home. The Livingston Development Corporation went to great lengths to combat the Blues (see the previous posts about the number of social groups that was started up in Livingston. The resulting community spirit is still felt today.)

Anyway, one specific attempt to combat loneliness at the time was the “Bureau for Lonely People” which was kind of like a dating agency but for those who only wanted friendship. Those who wanted to sign up gave their details and the Social Relations/Community Development Department kept an index on filing cards and matched up prospective friends. The Head of the Department, Leslie Higgs, was rather proud of his idea and it garnered nationwide press coverage, including appearing on the BBC. In the end, it matched up about thirty families. This bureau is also an example of the difficulties of using archives as evidence – you know it existed, but how do you prove it? After much scouring, in the end, I was only able to find a couple of brief mentions in our records, including these in the Corporations’ newspaper ‘Location Livingston’, in 1973: