UKAEA housing, 26-28 Ravenshill Road. View from north west

Description UKAEA housing, 26-28 Ravenshill Road. View from north west

Date 28/3/2017

Collection Historic Environment Scotland

Catalogue Number DP 258478

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content This three-bedroomed ‘B-type’ house was built in 1960 as part of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority’s third phase of housing construction in Thurso. It is an example of a newly-introduced ‘all-electric’ house which was heated using electric heaters rather than traditional coal fireplaces. Because of this, it does not have chimneys. For the UKAEA, housing was allocated according to grade. This house would have originally been occupied by a Dounreay employee at or above executive officer or engineer level. It was believed that such staff required accommodation of high standard: this helped the UKAEA encourage employees to move to the far north of Scotland. With the exception of the timber housing built quickly at the beginning of the housing programme, this house shows the type of construction which the UKAEA settled on for the majority of its scheme. These semi-traditional houses, which incorporated a prefabricated timber frame, brickwork and exterior harling, were built by Alexander Hall & Son of Aberdeen. They consisted of A, B and C types, with A being the largest for higher grade staff. If a staff member was promoted or their family increased, they became eligible for a larger house. As an aside to nuclear development, the built environment of nuclear townships in Britain is overlooked in favour of its technical and scientific elements. Yet the consequences of the atomic programme extend beyond the technological: the social infrastructure behind the science was integral to the success of many nuclear ventures. This had its most significant impact following the 1954 decision to site the country’s first fast breeder reactor establishment at Dounreay in Caithness, the most northerly county of the British mainland. The arrival of the UKAEA brought nuclear science to a rural landscape with an agricultural skills base. The chosen site was located close to the town of Thurso, the population of which grew from 3000 to 9000 as a result of the UKAEA ‘importing’ skilled scientists and engineers into the county to work alongside local workers to ensure the safe running of the establishment. To accommodate this influx the town underwent an extensive period of planning, with 1007 houses built to house the new citizens who were termed ‘the atomics’. By the end of the building programme in May 1963, four recognised estates of UKAEA houses had been built in Thurso: Castlegreen, Ormlie, Pennyland and Mount Vernon. Accommodating this population stands as an example of quick, complex change, triggered by a technical experiment with enduring social consequences. The housing developments were managed by the Thurso architectural firm of Sinclair Macdonald & Son, whose archives are held by Historic Environment Scotland. The UKAEA built houses are now owned privately or by Pentland Housing Association.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1576190

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