Ayr Central Conservation Area Character Appraisal - South Ayrshire ...

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Part One Ayr Central Conservation Area Character Appraisal Street Pattern The earliest development of streets in Ayr is not known with any certainty. A plausible outline was proposed by William A Dodd in his 1972 essay ‘Ayr: a Study in Urban Development’. Dodd suggested that development of the pre-burghal settlement began with Sandgate, then the Doongate, as a broad and gated street axially aligned with the ford across the River Ayr (at the site of the current New Brig), and almost parallel to the sand dunes along the coast. The street sloped gently towards the river, but terminated a safe distance from the flood level. Buildings lined the street with vennels providing access to outbuildings and the long narrow rigs behind. Blown sand is known to have been a significant problem in the mediaeval period. The alignment parallel to the shore, with backlands in between, was presumably planned to provide a civic space protected from the wind and sand. In spite of this, the northern end of the street was eventually narrowed to prevent sand blown from this direction into the street. The early church, located adjacent to the surviving St John’s Tower, was some distance to the west, between the town and the dunes. The burgh was founded formally by William the Lion in 1205 in support of his new castle of 1197. Dodd speculated that the grant of a royal charter was the spur to creation of the upper end of the High Street where it joins the northern end of the Sandgate. The rig pattern suggests that it was planned to curve around the existing Sandgate rigs in the sheltered eastern area constrained by the river (possibly following an existing route to Galloway and Dumfries). The layout of Sandgate appears to have changed little in the following centuries, during which development activity was concentrated on the High Street. By 1230, when the Blackfriars acquired peripheral lands behind the east side of the High Street, development is thought to have reached the modern-day Carrick and Mill Streets. 250 years later, the High Street had extended southwards to the point where it now divides into Kyle and Alloway Streets. By the late 16th century development activity had returned to the Sandgate, which was extended southwards and a new tolbooth built. Following the Reformation in 1559 the Blackfriars’ lands were developed on the east side of Mill Street. All this early development followed a similar pattern of buildings constructed hard against the sides of the street with long narrow rigs stretching behind at right angles to the street. The town is shown at a similar extent in 1654 when Hans Ewald Tessin marked the street plan on his plan of the new citadel fortifications. It was not until the second half of the 18th century that new streets were planned and constructed. Newmarket Street was built in 1767, linking the Sandgate with the High Street. Its distinctive bend in the middle is the result of following the pattern of the mediaeval rigs. Other ancient routes, such as Harbour Street and Fort Street along the back of the Sandgate rigs, were formalised into streets. A small part of Robert Adam’s grand town plan was realised by Alexander Stevens in the creation of New Bridge Street and the New Brig in 1786–87. However, the rational largescale planning and building of streets and squares came relatively late to Ayr in the early 1800s on ‘greenfield’ sites beside the ancient routes to the south and west of the historic core. These streets were built over a number of years by different developers on variouslyowned land, leading to the creation of a loose grid-pattern, rather than the formal geometric arrangements of Glasgow and Edinburgh or even the small scheme at Wallacetown. A formal plan was prepared for the citadel in 1799, but by the time building began in the 1860s the prevailing fashion was for a more informal mixture of terraces and crescents. The new streets remained within the old boundaries of the Citadel, and what remained of the walls was incorporated into property boundaries. The Esplanade and sea-wall were built from the 1880s. The last major street to be constructed in the historic core was Boswell Park in 1907–08, built on the lands of the old Sandgate House and the Carrick Oval cycle track. 24
Ayr Central Conservation Area Character Appraisal Part One Buildings & Townscape: Archaeological Resources This product includes mapping data licensed from Ordnance Survey with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Crown copyright and/or database right 2008. All rights reserved. Licence number 100020765. KEY Noted sites 1. Laigh Tolbooth (site) 2. Over Tolbooth (site) 3. Hospital (site) 4. Newton Tolbooth Tower 5. Wallace Tower 6. Loudoun Hall 7. Lady Cathcart’s House 8. Ayr Castle (site) 9. Newton Castle (site) 10. St John’s Tower 11. Blackfriars (site) 12. Auld Kirk/Greyfriars 13. Newton Parish Church Please see Appendix A for further details of these sites. Excavated archaeological sites • A. Garden Street Excavation B. Kyle Street Excavation C. 167–169 High Street Excavation Cromwellian Citadel Upstanding outer wall Scheduled sections Former extent of outer wall Conservation Area Historic core (West of Scotland Archaeology Service action zone) 25
Page 1 and 2: South Ayrshire Council October 2008
Page 4 and 5: CONTENTS SUMMARY...................
Page 6 and 7: SUMMARY This document is organised
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Part Two Ayr Central Conservation A
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Bibliography Ayr Central Conservati
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Appendix A Ayr Central Conservation
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Appendix B Ayr Central Conservation
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Appendix C Ayr Central Conservation
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Appendix D Ayr Central Conservation
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Appendix D 5. Citadel North Bastion
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Appendix D Significance: Of local h
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Appendix E Ayr Central Conservation
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Appendix F Ayr Central Conservation
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Appendix G Ayr Central Conservation
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Appendix H Ayr Central Conservation
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Department of Development, Safety &
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