Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

FALLS OF CLYDE, BONNINGTON POWER STATION WEIR AND BRIDGELB51728

Status: Designated

Documents

There are no additional online documents for this record.

Summary

Category
A
Date Added
03/03/2011
Local Authority
South Lanarkshire
Planning Authority
South Lanarkshire
Parish
Lanark
NGR
NS 85507 44025
Coordinates
285507, 644025

Description

Sir Edward MacColl with advice from Amenity Committee consisting of the Earl of Home, Sir John Stirling Maxwell of Pollok and Sir Robert Lorimer, architect; plans and specifications by Messrs Buchan & Partners, engineers; Sir William Arrol & Co. civil engineering contractors; the English Electric Co. hydro-electric plant; 1925 with some later alterations including repalcement gates. Flat-arched white rendered reinforced concrete bridge and tilting weir with some origional steel sluice gates by Ransomes & Rapier Ltd, Ipswich. Square section cutwaters with chamfered edges at water level. Three moveable riveted steel gates with cross bracing, set in a reinforced concrete frame. Spillway to E side of weir with trash screens. Original street lamps to roadway of bridge; gateposts and other ironwork by Ramage & Whitehead, Glasgow. Altertaions in the early 21st century included the addition of some new gates.

Statement of Special Interest

The weir is significant as part of the first large-scale hydro-electric scheme at the Falls of Clyde for public power supply in Britain. It is also, with associated pipes and tunnels, an impressive feat of engineering. The mechanism of the tilting steel gates was unique at the time it was constructed. The three gates could be lowered by pivoting on steel bearings in the lower section. A counterweight acting on the weir gates was set to resist the pressure of water when the river was at the optimum height but would allow the gates to move down if water level (and pressure) rose. The mechanism was designed to maintain water level to within six inches of this optimum. The spillway with its trash screens feed filtered water into 10ft diameter tunnels which link to overground pipes with a surge tank at the junction and ultimately to the turbines in the power house.

As the surroundings were recognised to be of exceptional natural beauty, attention was paid to sympathetic design of the scheme, here as well as nearby at Bonnington, where another, very similar power station was finished a year earlier.

The development of the Falls of Clyde Scheme predates the 1943 Hydroelectric (Scotland) Act which formalised the development of Hydroelectricity in Scotland and led to the founding of the North of Scotland Hydroelectric Board. Those developments which predated the 1943 act were developed by individual companies as a response to particular market and topographic conditions, in this case as a direct requirement for the production of aluminium. The completion of a number of schemes (including Galloway, Grampian and those associated with the British Aluminium Company) without a national strategic policy framework is highly unusual as is the consistency of high quality aesthetic and engineering design across all of the schemes.

Sir Edward McColl was one of the foremost hydroelectric engineers of the twentieth century. In addition to pioneering the use of run-of-the-river technology in Scotland at the Falls of Clyde scheme he went on to work for the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board. One of his most high profile schemes was the design and development of Britain's first pumped storage facility at Ben Cruachan in Argyll where the turbine house and transformer station are house in large subterranean caverns hewn out of the interior of the mountain.

(Listed 2011 as part of Hydro Electric Power Thematic Study)

References

Bibliography

Clyde Valley Electrical Power Co, Harnessing The Falls of Clyde (1926); Harnessing the Falls of Clyde: the Construction of the Hydro-Electric Scheme. 1924-7. Archive: the Quarterly Journal for British Industrial and Transport History, Issue 14 (1997), pp17-27. Peter McGowan Associates and John Renshaw Architects, The Falls of Clyde: Feasibility Study for the Conservation Works (2004). New Lanark World Heritage Site Management Plan 2003-2008 (2003). Roland Paxton and Jim Shipway: Civil Engineering Heritage: Scotland Lowlands & Borders (2007), pp228-229.

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

Images

There are no images available for this record, you may want to check Canmore for images relating to FALLS OF CLYDE, BONNINGTON POWER STATION WEIR AND BRIDGE

There are no images available for this record.

Search Canmore

Printed: 29/03/2024 08:03