2019

NS4076 : Alderwood Care Home construction site

taken 4 years ago, near to Bellsmyre, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland

Alderwood Care Home construction site
Alderwood Care Home construction site
The view is over the boundary fence rather than from inside it. For views from the left and right, see, respectively, NS4076 : Alderwood Care Home construction site and NS4076 : Alderwood Care Home construction site. In the present picture, Townend Road is on the right. The nearer houses on the left are on Gooseholm Road, while those in the background are in Bellsmyre. The Long Crags (or Lang Craigs) which gave the care home its name are in the right background.
Langcraigs / Alderwood Care Home

The Dumbarton Combination Poorhouse once occupied this site; it was built here after an earlier location, a field beside Scapesland Cottage (NS40217587) that was then being used by Dumbarton Cricket Club, had been considered and rejected. The Poorhouse, which cost £7098, officially opened in 1865. The architect was J C Walker (James Campbell Walker) of Edinburgh; the building had a plain exterior, and it would be extended several times. There was a seven-foot-high boundary wall enclosing the grounds; there was also a lodge.

In the second volume of his "Book of Dumbartonshire", nineteenth-century local historian Joseph Irving writes that "in 1865, and principally through the exertions of Mr J. B. Risk, Chairman of the Dumbarton Board, a combination was formed of neighbouring parishes, and a poorhouse commenced on a pleasant healthy site at the outskirts of the burgh, near to Barloan toll-bar. It was designed to accommodate 134 paupers, male and female, and 40 lunatics. Including site, but exclusive of furniture, the first cost was about £7000, but since then various useful alterations have been carried out. The present governor is Mr. McLean, formerly of the county police force."

It became the Townend Hospital in 1932, and the Central Hospital in 1948. Under the new name of Strathclyde House, it became a care home for the elderly in 1965, by which time the grim high boundary wall had been removed, and the lodge had been demolished. As a residential home, it closed in 1977, but the building was used as a day-care hospital until 1983, after which it was demolished to make way for a new care home.

That new care home opened in 1985, and it was called Langcraigs Residential Home. It closed in 2018, and in 2019 it was demolished to make way for another care home, Alderwood Care Home, that would be built on the same site.

References:

• "J C Walker": see LinkExternal link at the Dictionary of Scottish Architects.
• "J B Risk": see NS4076 : The Risk Family Memorial and a further reference given there.
• "Scapesland Cottage": see a c.1860 map sheet — LinkExternal link — at NLS and LinkExternal link at Scotland's Places.
• "Barloan toll-bar": see NS4076 : Barloan Toll Roundabout.
• Joseph Irving, "Book of Dumbartonshire" (Volume 2, 1879), page 142.
• Mike Taylor, in a "Dumbarton Remembered" feature in the Lennox Herald issue of October 3rd 2003.
• Other cuttings in Dumbarton Public Library.


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Lairich Rig and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Geographical Context: Construction, Development Primary Subject: Construction Landmark: The Long Crags
This photo is linked from: Automatic Clusters: · Langcraigs Care Home Construction [7] · Townend Road [7] ·
1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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Grid Square
NS4076, 150 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Lairich Rig   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Sunday, 20 October, 2019   (more nearby)
Submitted
Thursday, 21 November, 2019
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NS 4031 7623 [10m precision]
WGS84: 55:57.1487N 4:33.5482W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NS 4027 7619
View Direction
Northeast (about 45 degrees)
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Image Type (about): geograph 
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