In town planning, the theory behind the concept of the neighbourhood is that, so as to foster the life of a community, it is necessary to break down the totality of a town's population into groups which are small enough to acquire a sense of identification with a locality. What is important is that a town should be broken down for many purposes into a series of, as it were, inward-looking villages within the area of the town. Only for special purposes, - such as work or entertainment, should the inhabitants of a neighbourhood unit need to go outside their locality. It should have its own group of shops catering for the essential requirements of life, its social centre (the Neighbourhood Centre), its own secondary school and a number of tributary primary schools, its own clinic, banks and post office, and recreational space of its own.
The Neighbourhood Unit is the area of a community of people, small enough to acquire a sense of local identification, but large enough to support a secondary school. This requires at least 5000 people. The pattern of the neighbourhood is determined by convenience of access from home to school and community centre, and by the policy of making major traffic routes go round it and not through it. Many of the British post-war New Towns around London, such as Crawley New Town and Stevenage, were planned as a series of neighbourhood units. The major road system and belts of open space divided the neighbourhoods from one another. Certain areas were set aside for industry and open space. All the neighbourhoods converged upon the town centre, which contained more elaborate facilities than the neighbourhood centres. The only objections to the neighbourhood principle, as it was applied in the New Towns of the 1950's, were that they took up so much space that they were costly to live in, and that people were so wedded to separate family living that any sense of community was difficult to build up. It was possible to speak of 'new town blues', the sense of isolation which arises when the bright lights of the town centre are so distant that the effort involved in travelling centrewards is too great, and people therefore prefer to sit at home in front of their television sets.
A later stage in the evolution of the neighbourhood principle has been the attempt to provide an environment for social groups rather than for single families. This was a reaction against the individualism which had tended to run riot. The appropriate type of building for the social group was though to be the tall slab-block of family flats. This was economical of space and building costs, since the slab-block is the shape that gives the greatest floor space in relation to space for circulation or movement. There was thought to be every likelihood of building up the spirit of group-living when the flats were let to families who hitherto had lived in the congested streets of obsolete houses which this new housing was designed to replace. There was, it was felt, a sense of security engendered by being surrounded by already familiar faces, and a degree of kinship from having shared the same experiences before coming to live in the slab-block, however encasing people in concrete boxes is unnatural and causes all sorts of mental disturbances which has led to these tower blocks becoming very unpopular, indeed they are now considered one of the great architectural blunders of all time, fostering crime, deprivation and isolation rather than kinship.
Billy Bremner was a Scottish association football player. He was born in 1942 at Stirling and died in 1997. Billy Bremner started his professional football career with Leeds United, having been rejected by both Arsenal and Chelsea because of his small stature. At Leeds United FC Billy Bremner made 771 appaearances between 1959 and 1976 before leaving to play for Hull City in 1976, leaving them for Doncaster Rovers in 1978 and retiring from playing in 1982 to become a manager. During his career Billy Bremner was captain of Leeds United FC and also captained in Scotland in 54 internationals. Less honourably he was infamously sent off for fighting with Kevin Keegan in the 1974 CharityShieldfootball match at Wembley. Research Billy Bremner
Douglas is a family distinguished in the annals of Scotland. Their origin is unknown. They were already territorial magnates at the time when Bruce and Baliol were competitors for the crown. As their estates lay on the borders they early became guardians of the kingdom against the encroachments of the English, and acquired in this way power, habits, and experience which frequently made them formidable to the crown.
We notice in chronological succession the most distinguished members of the family. James Douglas son of the William Douglas who had been a companion of Wallace, and is commonly known as the Good Sir James, early joined Bruce, and was one of his chief supporters throughout his career, and one of the most distinguished leaders at the battle of Bannockburn. He fell in battle with the Moors while on his way to the Holy Land with the heart of his master, in 1331.
Archibald Douglas, youngest brother of Sir James Douglas, succeeded to the regency of Scotland in the infancy of David. He was defeated and killed at Halidon Hill by Edward III. in 1333.
William Douglas, son of Archibald Douglas, was created first earl in 1357. He recovered Douglasdale from the English, and was frequently engaged in wars with them. He fought at the battle of Poitiers. He died in 1384.
James Douglas, the second earl, who, like his ancestors, was constantly engaged in border warfare, was killed at the battle of Otterburn in 1388. After his death the earldom passed to an illegitimate son of the Good Sir James Douglas, Archibald the GrimLord of Galloway.
Archibald Douglas, son of Archibald the Grim and fourth earl, was the Douglas who was defeated and taken prisoner by Percy (Hotspur) at Homildon the 14th of September, 1402. He was also taken prisoner at Shrewsbury on the 23rd of July 1403, and did not recover his liberty until 1407. He was killed at the battle of Verneuil, in Normandy, in 1427. Charles VII. created him Duke of Touraine, which title descended to his successors.
William Douglas, sixth earl, was born in 1422, together with his only brother David was assassinated by Crichton and Livingstone at a banquet to which he had been invited in the name of the king, in EdinburghCastle, on the 24th of November, 1440. Jealousy of the great power which the Douglases had acquired from their possessions in Scotland and France was the cause of this deed.
William Douglas, the eighth earl, a descendant of the third earl, restored the power of the Douglases by a marriage with his cousin, heiress of another branch of the family; was appointed lord-lieutenant of the kingdom, and defeated the English at Sark. Latterly having entered into a treasonous league, he was invited by James II to Stirling and there murdered by the king's own hand, on the 22nd of February 1452.
James Douglas, the ninth and last earl, brother of William Douglas, took up arms with his allies to avenge the death of his brother, but was finally driven to England, where he continued an exile for nearly thirty years. Having entered Scotland on a raid in 1484 he was taken prisoner and confined in the abbey of Lindores, where he died in 1488. His estates, which had been forfeited in 1455, were bestowed on the fourth Earl of Angus, the 'Red Douglas,' the representative of a younger branch of the Douglas family, which continued long after to flourish.
The fifth Earl of Angus, Archibald Douglas, was the celebrated ' Bell-the-Cat,' one of whose sons was Gawin Douglas the poet. He died in a monastery in 1514.
Archibald, the sixth earl, married Queen Margaret, widow of James IV, attained the dignity of regent of the kingdom, and after various vicissitudes of fortune, having at one time been attainted and forced to flee from the kingdom, died about 1560. He left no son, and the title of Earl of Angus passed to his nephew David.
James Douglas, brother of David Douglas, married the heiress of the Earl of Morton, which title he received on the death of his father-in-law.
His nephew, Archibald, eighth Earl of Angus and Earl of Morton, died childless, and the earldom of Angus then passed to Sir William Douglas of Glenbervie, his cousin, whose son William was raised to the rank of Marquis of Douglas.
Archibald, the great-grandson of William, was raised in 1703 to the dignity of Duke of Douglas, but died unmarried in 1761, when the ducal title became extinct, and the marquisate passed to the Duke of Hamilton, the descendant of a younger son of the first marquis. The line of Angus or the Red Douglas is now represented by the houses of Hamilton and Home, who both claim the title of Earl of Angus. Research Douglas
The Earl of Stirling (William Alexander) was a Scottish poet and statesman. He was born in 1567 at Menstrie, near Stirling and died in 1640. Educated at Glasgow and Leiden he became tutor to Archibald the 7th earl of Argyll and afterwards to the young king James, whom he accompanied to England in 1603. In 1621 he was rewarded with the grant of Nova Scotia and a vast hinterland and in 1631 he received the monopoly for printing the new version of the Psalms. From 1626 onwards he was secretary of state for Scotland, and on the coronation of Charles I was made Earl of Stirling. Research Earl of Stirling
Ebenezer Erskine was the founder of the SecessionChurch in Scotland. He was born in 1680 and died in 1756. He studied at Edinburgh, and was ordained minister of Portmoak, in Fife, in 1703, in which situation he continued for twenty-eight years, when he removed to Stirling. His attitude towards patronage and other abuses in the church led to his being deposed, when, in conjunction with his brother and others he founded the Secession Church. He was the author of several volumes of sermons. Research Ebenezer Erskine
Edward I was King of England from 1272 to 1307. He was born in 1239 at Winchester and died in 1307. Edward I was the son of Henry III and an able administrator and law-maker. He re-established royal power, investigating many of the abuses resulting from weak royal government and issuing new laws. Edward was an effective soldier, gaining experience from going on crusade to Syria before he became king. In 1277 Edward I invaded Wales where Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, prince of Wales, had built up considerable power. In a series of campaigns Edward I gained control of Wales, building strong castles to secure his conquests. Llewelyn was subdued before his death, by the 1277 treaty of Conway. In 1284, the Statute of Wales brought Wales under Edward I's rule. In 1301, he created his eldest surviving son, Edward, the first English Prince of Wales. Wanting to unite the country behind him and to raise money for his campaigns in Wales and Scotland and another war in France, in 1295 Edward called what became known as the 'Model Parliament'. To this meeting he summoned the aristocracy, bishops and abbots, and the knights of the shires, burgesses from the towns and the junior clergy.
Sir George Harvey was a Scottish painter. He was born in 1806 at St Ninians, near Stirling and died in 1876. At the age of eighteen he entered the Trustees' Academy, Edinburgh. In 1826 he became an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy, and in 1829 an Academician. He was highly successful in depicting scenes connected with the religious history of Scotland, such as The Covenanters Preaching, The Battle of Drumclog, Quitting the Manse, etc. He also excelled in depicting mountain scenery. In 1864 he was elected president of the Royal Scottish Academy, and he was knighted in 1867. Research George Harvey
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was a Scottish liberal politician and Prime Minister of Great Britain. He was born in 1836 and died in 1908. The son of Sir James Campbell of Stracathro, a Glasgowmerchant who received the honour of knighthood, and younger brother of James Campbell, long Conservative member of parliament for Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities: Bannerman was the name of his maternal uncle. Sir Henry represented the Stirling burghs as a member of the Liberal party from 1868. He was financial secretary at the war office, secretary to the admiralty, chief secretary for Ireland from 1884 to 1885), secretary for war twice (in 1886 and from 1892 to 1895), on the latter occasion being first under Mr. Gladstone and then under Lord Rosebery. He was made GCB in 1895, and from 1899 onward was leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons, a position in which he contended with peculiar difficulties with a very fair measure of success. On the resignation of the Unionist government early in December 1905, he was called upon to form a new government, a task which he successfully accomplished; and the immense majority which the general election of January-February 1906 secured him seemed to prove that the country as a whole was in favour of the new ministry, without having received very definite pledges regarding legislative measures that were to be introduced by it. He held the position of Prime Minister until 1908. Research Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Henry Drummond was a Scottish divine and traveller. He was born in 1851 at Stirling and died in 1897. Educated at the universities of Edinburgh and Tubingen, he entered the ministry of the Free Church, and having devoted much attention to science, in 1877 he was appointed lecturer on natural science in the Free Church College (ordivinity hall), Glasgow, becoming professor in 1884.
He travelled much, and wrote a popular book on Tropical Africa (1888). His most remarkable work is Natural Law in the Spiritual World (1883), which has passed through many editions and been translated into various languages. He is author also of Travel Sketches in Our New Protectorate; The Greatest Thing in the World.; The Ascent of Man (1894), etc. Research Henry Drummond
James Donaldson was a Scottish scholar. He was born in 1831, at Aberdeen and died after 1906. He was educated at Aberdeen and also at Manchester New College, London, and Berlin University. After being rector of Stirling High School, a classical master and rector of Edinburgh High School, he was appointed in 1881 to the Chair of Humanity (Latin) in Aberdeen University. In 1886 he became principal of the United College of St. Salvator and St. Leonard in St. Andrew's University, and in 1890 principal of the university. He published a Modern Greek Grammar for the
use of Classical Students (1853); Lyra Graeca: Specimens of Greek Lyric Poets, with Introduction and Notes (1854); History of Christian Literature and Doctrine from the Death of the Apostles to the Nicene Council (1861-1866); The Ante-Nicene Christian Library (24 volumes 1867-1872, edited jointly with Professor A. Roberts); The Apostolical Fathers (1874); Lectures on the History of Education in Prussia and England (1874); The Westminster Confession of Faith (1905); and other works, besides articles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Research James Donaldson
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Neighbourhood Unit
