Hansard

It is indeed a privilege to bring this debate to the Parliament. In doing so, I thank the large number of my fellow members of the Scottish Parliament who supported the motion. I pay tribute to the friends of Seafield house, some of whom are here tonight and whose acknowledged motivation and enthusiasm to secure Seafield house’s future were easy prompts for me to bring forward this debate. Although I will dwell on Seafield house in Ayr, I am confident that my colleagues who speak tonight will bring their passion and concerns and their understandable parochialism to demonstrate that, across Scotland, historic houses and buildings play a vital role in preserving our rich history and play an active part in our lives today. Indeed, our present and our future are rooted in our past.

Before I expand on that, I say that, in my personal lexicon, there is no such thing as a coincidence. Today, we debate in front of our Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, who I believe was raised in sight of Seafield house; today is the 100th anniversary of the death of Sir William Arrol, an iconic Scots engineer; and today we watch the progress of a new Forth bridge.

There are many bridges between Scotland’s past, present and future; between our icons of the past and their legacies and memories to be enjoyed today and in future. Burns and Scott and their poetry and literature, and Fleming and penicillin, are just a few examples. Tonight, I bring another to the chamber: Sir William Arrol, one of history’s greatest civil engineering contractors. I bring his legacies and I appeal for the secure future of his home, Seafield house in Ayr.

I like to think that William Arrol was, early last century, an archetypal Scot: driven, ambitious, and an unadulterated innovator and entrepreneur. Apparently, he was also a nice man. He was a Liberal unionist but you cannot be perfect in everything. The son of a poor family, at the age of nine he started work as a bobbin maker in a cotton mill in Johnstone. At 14, he became an apprentice blacksmith, rising to the level of foreman in Laidlaw’s boiler works in Glasgow. Still he pushed on. Having discovered his love of heavy engineering and bridge building, he created Dalmarnock iron works in 1887. One of his first challenges was building the Caledonian Railway Company bridge over the Clyde at Bothwell. The bridge was built on land and then rolled over the river—a new technique in bridge building, using new tools that Arrol had devised. The next bridge that he built was over the River Clyde at the Broomielaw.

I say this sadly as a Dundonian but, in 1879, the rail bridge over the River Tay collapsed, sending a train crashing into the river and killing 75 people. The event was immortalised in a poem by the great William McGonagall. Although Sir Thomas Bouch designed and built that fateful bridge, because of that event, Sir William Arrol took over responsibility for designing and building a new rail bridge over the Tay while he was working on plans for a new Forth rail bridge. Those iconic structures are still standing today, as is the famous London tower bridge, which he designed and built. To follow were bridges over the Nile, the Hawkesbury bridge in Australia and the Arrol gantry, the largest crane of its type at the time, which was constructed in Belfast to help the construction of three new super liners, one of which was the Titanic.

Not 2 miles from the cottage of our national bard, Robert Burns, lies Seafield house, the home of the aforementioned William Arrol, of whom the provost of Ayr said at his funeral, exactly 100 years ago today:

“Scotland has lost one of her most distinguished sons.”

Set in 50 acres of land running down to the seafront at Ayr, the grand lady that is Seafield house stands proud, with her magnificent Italianate tower appointed like a parasol. A grande dame, she was adorned by a magnificent library, a large and beautiful hall, a rich collection of art and so much more. Not only did she look good but she performed well, after Sir William’s death, as a hospital for wounded soldiers in the first world war.

In October 1921, she became, appropriately, a maternity and children’s hospital. Just as appropriately, from 1944 she served as a renowned paediatric hospital for 47 years before becoming the headquarters of Ayrshire and Arran NHS Board. Despite her beauty and service, she succumbed to fire in 2008. It is time to restore her to her former beauty and service.

Patrick Lorimer, the architectural adviser to the friends of Seafield house said:

“Not only is the building iconic in the light of its original owner it is also a critical and vital element within the historic landscape of this unique part of Ayr; it should and can be rescued.”

Andrew Arrol, one of the two patrons of the friends of Seafield house, said:

“In my view Seafield House can certainly be saved. It is very well built of good durable materials and potentially has many years of life ahead of it.”

I applaud the positive approach of the Ayrshire and Arran NHS Board, Historic Scotland and the council and the determination and positive approach of the friends of Seafield house towards saving and then rebuilding that iconic structure. That would, indeed, be a fitting tribute to our past and a world-renowned Scottish engineer. It would be a bridge to our future; so, too, would naming the new Forth crossing the Arrol bridge.

17:15