stirling-1963-vol-1/05_019

Transcription

SIXTEENTH REPORT

We wish to record that the following past and present members of staff took part in
the preparation of the Stirlingshire Inventory; Mr. A. Graham, M.A., F.S.A., and Mr. K. A.
Steer, M.A., Ph.D., F.S.A., who also acted as Editors; the late Mr. G. P. H. Watson, M.B.E.,
F.R.I.B.A. (retired), R.S.W.; Messrs. C. S. T. Calder, A.R.I.A.S., R. W. Feachem, M.A.,
M.Sc., F.S.A., G. D. Hay, A.R.I.B.A., J. G. Dunbar, M.A., F.S.A., A. MacLaren, M.A.,
G. B. Quick, A.I.B.P., and I. G. Scott, D.A. (Edin); Miss H. McLaren and Miss A. E. H. Muir.
The outstanding feature of this Inventory is Your Majesty's Royal Castle of Stirling, and
we hope that our account of this great complex of buildings may serve to indicate its vanished
magnificence. To this end we have also prepared a book on the carved wooden medallions,
commonly known as the "Stirling Heads", which once formed the decoration of the ceiling
of the King's Presence Chamber, and have issued it in advance of the Inventory. Other
buildings in Stirling, as well as in the County at large, admirably illustrate the standards of
taste in domestic architecture in the 16th and 17th centuries. We have also found a great deal
of interesting material of the 18th and early 19th centuries, some of it associated with the
beginnings of industrial development, and we have taken full advantage of the discretion
accorded to us in His late Majesty's Royal Warrant of 1948 to give this adequate treatment. In
prehistoric monuments the County is not particularly rich, though the survey has disclosed
an interesting series of Early Iron Age structures which were either unrecorded or had been
lost to sight. The Roman remains, on the other hand, are both numerous and important,
including as they do a considerable stretch of the Antonine Wall, with its associated forts,
and we have been able to undertake some original, productive research in this field, in addition
to revising and amending earlier work.
We wish to take this opportunity of recording our gratification with the measures which
have recently been announced by the Ministry of Works for safeguarding the visible remains
of the Antonine Wall. At the same time we regard with the utmost concern the steady and
progressive destruction of other monuments of all classes, particularly in areas of urban
improvement or expansion, against which the existing safeguards seem to have little effect.
We record with great regret the death, which occurred in 1959, of Mr. G. P. H. Watson,
M.B.E., F.R.I.B.A. (retired), R.S.W. Mr. Watson first joined the Commission's staff in 1911,
was appointed full-time architect in 1914, being responsible for the architectural surveys from
then until his retirement in 1952, and was then appointed a Commissioner. We humbly thank
Your Majesty for the appointment of Mr. A. Graham, M.A., F.S.A., to fill the vacancy.
In 1957 Mr. K. A. Steer, M.A., Ph.D., F.S.A., was appointed Secretary, on the retirement
of Mr. A. Graham, M.A., F.S.A. Three new officers have recently joined our staff, Mr. G. B.
Quick, A.I.B.P., in 1957, Mr. I. G. Scott, D.A.(Edin), in 1959, and Mr. A.C.S. Dixon,
B.Arch., A.R.I.B.A., in 1961.

WEMYSS, Chairman
I. A. RICHMOND
STUART PIGGOTT
W. D. SIMPSON
IAN G. LINDSAY
W. CROFT DICKINSON
ANNIE I. DUNLOP
ANGUS GRAHAM
KENNETH A. STEER, Secretary

-- xxii

  Transcribers who have contributed to this page.

valrsl- Moderator, Brenda Pollock

  Location information for this page.