Last week, without consent, Carsebridge House, Alloa, was demolished:
It had lain empty for many years with no sign of being saved, even though it was Category B listed by Historic Environment Scotland.
BETWEEN Thursday 29th and Friday 30th August 2024, Carsebridge House in Alloa was destroyed by fire.
By Valerie Forsyth
The house had been built around 1799 at the time the nearby Carsebridge Distillery opened, although may have been there before then.
Built in the classical style of locally sourced sandstone, with a symmetrical front elevation, it was situated in a field leased by John Francis Erskine, later 7th the Earl of Mar, to the north of the distillery and became home to its manager John Bald.
Although Bald never owned the property, he lived there until his death in 1844. His wife Janet Dick stayed on until her death in February 1863 at the age of 88.
Carsebridge House was occupied by members of the Bald or Bald-Harvey family until the 1930s, although it was briefly sold in 1890, and the house was occupied by the manager of the distillery until the middle of the 20th century.
To the west of the property was a large walled garden and a curiosity, the Napoleon Pillar which was presented to John Bald Harvey in the 19th century.
In 1899 Colonel Harvey, who was the proprietor at the time, caused some controversy when he built a wall to stop public access to a footpath that led from Jellyholm to Keilarsbrae behind his house.
In 1911, the stables were built to the east of the house and accessed by a short drive branching off the main drive.
By August 1961 Carsebridge House was up for sale following the death of James le Grand Harvey.
It was described as a small Georgian house with three floors, extensive stables and outbuildings, walled garden and policies amounting to 7 acres.
A field of 11 acres was also included in the sale. Goods from the house were put up for auction at the end of that month, and included a Sheraton card table, a Chippendale chest of drawers, a French mantel clock and Collard & Collard piano.
On the night of Friday 30th March 1962, an attempt was made to break into the house.
By the 2010s it was abandoned and had fallen into disrepair, with metal sheeting covering the windows.
Slates were missing, sarking was exposed, and a broken roof light allowed water penetration. Vegetation was growing at various points.
It was placed on the Buildings At Risk register in 2021.
Following the fire, its future is uncertain.
Firm offers to rebuild listed building it tore down unlawfully
Carsebridge House was damaged by fire in August before its owners demolished it a month later without council permission
Dominic Hauschild
Tuesday 8 October 2024, The Times
Carsebridge House had lain vacant for many years before a fire damaged it in August. Advance Construction, owned by Seamus Shields, then demolished.
A company owned by an Irish construction millionaire has pledged to rebuild a Georgian country house that it unlawfully demolished last month.
Carsebridge House in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, was torn down by Advance Construction (Scotland) three weeks after a fire devastated the property, which the police said was being treated as deliberate.
The company, which was founded by Seamus Shields and had a turnover of about £300 million last year, applied for consent to demolish the building after the blaze on August 29. Despite not receiving permission, Advance proceeded to bulldoze the category B listed property.
A spokesman for Advance Construction said it took action because of concerns over safety, and alleged that several fires since 1984 had already led to the floors collapsing.
“Following the fire, we commissioned an independent structural engineer’s report as a matter of urgency, and it was very clear that the building could not be saved and was an immediate health and safety risk,” he said.
“Our decision to undertake this was not taken lightly and was purely based on safety issues and a concern to remove any risk to human life. We were also aware that it may take some time to deliver the necessary consent from the council to demolish the building, which could heighten the risk.”
Advance Construction said it had made an offer to rebuild Carsebridge House, known locally as the Doll’s House, “in the footprint of the building in a similar style”. It said it would use the original façade stone and relocate an ancient Roman column to a location of the council’s choosing.
On September 18, a Clackmannanshire council official said that it had been “alerted” to activity at the site, where “on arrival a machine was present and had taken down the west gable wall of the building. Council officers immediately instructed Advance Construction to stop this unauthorised work. However, the company continued to demolish the building in its entirety over the course of the day.”
In 2020 Advance Construction had applied for planning permission to construct a mixed-use development on the site around Carsebridge House. The same year the company applied to Historic Environment Scotland to remove the building’s listed status, which was denied.
The demolition outraged locals who had been campaigning for its preservation. The council agreed to consider next steps, including a possible referral to the procurator fiscal, while an SNP councillor, Graham Lindsay, said those responsible “should be held fully to account”.
This week, Police Scotland said they had opened an investigation into the demolition of the building. They also said that inquiries were “ongoing into a wilful fire at Carsebridge House”, although there is no suggestion that it was started by Advance Construction or its employees.
Shields, originally from the Republic of Ireland, moved to London in 1983. He claimed to have had just £27 in his pocket at the time. Within a few decades he and his wife Daniella, also a director at Advance, were millionaires.
In 2020, the couple appeared on The Sunday Times Irish Rich List with a net worth of €173 million (£145 million), an increase of €81 million (£70 million) on the previous year.
The company has a hand in numerous construction projects across the UK. Last month it announced it would be expanding into Newcastle and Teesside. Four years ago, Advance applied for planning permission for a £100 million home and retail development on the former IBM site in Greenock, Renfrewshire.
The same year, the businessman felled a rare woodland without permission and in doing so allegedly damaged the ruins of the 18th-century Craigneith Castle in Calderwood, West Lothian.
Felling the woodland, which included birch and willow trees, could have incurred fines of up to £5,000 per tree and a criminal record if prosecuted, although Scottish Forestry issued the company only with a restocking order. Advance appealed the ruling, and the agency later dropped the case after a change in the law made it harder to pursue.
In 2011, £6 million of Advance’s assets were frozen after it illegally dumped thousands of tonnes of toxic waste from a demolished primary school in a former coal mine. The company claimed it was given permission to dump on the site by Jim Aitken, who it was later revealed did not own the mine and had previously been convicted of murder during an armed robbery in 1973.
Although Shields said he did not know the site did not belong to Aitken, and denied knowledge of his criminal past, a judge ordered him to pay the rightful owners around £20,000 in compensation. The assets were later unfrozen after Advance lodged papers at Hamilton sheriff court offering to pay to clear the waste at no cost.
Carsebridge House was constructed around 1799 as the home for the owners of a local whiskey distillery. Documents from Historic Environment Scotland describe it as having a “well-proportioned, classical style which retains much of its late-18th century architectural interest, detailing and historic character.”
The building and nearby distilleries were bought by the multinational beverages company Diageo in 1984, which sold the property to Advance in 2020.