History of Schemes

History of Schemes

Scotland’s Forgotten, Rural Housing Schemes

In all the recent talk of the city as the main focus of church planting and theological thought (at least in many quarters) it seems that rural ministry is a bit like the ugly girl at a wedding. Everybody knows she’s there but nobody wants to dance with her. It’s not my intent to talk…

20 Schemes: ‘Gospel Churches For Scotland’s Poorest’ (1)

This week saw the launch of a new website: www.20schemes.com to go alongside our Facebook page and our twitter feed: @20schemes. So, what is 20schemes and how did it come about? 20schemes is the brainchild of myself and Matthew Spandler-Davison, a Scotsman (despite the mangled accent on our video)…

A Look Back In Time

I found this little clip of the social history of Niddrie and Craigmillar online. I have also discovered that the urban regeneration that has been going on here for the last 10 years is not the first time the government has tried to ‘clean up’ the area in the last 100 years. Indeed, Niddrie & Craigmillar have both received many facelifts over that time. It…

Where Do Housing Schemes Come From? A Brief History (2)

1945 & Onwards: ‘Social Housing’ Despite all the policy changes and some great progress in the inter war years, slum housing still remained a problem throughout the UK at the outbreak of WWII. There is a clip from the BBC archives here on some of the Scottish housing built in the…

Where Do Housing Schemes Come From? A Brief History (1)

This is the first in a number of posts on the topic of housing schemes. In most of the UK they are known as ‘Council Estates’, in the US they are regarded as the ‘Projects’ and in Scotland they are called ‘Schemes’. They are unique, if I can use that word, to ‘Westernised, industrial’ nations. They…