Originally a new home for pitmen

Proposed as Scotland’s first New Town in the late 1940s, Glenrothes was to house miners for the Rothes Colliery superpit, on the outskirts of Thornton.

However, while the population steadily grew throughout the 1950s, the future of the town was soon jeopardised by problems underground with the colliery prone to severe flooding.

Developed at a cost of £12 million, it was expected to produce 5,000 tonnes of coal a day for more than a century. However, after opening in 1957, it would close just five years later with only the upper levels able to be worked.

In response, the Glenrothes Development Corporation (GDC), which oversaw the planning of the New Town, diversified the local economy by focusing on the burgeoning electronics industry.

House building continued at speed while its town centre, dominated by the Kingdom Shopping Centre, maintains the unusual quirk of being largely situated indoors.

Glenrothes also became home to Fife Council, which took control of the town when the GDC was wound up in 1995.

Today, Glenrothes is home to 40,000 people with several new housing developments ensuring its growth into the future.

Glenrothes shopping centre in 1963.