WITHIN THE next few weeks bulldozers will move in to demolish an Edwardian building of stately appearance and classical grandeur. Down will come the great balustraded portico, the polished marble pillars, the keystoned pediments, the sandstone lodge with its double-leaf gates. With it will go a piece of industrial history, for this was one of the great Borders woollen mills, at the centre of a trade which sent exports around the Empire. Later, it became the Scottish College of Textiles, training generations of apprentices.

The college stands in the heart of Galashiels, once the capital of tweed manufacturing, whose famous motto was: “We dye to live and live to die.” This is not a town that is over-blessed with great architecture. You might think, therefore, that it would want to hang on to such an important part of its heritage.

You would reckon, however, without the insatiable appetite of Tesco, which has been negotiating to build a town-centre store in Galashiels which will, it hopes, establish a commercial hold on the whole of the Borders area. With other stores, such as Asda, hard on its heels, Tesco is in a hurry. It applied to demolish the building, which houses 100 civil servants, and put pressure on the council to come to a rapid decision.

The conservationists were wrong-footed. Historic Scotland, the agency responsible for ancient buildings, had not got round to listing the college. Late in the day it applied to do so, arguing that it was of “fine architecture and national importance”. Tesco countered that list status cannot be sought when a planning application is active. It challenged the application in the courts and won.

The council, faced with a stark choice between a supermarket or an old building, opted for Tesco by one casting vote. A petition to save the college was met with another, organised by Tesco, which claimed that its store would revive the town centre and guarantee jobs. Throughout, supermarket muscle has won the day.

The saddest thing about this episode is to find that there are still people who believe that destroying their heritage is a sign of progress, and that sacrificing an old building for yet another anonymous superstore is modernisation. They even think that big supermarkets create jobs, when everyone knows they also destroy local businesses. Galashiels has a lot to learn, and not much time in which to learn it.