Recent from talks
Holytown
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Holytown
Holytown is a village situated to the east of Bellshill and north of Motherwell in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Most local amenities are shared with the adjacent villages of Carfin, Newarthill and New Stevenston which have a combined population of around 20,000 across the four localities.
The area grew on the back of the nearby coal mining industries in the 18th century. The roots of the town stretch back to at least the 17th Century, where records show that a meeting house was used for prayer services for the community. One old description of the town from the 19th century from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland by Francis H. Groome, 1885 is as follows:
Holytown, a town in Bothwell parish, Lanarkshire, 1 mile [1.5 km] E by N of Holytown Junction on the Caledonian railway, 5+1⁄2 miles [9 km] SSE of Coatbridge, and 11 ESE of Glasgow. Surrounded by a well-worked part of the Lanarkshire mineral-field, and partaking largely in the industry and traffic connected with the working of the same, it experienced considerable increase of prosperity from the opening of the Cleland and Midcalder railway (1866), in result partly of through traffic on that line and partly of junction-communication with Motherwell.
It includes the suburb of New Stevenston, 1⁄2 mile [800 m] SSW ; and has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, a branch of the Clydesdale Bank, 3 insurance agencies, gasworks, a quoad sacra parish church, a Free church, and has 2 public schools. The quoad sacra parish is in the presbytery of Hamilton and synod of Glasgow and Ayr ; its minister's stipend is £120.
Pop. of town
(1836) 755,
(1861) 1135,
(1871) 2197,
(1881) 2480, of whom 1048 were in New Stevenston ;
of q. s. parish
(1871) 10,099,
(1881) 10,449.—Ord. Sur., sh. 31, 1867.
Reports of living conditions showed that the residents of the town lived in tough conditions in the 19th century. In 1913, one report describing housing in Jerviston Square said that the housing "may be taken as an example of houses that are very near the border line of the habitable standard".
Mining work was a dangerous life with long hours and accidents resulting in death were not uncommon in Lanarkshire. Life was harsh, but forged the character of the working class mining community in the face of hardship, especially the politics of Keir Hardie, the founder of the Labour Party in the UK.
The Holytown Miners' Association was a local union formed in the 1840s. In 1847 the union attempted to restrict output, to combat a 1s (5p) per day wage reduction proposed by the owners. The owners imposed a 3-month 'lockout', which ended in defeat for the union. In 1855 the union merged with the Scottish Coal and Iron-stone Miners' Protective Association. According to the Board of Trade Reports there was another Association of the same name formed in the early 1890s. With an estimated membership of 200 for both 1894 and 1895 it became a branch of the Lanarkshire Miners' County Union in 1896.
Many have drifted away since the early 1990s due to the decline in the coal industries. The bulk of people in the town are now employed in blue-collar roles, including manufacturing and retail. The establishment nearby of the EuroTerminal hi-tech industrial estate in the 1990s did not bring a huge boom in jobs as expected[citation needed]. Other well-known local employers include Honeywell, a large electronics firm based in the Newhouse industrial estate.
Notable people from Holytown include the politician Keir Hardie, the Rt Rev Dr Shaw Paterson (Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 2024-2025), World War I nurse Jean Aitken Bell, who won medals for having served in Serbia and the footballers Harry McShane and Matt Balunas. Holytown was also the birthplace of James Williamson, noted Scottish civil engineer involved with many of the Hydro-electric power schemes of the 1930-1950s.
Hub AI
Holytown AI simulator
(@Holytown_simulator)
Holytown
Holytown is a village situated to the east of Bellshill and north of Motherwell in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Most local amenities are shared with the adjacent villages of Carfin, Newarthill and New Stevenston which have a combined population of around 20,000 across the four localities.
The area grew on the back of the nearby coal mining industries in the 18th century. The roots of the town stretch back to at least the 17th Century, where records show that a meeting house was used for prayer services for the community. One old description of the town from the 19th century from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland by Francis H. Groome, 1885 is as follows:
Holytown, a town in Bothwell parish, Lanarkshire, 1 mile [1.5 km] E by N of Holytown Junction on the Caledonian railway, 5+1⁄2 miles [9 km] SSE of Coatbridge, and 11 ESE of Glasgow. Surrounded by a well-worked part of the Lanarkshire mineral-field, and partaking largely in the industry and traffic connected with the working of the same, it experienced considerable increase of prosperity from the opening of the Cleland and Midcalder railway (1866), in result partly of through traffic on that line and partly of junction-communication with Motherwell.
It includes the suburb of New Stevenston, 1⁄2 mile [800 m] SSW ; and has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, a branch of the Clydesdale Bank, 3 insurance agencies, gasworks, a quoad sacra parish church, a Free church, and has 2 public schools. The quoad sacra parish is in the presbytery of Hamilton and synod of Glasgow and Ayr ; its minister's stipend is £120.
Pop. of town
(1836) 755,
(1861) 1135,
(1871) 2197,
(1881) 2480, of whom 1048 were in New Stevenston ;
of q. s. parish
(1871) 10,099,
(1881) 10,449.—Ord. Sur., sh. 31, 1867.
Reports of living conditions showed that the residents of the town lived in tough conditions in the 19th century. In 1913, one report describing housing in Jerviston Square said that the housing "may be taken as an example of houses that are very near the border line of the habitable standard".
Mining work was a dangerous life with long hours and accidents resulting in death were not uncommon in Lanarkshire. Life was harsh, but forged the character of the working class mining community in the face of hardship, especially the politics of Keir Hardie, the founder of the Labour Party in the UK.
The Holytown Miners' Association was a local union formed in the 1840s. In 1847 the union attempted to restrict output, to combat a 1s (5p) per day wage reduction proposed by the owners. The owners imposed a 3-month 'lockout', which ended in defeat for the union. In 1855 the union merged with the Scottish Coal and Iron-stone Miners' Protective Association. According to the Board of Trade Reports there was another Association of the same name formed in the early 1890s. With an estimated membership of 200 for both 1894 and 1895 it became a branch of the Lanarkshire Miners' County Union in 1896.
Many have drifted away since the early 1990s due to the decline in the coal industries. The bulk of people in the town are now employed in blue-collar roles, including manufacturing and retail. The establishment nearby of the EuroTerminal hi-tech industrial estate in the 1990s did not bring a huge boom in jobs as expected[citation needed]. Other well-known local employers include Honeywell, a large electronics firm based in the Newhouse industrial estate.
Notable people from Holytown include the politician Keir Hardie, the Rt Rev Dr Shaw Paterson (Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 2024-2025), World War I nurse Jean Aitken Bell, who won medals for having served in Serbia and the footballers Harry McShane and Matt Balunas. Holytown was also the birthplace of James Williamson, noted Scottish civil engineer involved with many of the Hydro-electric power schemes of the 1930-1950s.