Holytown
Holytown
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 Holytown
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| Holytown shown within North Lanarkshire | |
| Area | 4.216 km2 (1.628 sq mi) |
| Population | 5,483 |
| • Density | 1,301/km2 (3,370/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | NS766606 |
| Council area | |
| Lieutenancy area | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Motherwell |
| Postcode district | ML1 |
| Dialling code | 01698 |
| Police | Scottish |
| Fire | Scottish |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| EU Parliament | Scotland |
| UK Parliament | |
| Scottish Parliament | |
Holytown (Scots: Holy (as in the bible) Town - Holytown, Scottish Gaelic: Baile a' Chuilinn) is a small village outside Motherwell in North Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Pronounced 'Holy' 'town' - Holytown. (Hoe-lit-in to locals) The area was born and grew on the back of the nearby coal mining industries in the 18th century, although 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 E by N of Holytown Junction on the Caledonian railway, 5½ miles 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, ½ mile 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".
Working in mining was a dangerous life with long hours, and accidents resulting in multiple deaths 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.
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