Coatbridge

Sister cities

• Gatchina

History

Coatbridge owes its name to a bridge that carried the old Edinburgh-Glasgow road over the Gartsherrie Burn, at what is now Coatbridge Cross. This first appears on Roy's survey of 1755 as Cottbrig, one of a number of places on the wider Coats estate. The name Coats most likely comes from the Scots word cot(t), meaning "cottage", although an alternative theory links it to the name of the Colt family, who owned land here as early as the 13th century. Settlement of the Coatbridge area dates back 3,000 years to the Mesolithic Age. A circle of Bronze Age stone coffins was found on the Drumpellier estate in 1852. A number of other Bronze Age urns and relics have been found in Coatbridge. An Iron Age wood and thatch crannog dwelling was sited in the loch at the present day Drumpellier Country Park. Dependent upon the water level in the loch, the remains can still be seen. and there are the remains of a Roman road on the fringes of the town near the M8 motorway. The Monklands area inherited its name after the area was granted to the Cistercian monks of Newbattle Abbey by King Malcolm IV in 1162. In 1323, the Monklands name appeared for the first time on Stewards' charter. Old Monkland was described in the 1799 Statistical Account as an "immense garden" with "extensive orchards" and "luxurious crops", where "rivers abound with salmon". The Monkland Canal was constructed at the end of the 18th century initially to transport coal to Glasgow from the rich local deposits. The invention of the hot blast furnace process in 1828 meant that Coatbridge's ironstone deposits could be exploited to the maximum by the canal link and hot blast process. Summerlee Iron Works was one of the first iron works to use this technology. By the mid 19th century, there were numerous hot blast furnaces…

Geography

Coatbridge is situated in Scotland's Central Lowlands. The town lies above sea level, east of Glasgow, south of Cumbernauld and west of Airdrie. Although Coatbridge has no major river running through it, the North Calder Water runs east–west to the south and the now defunct Monkland Canal used to run straight through the centre of the town toward Glasgow. The canal route through Coatbridge can still be seen today. Several smaller burns run through Coatbridge, most of which drain into the North Calder Water. Coatbridge has four significant public parks: Dunbeth Park, West End Park, Whifflet park and Drumpellier Country Park. Lochend Loch (known locally as Drumpellier Loch) and Woodend Loch are situated on the north-west edge of Coatbridge. The topography of Coatbridge was an important feature in the town's development during the Industrial Revolution. Coatbridge rests below the "Slamannan plateau" and neighbouring Airdrie sits on its edge. The low-lying flat ground of Coatbridge was a vital factor in the siting of the town's blast furnaces Like much of the British Isles, Coatbridge experiences a temperate maritime climate with relatively cool summers and mild winters. The prevailing wind is from the west. Regular, but generally light, precipitation occurs throughout the year. The earliest map showing Coatbridge is by Timothy Pont, published in Johan Blaeu's Nether warde of Clyds-dail (1654). The districts of Dunpelder (Drumpellier), Gartsbary (Gartsherrie), Kanglon (Langloan), Kirkwood, Kirkshawes (Kirkshaws) and Wheetflet (Whifflet) are all evident. The Whitelaw Fountain is named in honour of Alexander Whitelaw, an industrialist and MP; it is situated in the town centre, on the corner of Main Street and South Circular Road, but was formerly about west, at…