Armadale, West Lothian
Coordinates: 55°53′52″N 3°42′17″W / 55.897801°N 3.704736°W
| Armadale | |
| Scottish Gaelic: Armadal[1] | |
| Scots: Airmadale[2] | |
 Coia's Sweet Shop and The Goth |
|
 Armadale
Armadale shown within West Lothian |
|
| Population | 9,063 [3] (2001 census) est. 10,830[4] (2006) |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | NS935685 |
| Council area | West Lothian |
| Lieutenancy area | West Lothian |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BATHGATE |
| Postcode district | EH48 |
| Dialling code | 01501 |
| Police | Lothian and Borders |
| Fire | Lothian and Borders |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| EU Parliament | Scotland |
| UK Parliament | Linlithgow and East Falkirk |
| Scottish Parliament | Linlithgow |
| List of places: UK • Scotland • | |
Armadale is a town within the district of West Lothian in central Scotland. Armadale, formerly known as Barbauchlaw, is an ex-mining town which is also known for its brick manufacturing.[5] It is named after Armadale in Sutherland,[6] this estate being owned by Sir William Honeyman who later acquired the land of Barbauchlaw.[7]
Contents |
[edit] About The Town
The town has a great number of different public places. There are nine public bars in the town - Coppies Bar, The Corrie, Tap o' the Brae, The Cavalier, The Bucks Head Tavern, The Highlander, The Snooker Club (Krossbar), The Regal, and The Goth, which provides the town clock at the front of the building. There are local shops like Coia's Sweet Shop, Coia's Fish and Chip shop, John Dewar and Sons Butchers and more. The main feature of Armadale is The Cross. There is also a small Scotmid supermarket on West Main Street.
Armadale (Woodend Farm) is officially the site of Ogilface Castle.[8] Woodend Farm has another site nearer Blackridge, marked as 'Ogelface in ruins' on a 1773 map.[9] These sites have been the subject of archaeological geophysics surveys[10] by the Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society[11] and kite aerial photography[12] by members of the History of Armadale Association.[13]
[edit] History
The estate comprising the lands of Barbauchlaw was sold to Sir William Honeyman in 1790.[14] A new highway between Edinburgh and Glasgow had been opened in 1786 and a toll house was built where the new road intersected with an existing road in the east of the estate.[14] A coal company was formed in 1819 and began to work the "Woodend Pit" to the north-west of the toll house.[14] A school was first formed in the town also in this year, and it eventually became necessary to build a dedicated school building in 1839 to accommodate the growing number of students.[14]
[edit] Transport
The station at Armadale, first opened by the defunct Bathgate and Coatbridge Railway[15] was constructed as part of the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link in the south end of Armadale and re-opened on 4 March 2011.[16]
[edit] Culture and sport
Armadale Stadium features greyhound racing and speedway.[17] It was also used in the past for stock car racing. Speedway started in 1997 when the Edinburgh Monarchs[18] team moved there and has now competed for ten seasons at the venue. The team won the Premier League in 2003, however Armadale Stadium is soon to be closed and demolised to make way for a new supermarket. The town also has a long-established football team, Armadale Thistle, whose home, Volunteer Park, is located on North Street.
The Armadale Flute Band, established in 1983, have won competitions all over Scotland.
[edit] Education
The local High School,[19] Armadale Academy, was originally built at the site that now plays host to Armadale Primary School. It was rebuilt and opened in 1967, at West Main Street, Armadale, and was again rebuilt and opened in August 2009, immediately behind the 1967 Academy building. The site of the old building will be used for new car parking facilities, and new playing fields. The current headmaster is Campbell Hornell. The old headmaster, Graham Johnstone retired at the end of the 2009/10 term being headmaster there for nearly fourteen years of service.The school has a seasonal magazine named, "Aloha Armadale". The team is made up of pupils in the school.
[edit] Famous residents
Tom Hanlin[20] was born in Armadale in 1907. He showed promise at school and was interested in becoming a writer from an early age. However, he had to leave school at fourteen years of age to begin work. He worked on a farm for a year, and then he worked down the mines for the next twenty years, from the age of fifteen until 1945. In 1942, he attended a school of journalism in Glasgow, making the fifty-mile weekly journey while still working down the pit. As a result of a pit accident, he spent three months in the Royal Infirmary. During that time of convalescence, he wrote five stories, which he was able to sell. One of them, Sunday in the Village, won the Arthur Markham Memorial Prize (See Sir Arthur Markham, 1st Baronet), awarded annually by Sheffield University and available to those who were 'manual workers in or about a coal mine, or have been injured when so employed'. Later, he won the Big Ben prize of £500 for his long story, which became his first novel, Once in Every Lifetime. 250,000 copies of the Big Ben paperback edition were sold in England in the first month of publication. A popular book in Europe and Scandinavia, it was translated into more than a dozen languages, and, eventually, was broadcast in a BBC radio version.
Also Ian Ellis, member of pioneering 60s/70s band Clouds, as well as many other famous bands of that era.[21]
[edit] References
- ^ Placenames collected by Iain Mac an Tailleir
- ^ List of railway station names in English, Scots and Gaelic - NewsNetScotland
- ^ "Comparative Population Profile: Armadale Locality". Scotland's Census Results Online. 2001-04-29. http://www.scrol.gov.uk/scrol/browser/profile.jsp?profile=Population&mainArea=armadale&mainLevel=Locality. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
- ^ "www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-and-data". http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-and-data.
- ^ "www.armadale.org.uk/employmentandindustries.htm". http://www.armadale.org.uk/employmentandindustries.htm.
- ^ "www.caithness.org/atoz/sutherland/photogallery/index.php?gallery=41". http://www.caithness.org/atoz/sutherland/photogallery/index.php?gallery=41.
- ^ "www.armadale.org.uk/honeyman.htm". http://www.armadale.org.uk/honeyman.htm.
- ^ "www.armadale.org.uk/archaeology3.htm". http://www.armadale.org.uk/archaeology3.htm.
- ^ "www.armadale.org.uk/archaeology2.htm". http://www.armadale.org.uk/archaeology2.htm.
- ^ "www.armadale.org.uk/archaeologyindex.htm". http://www.armadale.org.uk/archaeologyindex.htm.
- ^ "www.eafs.org.uk/". http://www.eafs.org.uk/.
- ^ "www.kiteaerialphotography.org.uk". http://www.kiteaerialphotography.org.uk.
- ^ "www.armadale.org.uk/haa.htm". http://www.armadale.org.uk/haa.htm.
- ^ a b c d "The History of Armadale". http://home.freeuk.net/pastandpresent/index.htm. Retrieved 2010-12-27.
- ^ "Bathgate and Coatbridge Railway". http://www.railscot.co.uk/Bathgate_and_Coatbridge_Railway/body.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
- ^ "Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link". http://www.airdriebathgateraillink.co.uk/. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
- ^ Bamford, R; Jarvis, J (2001). Homes of British Speedway. ISBN 0-7524-2210-3.
- ^ Henry, J; Moultray, I (2001). Speedway in Scotland. ISBN 0-7524-2229-4.
- ^ "www.westlothian.org.uk/armadaleacademy/". http://www.westlothian.org.uk/armadaleacademy/.
- ^ "www.armadale.org.uk/tomhanlin.htm". http://www.armadale.org.uk/tomhanlin.htm.
- ^ The Encyclopaedia of Popular Music (Muze publications)
