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Coatbridge

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" Coatbridge, a municipal burgh of Old Monkland parish, Lanarkshire. It stands, at 300 feet above sea-level, on the Monkland Canal, and in the midst of a perfect network of railways, being 2 miles W by S of Airdrie, 8¾ E of Glasgow, and 34 W by S of Edinburgh. Fifty years since it vas only a village; and its rapid extension is due to its position in the centre of Scotland's chief mineral field. The Airdrie and Coatbridge district comprises some twenty active collieries; and in or about the town are several establishments for the pig-iron manufacture, malleable iron and steel works, and numerous rolling mills. Nor are these the only industries ; boilers, tubes, tinplate, firebrick and fireclay, bricks and tiles, oakum, railway waggons, etc., being also manufactured. It is governed by a provost, 4 bailies, and 15 councillors, with a treasurer and dean of guild. Splendid municipal buildings are in course of erection. Coatbridge, in its growth, has absorbed, or is still absorbing, a number of outlying suburbs - Langloan, Gartsherrie, High Sunnyside, Coats, Clifton, Drumpellier, Dundyvan, Summerlee, Whifflet, Coatdyke, ete. Fire, smoke, and soot, with the roar and rattle of machinery, are its leading characteristics; the flames of its furnaces cast on the midnight sky a glow as if of some vast conflagration. It has stations on the Caledonian and North British railways, a post office (1894), with money order, savings bank, insurance and telegraph departments, branches of the Clydesdale, Commercial, National, Royal, and Union banks, several hotels, the Alexander Hall, a reading room, gas-work, a water supply conjointly with Airdrie, and a Wednesday paper, the Coatbridge Express. A theatre and music hall, seating 2000 spectators, was opened in 1875; at Langloan is the West End Park, where in 1880 a red granite fountain was erected in memory of Janet Hamilton (1795-1873), the lowly Coatbridge poetess; and a fine public park was in 1887 gifted by Mr Weir of Kildonan. New Municipal Buildings, containing Town-Hall, Municipal Chambers, and Police buildings, were erected in 1894, on ground presented by W .Weir, Esq. Gartsherrie quoad sacra Church (1839; 1050 sittings) cost over £3300, and is a prominent object, with a spire 136 feet high; and Coats quoad sacra church (1875; 1000 sittings) is a handsome Gothic edifice, built from endowment by the late George Baird of Stitchell. Of 4 Free churches - Middle, East, West, and Whifflet - the finest was built in 1875; and other places of worship are 3 U.P. churches, a Congregational church, an Evangelical Union church, a Baptist church, a Wesleyan church (1874), St John's Episcopal church, and two Roman Catholic churches. Besides other schools noticed under OLD MONKLAND, Coatbridge and Coats public school, Langloan public school, and St Patrick's and St Augustine's Roman Catholic schools, with respective accommodation for 1682, 552, 588, and 489 children, had (1891) an average attendance of 1102 day and 102 evening, 385 day and 81 evening, 403, and 416, and grants of £1242, 11s. 6d. and £52,12s., £407, 11s. 8d. and £48, 12s., £395, 14s. 6d., and £364. There is, besides, the Coatbridge Technical School and West of Scotland Mining College. Valuation of burgh (1892) £132,024, 4s. 3d. Pop. (1831) 741, (1841) 1599, (1851) 8564, (1861) 12,006, (1871) 15,802, (1881) 24,812, (1891) 30,034.—Ord. Sur.., sh. 31, 1867. "

From Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, 1886

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Church History

Dates of Old Parish Registers
b.1698-1854
m.1698-1758/1820-1854
d.1705-1794

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Description & Travel

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Gazetteers

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Maps

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