Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

BATH
Bath, a burn on the N border of Ayrshire, rising near
Beith town, and running to Kilbirnie Loch.
Batha Loch, in Glenorchy parish, Argyllshire. See
Ba.
Eathans. See Abbey St Bathans.
Bathernock. See Baldeknock.
Bathgate, a town and a parish in the SW of Linlith-
gowshire. The town stands in the middle of the parish,
6 miles S by W of Linlithgow, whilst by sections of the
North British, that converge to it from E, S, W, and KW,
it is 19J W by S of Edinburgh, 14 J NE of Morningside, 16
E by N of Coatbridge, 24| E by N of Glasgow, and 8J S of
Manuel Junction. Its situation is a pleasant one. The
hilly grounds to the NE, and the beautiful park of Balbardie
on the N, give a cheerful aspect to the town, which con-
sists of two parts, the old and the new. The old stands
on a ridgy declivity, and has narrow crooked lanes ; the
new town, on low ground, is regularly aligned, and has
well-built streets. A considerable extension occurred
after the opening of the Bathgate and Edinburgh rail-
way in 1849 ; a greater one, after the establishment of
a neighbouring paraffin work in 1852 ; and other ones,
or rather a continually increasing one, after the subse-
quent commencing or enlargement of other neighbour-
ing works connected with mines and with mineral pro-
duce. The inhabitants prior to the first of these ex-
tensions, had little other employment than hand-loom
weaving, and lived in a state of penury ; but the new
works employed not only them but numerous immi-
grants from other towns. Bathgate soon grew to three-
fold its former extent, and passed from a state of stag-
nancy and decay to one of bustle and prosperity ; and
though suffering at present under the general depression
of trade, it now has many fine dwelling-houses and
handsome shops. It possesses a head post office, with
money order, savings' bank, insurance, and telegraph de-
partments ; 2 railway stations, upper and lower ; offices
of the Royal, National, and Union banks ; a local sav-
ing's bank ; two chief hotels, the Bathgate and the
Commercial ; a handsome and commodious corn-ex-
change; a police station (1870); a working men's institute
(1875) ; and a Saturday paper, the West Lothian Courant
(1872). Places of worship are the parish church (rebuilt
1882 ; cost £5000), a Free church, a U. P. church, an Evan-
gelical Union chapel, a Wesleyan chapel, and a Roman
Catholic chapel (1858 ; 600 sittings). A weekly market
is held on Tuesday, and has become important as a
central corn-market for Linlithgowshire and for parts
of the adjoining counties. Cattle fairs are held on the
fourth Wednesday of June and October ; and cattle and
hiring fairs on the Wednesdays after Whitsunday and
Martinmas, old style. The public works, to which the
town owes its growth, and also the schools, will be
noticed under the parish. The town, with a territory
around it, was anciently a sheriffdom ; and in legal
form it stiU is such, only that the sheriff of Linlithgow-
shire is always also sheriff of Bathgate. The right to
its sheriffdom was long hereditary, and belonged to the
Earls of Hopetoun, whose representative, on the abolition
of hereditary jurisdictions in 1747, was compensated by
a payment of £2000. In 1824 the town was constituted
a burgh of barony by Act of Parliament, under which it
is governed by a provost, 3 bailies, 12 councillors, and a
treasurer ; in 1865 it adopted the general police and
improvement act of Scotland, and since has a body of
police commissioners. Walter, the son-in-law of King
Robert Bruce, receiving Bathgate as part of his wife's
dowry, had a residence at it, and died here in 1328.
Some of the inhabitants suffered hardship and loss in
the times of the persecution ; and the insurgent army
of the Covenanters, when on their march from the W to
Rullion Green, spent a disastrous night at Bathgate.
Jn. Reid, M.D. (1809-49), anatomist and physiologist,
and Sir James Simpson (1811-70), professor of mid-
wifery in Edinburgh University, were natives. Pop.
of burgh (1831) 2581, (1861) 4827, (1871) 4991, (1881)
4885.
The parish of Bathgate contains also the small town
of Armadale, 2J miles W by S. It is bounded, N by
134
BATHGATE
Torphichen and Linlithgow, NE by a detached por
tion of Ecclesmachan, E by Livingston, S by Living-
ston and Whitburn, SW by Shotts in Lanarkshire, and
NW by Torphichen. Its greatest length from E to W
is 6g miles ; its breadth from N to S varies between 2J
and 3| miles ; and its area is 10,887i acres, of which
llf are water. The surface — nowhere much less than
400, or more than 1000, feet above sea-level — attains
626 feet near Cowdenhead in the W, 409 at Balmuir in
the NW, 1000 at the Knock in the N, 563 near Colin-
shiel, 535 near Bathville, 537 near Whiteside, 583 near
Torbanehill in the S, 486 near Upper Bathgate station,
848 at the Standing Stones, and 700 near Drumcross in
the E. The western and part of the southern slope of
the hilly mass are considerable declivities, yet contain
the best land in the parish. The tract at the base is
the lowest ground, was naturally marshy, and appears
to have long lain mainly under water ; but now, in
result of draining, is comparative! y dry. Ballenceieff
Water rises among the hills, makes a circuit through
great part of the low tracts, and then runs for about 1J
mile along the boundary with Torphichen. Barbauch-
law Burn comes in from the SW, traces much of the
rest of the boundary with Torphichen, and makes a
confluence with Ballencrieff Water. The river Almond,
from a point about 5 miles below its source, runs about
1^ mile on the boundary with Whitburn. A lake of
about 11 acres lay in the northern vicinity of the town,
but was drained in 1853. About 510 acres are under
wood ; 800 are pastoral or waste ; and all the rest save
what is occupied by buildings, public works, fences,
roads, and railways, is either constantly or occasionally
in tillage. The rocks include dykes and masses of trap,
but belong mainly to the coal measures, and are very
rich in useful minerals. At Boghead, 1J mile SW of
the town, a black bituminous shale, sharing the appear-
ance both of coal and slate, was found in 1850 to be
peculiarly rich in mineral oil, and began to be worked
about 1852 for the production of illuminating gas, paraffin
oil, and solid paraffin. Coming into much demand also
for exportation to the Continent and elsewhere, it was
mined at the rate of fully 100,000 tons a year ; but
about 1866 began to show signs of exhaustion, — signs
that fulfilled themselves in 1873. Chemical works,
for manufacturing paraffin oil and solid paraffin, stand
about | mile SSW of Boghead ; cover 25 acres ; are
connected by branch railways with the main lines in
their vicinity ; look, in the distance, like a grimy
irregularly -built village ; and employ from 400 to 500
men. These works underwent some change, at the
expiry of a lease, in 1864 ; and they were sold, about
the beginning of 1S66, at a price variously reported
from £200,000 to £240,000. Other works of similar
kind, under stimulus of the prosperous experiment
at Boghead, and after successful search for shales of
kindred character to the Boghead shale, were mean-
while established ^t Uphall, Broxburn, Kirkliston, West-
wood, Hermand, Saltney, Calderhall, Charlesfield,
Leavenseat, Addiewell, and other places in Linlithgow-
shire and the W border of Edinburghshire ; and these,
by powerfully extending the demand for paraffin oil
and paraffin throughout Great Britain, and in countries
so distant as China, gave increasing impulse and energy
to the parent works and researches in the neighbour-
hood of Boghead. One of the new works was esta-
blished within Bathgate parish itself, shortly before
1865 ; and that, together with brick-making and mining
in connection with it, employs between 300 and 400
persons. Another of the new works also was erected,
near the end of 1865, about 3 miles E of Bathgate town.
Collieries have long and extensively been worked in the
parish, whose western half contained nine active pits in
1S79. A very rich iron ore was, at one time, worked
on the estate of Couston. Limestone for conversion
into quick-lime, sandstone for building, and trap rock
for road-metal, are largely quarried. Lead ore, in small
frequently-interrupted veins, with traces of silver, oc-
curs in the limestone beds. The argentiferous ore was
long worked in one of the limestone quarries, still