Moodiesburn | |
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![]() Entrance to Moodiesburn via the A80 | |
Population | 6,830 (mid-2020 est.) [1] |
OS grid reference | NS6960871434 |
Lieutenancy area |
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Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | GLASGOW |
Postcode district | G69 0 |
Dialling code | 01236 |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
UK Parliament | |
Scottish Parliament | |
Moodiesburn is a village in Scotland, located 8 miles (13 kilometres) northeast of Glasgow, in the North Lanarkshire council area. It is situated on the north side of the A80 road and between the M73 and M80 motorways which converge nearby. Moodiesburn does not directly adjoin any other settlements, though the villages of Chryston and Muirhead are located a short distance to the west (the boundary being the Strathkelvin railway path there after you would be in Chryston), with Stepps beyond, and outer parts of Cumbernauld lie to the east; however, the town centres are about 5 miles (8 kilometres) apart. [2]
The village's economic standing greatly declined in the latter half of the 20th century, following the Auchengeich mining disaster and the disintegration of local employment. [3] In recent times, the economic demographic of the population has improved. Good transport links enable a significant proportion of the population travel to the City of Glasgow, or nearby towns for employment in the professional and commercial sphere.
The village is also located near several important historical and cultural landmarks, including the Antonine Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that was built by the Romans in the 2nd century AD. The area is popular with hikers and outdoor enthusiasts due to its scenic beauty and proximity to the Scottish countryside.
The etymology of the name is probably from the common Scottish surname Moody. [4] Several old documents show Moodiesburn with various spellings including maps by Richardson, Forrest, [5] and William Roy. [6] Moodiesburn (or Mudiesburn) was formerly part of the parish of Cadder. [7] The New Statistical Accounts recorded 30 families and 143 people in 1836. [8] In 1846 there were reported to be 35 houses with 220 people living in them. [9] Towards the end of the 19th century the population fell to as low as 150. [10] The village was developed in the 20th century with employment in coal mining and around psychiatric institution Stoneyetts Hospital. [11] In the 1930s, [12] wooden houses were constructed on the estate of Gartferry House. [13]
In September 1959, 47 men lost their lives in a coal mine near the village of Moodiesburn when a faulty fan purifying the air in the colliery went on fire due to an electrical fault. [14] The men were in bogies travelling to the coal face to start work, and due to the intense smoke they were abandoned just a few hundred metres from safety. The mine was eventually flooded to put out the fire; there was only one survivor from the crews. The mining accident was one of the worst within the UK in the 20th century, widowing 41 women and leaving 76 children without fathers. [15]
The First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond unveiled a memorial on 18 September 2009 at Moodiesburn. [16] Its centrepiece, a bronze statue of a miner, was stolen within weeks but replaced the following year after a fundraising drive. [17] Norman Buchan wrote a song, "Auchengeich", about the disaster, recorded by Dick Gaughan and The Easy Club.
Local mining declined in the years following the disaster. Stoneyetts ceased operation in 1992, followed by Scottish Power and Reekie Plant Hire sites closing in the latter half of the decade. A 1999 article in The Observer lamented Moodiesburn's lack of local employment, as well as the increasing disaffection of its younger residents:
"A good number of young families are blatantly poorer than our grandparents. They have less purchasing power because they live on benefit [...] Moodiesburn is a quiet island whose ageing inhabitants pass the time by looking after one another, visiting, retelling the past. The current that made people get up in the morning has been switched off. The young are null. They use drugs, spray graffiti. But they are quiet islanders, too, living invisibly at home with their disks and keyboards." [3]
— Neal Ascherson, 10 October 1999
Auchengeich sewage works and the Moodiesburn House Hotel – previously the Bedlay Dowager House – were closed in 2003 and 2008, respectively. [18] [19] Two career options remain in the area: landscaping product supplier Charcon Scotland (part of Aggregate Industries), and food processing company Devro. [20]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(November 2021) |
Bedlay Cemetery is Moodiesburn's local cemetery. The nearby Bedlay Castle has stood since the late 16th century. [22] [23]
The village includes a community centre and library, a miners' welfare club (the Auchengeich Miners Welfare), a multi-denominational school (Glenmanor Primary, affiliated to Chryston High School), [24] a Roman Catholic denominational school (St Michael's Primary, affiliated to St. Maurice's High School in Cumbernauld), [25] a Church of Scotland parish church, a Roman Catholic church, and an independent evangelical church called New Beginnings. There is also the Silver Larch public house, a Knights of Saint Columba social club and a coffee shop called The Coffee House.
Although the oldest buildings and the original hamlet stood at the junction of Cumbernauld Road (A80) and Stoneyetts Road, its centre moved about 300 yards (270 m) north during the mid-20th century with the construction of a small development of timber-panelled homes and then expanded from there across the subsequent decades. The community's 1950s council housing is known as "Old Moodiesburn", though a substantial number of those homes are now privately owned.[ citation needed ] A batch of houses with updated facilities were constructed in the 1960s, and dubbed the "electric scheme" by locals. Modern homes have since been developed in this part of Moodiesburn, including by Taylor Woodrow, Persimmon, and Lovell. The opposite, north-eastern end, which happens to be near Devro headquarters, is composed mostly of private residences by Christian Salvesen, Tay/Wimpey, Bellway and Persimmon. Miller Homes are set to build on the former Stoneyetts Hospital site as of 2019.[ citation needed ]
A small estate of new council builds was erected in the midst of the Salvesen area in 2013.[ citation needed ]
Airdrie is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It lies on a plateau roughly 400 ft above sea level, and is approximately 12 miles (19 km) east of Glasgow city centre. As of 2012, the town had a population of around 37,130. Historically part of Lanarkshire, Airdrie forms part of a conurbation with its neighbour Coatbridge, in what is commonly known as the Monklands, formerly a district..
North Lanarkshire is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north-east of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs, commuter towns, and villages. It also borders East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk, Stirling, South Lanarkshire, and West Lothian. The council area covers parts of the historic counties of Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire, and Stirlingshire. The council is based in Motherwell.
Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark, is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. The county is no longer used for local government purposes, but gives its name to the two modern council areas of North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire.
Coatbridge is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about 8+1⁄2 miles east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as the Monklands, often considered to be part of the Greater Glasgow urban area – although officially they have not been included in population figures since 2016 due to small gaps between the Monklands and Glasgow built-up areas.
Kirkintilloch is a town and former barony burgh in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It lies on the Forth and Clyde Canal and on the south side of Strathkelvin, about 8 miles (13 km) northeast of central Glasgow. Historically part of Dunbartonshire, the town is the administrative home of East Dunbartonshire council area, its population in 2009 was estimated at 19,700 and its population in 2011 was 19,689.
East Dunbartonshire is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster). It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The seat is possibly best known for formerly being the constituency of Jo Swinson, the former Leader of the Liberal Democrats who was defeated at the 2019 general election. The current MP for the constituency is Amy Callaghan of the Scottish National Party (SNP).
Cumbernauld Village is an area of Cumbernauld. Whilst Cumbernauld was designated a new town in 1955, the Village itself has a pre-mediaeval history, with a Roman settlement being built in the area due to its proximity to the Antonine Wall. After the Roman period the settlement remained and grew to such an extent that the Comyn family built their chapel there. It is recorded that, in 1500, the Black Death led to a special plea from the surviving people of Cumbernauld to the church authorities in Glasgow to allow them to establish their own cemetery rather than taking all their dead to St. Ninian's in Kirkintilloch. This source is also quoted in "Excavations at 3-11 Main Street, Cumbernauld". The villagers were granted permission to do so, and used the ground at the existing Comyns' chapel which dates from the end of the 12th century. Farming in long strips or Lang Riggs was carried out in the village.
Condorrat is a former village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Like Luggiebank, Castlecary and Dullatur, it predates the new town of Cumbernauld, but unlike those Condorrat was officially included in the designated new town area. Since then it has officially been part of Cumbernauld although it retains some of its own distinctive character. Dalshannon Farm and cottages were located in the area west of the original town and farm, and north of the Luggie. So also was a corn mill called Wood Mill. Road signs show they are is now in the western part of Condorrat towards Mollinsburn.
Twechar is a small former mining village historically in Dunbartonshire and administered by the council area of East Dunbartonshire, Scotland close to the boundary with North Lanarkshire. It lies between the larger towns of Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch. The Forth and Clyde Canal runs close to the village to the north, and closely follows the line of the Antonine Wall. There are visible remains of the wall on Bar Hill and the Roman Fort is a local tourist attraction.
Auchinloch is a village in Scotland, situated within the North Lanarkshire local authority area but very close to the boundary with East Dunbartonshire and sharing the G66 postcode of the town of Kirkintilloch and the adjoining village of Lenzie, located a short distance to the north. Other nearby settlements in North Lanarkshire are Stepps to the south and Chryston to the south-east, each approximately 1.3 miles (2.1 km) away across farmland and on the opposite side of the M80 motorway; the City of Glasgow boundary and the suburb of Robroyston is about the same distance to the west. In previous years Auchinloch was in the Parish of Cadder and, from 1975 until 1996, the district of Strathkelvin within Strathclyde Region.
Chryston is a village in North Lanarkshire, around 7 miles (11 km) east of Glasgow, in Scotland. It lies north of its sister village, Muirhead, which is on the A80. The village has around double Muirhead's population, although the exact boundary between the two modern villages is difficult to find.
Bedlay Castle is a former defensive castle, dating from the late 16th and 17th centuries. It is located between Chryston and Moodiesburn in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The castle is just off the A80 road, around 8 miles to the north-east of Glasgow, at NS692700. This castle has several ghostlore stories associated with it.
Greengairs is a village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Greengairs is shown on a map by Roy c.1754 under the name of Green Geirs. In toponymy the name means "green strips of grass". Lying 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Cumbernauld and 3 miles (5 km) north east of Airdrie, the village consists mainly of local authority housing. Between them Greengairs and Wattston have about 1,190 residents.
The Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway was an early mineral railway running from a colliery at Monklands to the Forth and Clyde Canal at Kirkintilloch, Scotland. It was the first railway to use a rail ferry, the first public railway in Scotland, and the first in Scotland to use locomotive power successfully, and it was a major influence in the successful development of the Lanarkshire iron industry. It opened in 1826.
Muirhead is a small town approximately 7 miles (11 km) north-east of Glasgow city centre. Nearby villages and towns include Chryston, Garnkirk, Gartcosh, Moodiesburn, Lenzie and Stepps. Muirhead has a population of around 1,390. It is a commuter town to Glasgow with road links with the A80/M80 and frequent bus services the 37c x35, x37, and x3. Muirhead is located approximately two miles from Gartcosh, Lenzie and Stepps railway stations.
Cumbernauld is a large town in the historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth most-populous locality in Scotland and the most populated town in North Lanarkshire, positioned in the centre of Scotland's Central Belt. Geographically, Cumbernauld sits between east and west, being on the Scottish watershed between the Forth and the Clyde; however, it is culturally more weighted towards Glasgow and the New Town's planners aimed to fill 80% of its houses from Scotland's largest city to reduce housing pressure there.
The Luggie Water is one of two streams which flow out of Cumbernauld. The Scottish New Town’s name derives from the Gaelic for "the meeting of the waters", which possibly refers to the Luggie Water and the Red Burn, both of which run through Cumbernauld but which never meet.
Bedlay railway station served the village of Chryston, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1849 on the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway.
Auchengeich sewage treatment works... closed in March.