Recommended Books

Anyone looking at the local history of the area around Coatbridge must read:

Coatbridge Three Centuries of Change
- Peter Drummond and James Smith

BOOKS AND MAPS for further investigation as recommended in “Coatbridge Three Centuries of Change”

The local history rooms of North Lanarkshire' Library services, based at Airdrie Library, contains a wide selection of books, maps, newspapers and microfilm on the area's history. Most, though not necessarily all, of the materials referred to below are available for consultation there.

• The last book specifically on the town's history was Andrew Miller's 'Rise and Progress of Coatbridge' published in 1864 — twenty-one years before Burgh status was accorded. Thomas Miller's 'The Monklands Tradition' (1950) is an admixture of the town's history with that of the author's family and business.

• William Hamilton's 'Work and Prayer' (1937) looks at the town's history as a background to ecclesiastical and spiritual observations.

Taking each section of the present work in turn, we list some sources for further reading:

• The early farming landscape, and much other material besides, is described in the first and second Statistical Accounts, of 1799 and 1845, in the volumes dealing with Old Monkland (volumes 7 and 6 respectively).

• Forrest's 1801 map of the Coats and Drumpellier estates, and an early 19th century map of Gartsherrie estate, give a visual picture of the landscape.

• The canal is covered by Jean Lindsay's 'The Canals of Scotland' and James Watt's 'Journals', while the

• October 1950 edition of the Scottish Historical review includes an article by George Thomson (author of 'Airdrie') on the canal.

• An important work on the local iron industry is Dr Robert Corrins' Ph.D. thesis on William Baird and Company Limited. The Baird and Colt families both have books, of a somewhat eulogistic tone, devoted to them, both titles linking the family name to Gartsherrie.

• A close look at the coalminers of the nineteenth century is provided by Alan Campbell's book 'The Lanarkshire Miners' (1979), which compares and contrasts Coatbridge and Larkhall miners and their union organisation

• Robert Duncan's work 'Conflict and Crisis' (also published by Monklands' Libraries) vividly describes the bitter miners' strike of 1842. The library holds a considerable collection of maps indicating the extent of underground workings.

• The Ordnance Survey published its first series of maps in the 1850s, its second series in the 1890s, its third series in the early 1910s, and other editions this century — all in various scales. A guide to earlier maps, including those covering the locality, is to be found in the Royal Scottish Geographical Society's 'The early maps of Scotland', volume 1.

• Bargeddie is more fully dealt with in Stuart Jackson's 'My Ain Folk' (1981), a history of Baillieston and district:

• while Glenboig merits several pages in John MacArthur's history of 'New Monkland Parish' (1890). Monklands' Libraries booklet 'Monklands' covers the whole area in outline..