Monklands Memories - Airdrie & Coatbridge areas

Researched by Robert Murray for baillieston.net

December 2004

The following article is part of a larger treatise based on study of Registers and Deeds from the Chartulary of Newbotil - more often referred to as Newbottle or Newbattle - by the eminent Airdrie historian John McArthur and written in 1881.

"It would be interesting to know what was the state of the pastoral or agricultural occupation, and general condition of the Monklands, prior to or at the time when these lands became the Abbey property, but no authentic record tending to throw light on the matter is available, and their condition is only to be inferred from data of a somewhat vague and meagre description. It may, however, be concluded that the whole, or very nearly the whole district was then uncultivated, and devoted to flocks and beasts of the chase. The population would therefore be scanty, roads there would be none, save the wandering tracks of the aboriginal inhabitants, or some remains of ancient Roman formation.

Houses and buildings would only be represented by the rude hut or frail tent of the hunter or shepherd, and the solitude would be that of the prairie. Of course the natural features of the country still remain, though the lapse of seven centuries has wrought wonderful changes in all other aspects in this district.

That there was then little or no grain cultivation in the Monklands, and no permanent houses or buildings in 1160 may be inferred from the terms of the Charter of that year, for the usual legal phraseology that any such were then actually on the lands is not made use of - such as, towers, fortalices, manor places, yards, buildings, tofts, crofts, farm granges, mills, multures, etc.

On the other hand, the lands are conveyed to the monks with wood and plain, fields, meadows, pastures, muirs and waters only, thereby pretty clearly denoting the occupation to have been entirely pastoral. Another reason for assuming that this must have been the case is, that the monks, shortly after they obtained possession, went vigorously to work to procure rights of passage and roadway, communicating with their Lanarkshire estates, and to erect thereon buildings and farm granges, and otherwise to put the land where suitable under grain and other crops. These operations they would not have required to originate and carry out so extensively if they had found them ready to their hands.

There is reason to suppose that in the year 1160, and for some time afterwards, portions of the Monklands were covered by such remains of the original Caledonian Forest as the systematic destruction of the Roman armies had spared, for it appears from the Register of the Abbey that the monks constructed large quantities of superior wagons and agricultural implements from the wood of their lands in Clydesdale. These articles were manufactured not only for their own use but for sale and barter with others. Oak was the prevalent timber in the lower parts of the original Forest and best suited for the purposes above mentioned.

The monks engaged in extensive farming operations in this district prior to 1240 - these operations embracing alike the culture of grain and the rearing of horses, cattle, and sheep. They produced great quantities of wool, of which they were exporters to the Continental markets. So much care did the Newbattle monks bestow upon their flocks that their wool had the reputation of being the finest staple of wool imported into the different towns of Europe".