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Updated 20 August 2008

On this page:

• OVERVIEW of last two centuries

• ROADS including street names

• STAGECOACHES and MAIL COACHES

• POSTAL SERVICE

• BUSES

• MASS COMMUNICATIONS

Elsewhere on the site:

Railway Lines in the Armadale Area past, present and future

NINETEENTH CENTURY

"The post-office here [Bathgate] receives letters twice a-day from the east, and once from the west.  But the dispatch of letters is not so convenient, the letter-bags being all made up at night.  The communications by roads are on all hands very commodious, and the roads in general well kept.  The turnpike-road from Borrowstownness [ Bo'ness] towards Lanark runs for about four miles and a-half through the parish, and the middle Edinburgh and Glasgow road for a trifle more than seven.  On the latter there travelled for some years from twelve to eighteen stagecoaches daily.  All have been given up since the railway opened.......  An act has been obtained for a railway from Bathgate to the Slammanan Railway; but there is little likelihood of its being soon acted upon."

In the Miscellaneous Observations, dated April 1843, however, it was noted that "Very great changes have taken place in this parish since the former Account was published.  The middle road between Edinburgh and Glasgow, which is by much the most frequented line between these two cities, and which passes through the town of Bathgate, was not at that time even contemplated.  No direct road to the east and west existed, except parish roads, the lines, levels, and keeping of which, were all extremely bad.  Increased facility of communication has been of material service in helping forward the other improvements, to which  the gradual progress of the country has been leading."

New Statistical Account of Scotland - Linlithgow, 1845

TWENTIETH CENTURY

Although railway information is to be found elsewhere, I thought readers might like to read a nostalgic reminder of a traveller's view from the 11am Airdrie to Bathgate train (from A.G. Williamson's Twixt Forth & Clyde, which was published initially in 1942):

"I joined this train one morning, and less than a quarter-of-an-hour after we had left the town we were running along the side of a loch that might have had a setting anywhere in Galloway.  There was a grey shingle beach; a bank of fresh green fields dotted with black-and-white cattle; a wooded headland; and, where the loch narrowed into the North Calder Water, a lodge and little stone bridge....

At Blackridge I saw rows of little brown cottages with apple-green roofs; while at Westcraigs there were a mine and some red and grey two storey tenements standing against a bold green hill which suggested a headland.  Beyond the station we struck a typical patch of Black Country, with here and there pyramidical bings and skyline broken by chimney 'stacks', and puffs of velvety black smoke; then the road wandered away on the left, carrying with it a stream of blue-and-white 'buses and cars, into Armadale.  There was a forest of 'stacks' here, and a succession of bings met the eye one behind the other, on the opposite side of the line..."

The Drove Road between Woodend and Blackridge

• Bathgate to Holytoun via Hardhill Brae, Bathville Cross, Shottskirk

• Drove road called Drove Loan until 1880,  used by drovers of sheep and cattle from market trysts at Falkirk and Larbert: South Street, Station Road, Whitburn Road.  Salters brought salt south from Bo'ness to inland markets at centres such as Lanark.

"The communications by roads are.... very commodious, and the roads in general well kept.  The turnpike-road from Borrowstownness towards Lanark runs for about four miles and-a-half through the parish, and the middle Edinburgh and Glasgow road for a trifle more than seven.  On the latter these travelled for some years from 12 to 18 stage-coaches daily.  All have been given up since the railway was opened."  New Statistical Account 1845

• 1855 Bathgate - Monkland railway branch line completed;

• 1858 first passenger station opened;

• early 1860s railway line connected with Airdrie-Glasgow line and also Armadale connected to Edinburgh, and connected to Glasgow via Airdrie and Slamannan.

• As a result of the North British Railway Company service, the last of the stagecoaches were withdrawn as they were no longer needed.

Past and Present Chap I  : The Great North Road (A89)

In 1990 McKinnon and Fernie of Heriot-Watt University produced a survey of The development of distribution facilities in West Lothian that showed Bathgate to be the most cost-effective location for distribution within Scotland. The roundabout on the A89 to the east of Armadale, Heatherfield, was judged to be 'the heart of Scotland', the most accessible place by road in Scotland.

The Stane beside the Cross

There's a stane that stands in Armadale
It stands beside the Cross,
tae yin an' a' it tells a tale
O' hoo a life was lost.
her name shall have immortal fame,
Her deed shall never fade,
For there a heroine was slain
That wore nae martial plaid.

Tho' she was but a humble wife,
her cottage trim and clean,
That fatal day she gave her life
her noble soul was seen.
An' tho' her face may dim with time
Forgotten thro' the years
Her stane recalls a heroine
That wet the Dale wi' tears.

Alas, it stands arrayed in green
And bears a lamp post light
Tae me the green is but a screen
That hides a marble white.

Above: Armadale Cross, on the corner of West Main Street and South Street, looking across The Great Road joining Glasgow to Edinburgh, now the A89, towards the corner of North Street and East Main Street, the site of the Toll House (c1795) and the Toll Bar where travellers had to pay a toll to continue their journeys.  The Toll House was demolished in January 1884.

The memorial in the foreground was erected in honour of Mrs Elizabeth Kerr of Dunolly Cottage. She was a local midwife, and so well known and well liked.

On 26 November 1919, she was shopping in town.  On leaving a shop, she saw a young girl standing in the middle of the road.  She noted that a car was approaching, and so she rushed to push the girl out of its path.  Sadly, the car hit Mrs Kerr who died later from her injuries.

The girl was Mary Easton, later Mrs Forbes of South Africa.

Armadalians expressed their appreciation of Mrs Kerr's heroism by collecting money (The carnegie hero Fund trust, John Ross - Chairman, George Burns - Secretary), which paid for the erection of the memorial at Armadale Cross in the 1920s.  The memorial describes the details of the accident and includes the quotation "Unbounded Courage and Compassion Joined".

1861: Bullion Brae re-named Academy Street;

1881: East Main Street and West Main Street became the names of streets at the east and west side of the Toll Bar; Branch Road re-named North Street; Drove Loan re-named South Street; Mill Road became the name of the street leading to Woodend; the road at the eastern boundary re-named The Marches (ie March=boundary place where estates meet); all miners' rows retained their names except Monkey Row (from Monklands company) which became Thomson Street.

Numbering and lettering was completed by July 1883.  All houses had their street numbers attached to their frontages costing the Burgh 8 pence per dozen numbers and enamelled street names were mounted at street corners by 1894.

Burns Avenue: originally called Orlit Avenue, was changed on the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns, poet
Woodend Walk: the link between the village of Woodend and the colliery
Ferrier Crescent: named after William Ferrier, twice Provost of Armadale
Wood Terrace: named after James Wood, local benefactor who gave Wood Park to the town.
St Andrews Drive: Frank Fagan chose this name while Provost in 1970-1
Shaw Avenue: named after Christina Shaw who left a legacy of money to the poor of Armadale.
Lower Bathville was formed from Bathville Cross to the railway crossing on the Bathgate Road where many workmen's houses and cottages of a superior quality were built.
Greig Crescent: named after James Binnie Greig former owner of the Crown Hotel and was Provost 1917 - 1929
Drove Road: the road along which cattle were driven to market
Gracie's Wynd: named after James Gracie, local lay preacher of the Methodist Church
The Marches: the boundary of the Bathville and Hardhill estates, formerly Gillespie Street after Lady Gillespie, granddaughter of Lord Armadale
Cappers Court: named after Cappers Row which was once on the south side of Armadale near the railway station
Anderson Avenue: named after Dr William Anderson OBE
St Margaret's Drive: chosen by James McKeown when Provost 1942-5
Honeyman Court: named after Sir William Honeyman, later Lord Armadale.

1916 - 1920: Armadale's first speed warning signs (a limit of 10 mph) were erected near the Crown Hotel and at the junction of Academy Street and West Main Street.

1905: The Scottish Motor traction Company operated a Bathgate - Armadale service by steam-driven charabanc.

The grave of Benjamin Shaw, son of Benjamin and Sarah Shaw of St Paul's Church Yard, London,  in Kirkton cemetery.  He was killed while travelling on the Telegraph Coach near West Craigs in 1807.

• 1788: Early planning for an Edinburgh-Glasgow mail coach, thereby extending the recently created Royal Mail Coach service from London.

• 1795: A new road (the Bathgate-Airdrie Turnpike Road) was completed in October.  It promised to be more reliable, and less disrupted by weather, as it was built on lower, flatter ground than the original stagecoach route, which had posed problems because of the steep gradients over Bathgate and the Craig Hills.

• 1805: The Royal Mail coaches were eventually run between Edinburgh and Glasgow using the southern route via Whitburn.

• 1810: Coaches began to follow the northern route via Linlithgow, Falkirk and Kilsyth.

• 1828: Coaches left Edinburgh at 11am (southern route) and 9.15pm (northern route).  By the end of the year a night mail coach was using the Bathgate-Airdrie middle route.  The latter caused difficulties for Bathgate's postmaster as he lived some distance from the mail route, and so collection of mail had to be provided for.  Lengthy debate followed over whether the Postmaster should receive payment for the inconvenience of collection. 

• 1829: Eventually, it was decided that an incidental expense would be paid to facilitate the collection of mail.

• 1837: A Receiving Office was created on the mail coach route and the middle route Glasgow-Edinburgh coach stopped at Walter Forrester's in Bathgate's Bridge Street at 1am while the  Edinburgh-Glasgow coach via Broxburn and Uphall stopped there nightly at 11.30pm.

• 1842: The Post Office considered shipping post by railway.

• 1843: Bathgate Receiving Office was no longer needed and £10 a year was saved!

The photo shows part of the stage coach history display in Blackridge Community Museum

• 1855: First Sub-Post Office in Armadale, run by Mrs Forsyth, blacksmith's wife.

• 1860: Mrs Forsyth resigned.  Mr Forrester took over the local office and combined it with his recently opened stationery shop.

• 1870: John MacDonald, former miner, took over from Mr Forrester, remaining Armadale's sub-postmaster until 1879.  A slit in the wall of his home created Armadale's first post box.  He ran the stationer's, bookshop and newsagent's and was also the village Registrar.

• 1871: The telegraph was introduced to Armadale (20 words were sent for 1shilling).

• 1879: Mr Beveridge took over the newsagency. Duncan McDougal, Armadale's draper, ran the Post Office until he went bankrupt 3 years later.  The Post Office was again combined with the newsagent's business.

• 1900: Armadale's first Crown Post Office: Postmaster; counter assistant; 3 postmen; 2 telegram delivery boys.  2 morning deliveries, 1 5pm delivery Mondays - saturdays.  5 collections, the last at 8pm.  Letters and parcels were despatched by rail.

• 1909: Post Office to be open from 8am to 8pm.

• 1909: Telephone Exchange to be introduced if sufficient demand (i.e 5 subscribers).  Once 5 had agreed, plans were implemented.

Colquhoun Postcard

• James Aitken aka Jimmy: At first he ran a horse-drawn wagonette and later a small box-like long bus between Toll Brae and Armadale Station for passengers and goods.

• Tennant Company: ran buses, a hearse and taxis.  It ran a passenger service between Bathgate and Airdrie and  local excursions such as the Sunday School trips. One of their buses had a folding roof and every row of seats had its own door.  The nearside of the bus had steps leading to the door.

• Smiths of Mill Road and John Young: small 14 seater buses were for hire. Shopping trips were run every Friday from Woodend - Armadale -Woodend and Northrigg - Armadale -Northrigg.

• Some bus trips only required transportation on return trips where children walked to destinations such as Boghead and The Birks (behind Heatherfield).

• In 1950 there was a two-way broadcast between Armadale, West Lothian and Armadale, Australia

• In 1956, Provost Will Ferrier sent greetings to Armadale, Victoria, Armadale, western Australia, and Armadale, Ontario.

• In 1956, Armadale was featured in a radio programme 'Matters Arising' in which Mrs. McKeown, Esay Edwards, Martin Prentice, Hugh Wotherspooon, J.F. Miller, Peter King and Mrs Sharp asked questions.