Coatbridge

Coatbridge, a municipal and police burgh, having the privileges of a royal burgh, of Lanarkshire, Scotland. Pop. (1891) 15,212; (1901) 36,991. It is situated on the Monkland Canal, 8 m. E. of Glasgow, with stations on the Caledonian and North British railways. Until about 1825 it was only a village, but since then its vast stores of coal and iron have been developed, and it is now the centre of the iron trade of Scotland. Its prosperity was largely due to the ironmaster James Baird (q.v.), who erected as many as sixteen blast-furnaces in the immediate neighbourhood between 1830 and 1842. The industries of Coatbridge produce malleable iron, boilers, tubes, wire, tinplates and railway wagons, tiles, fire-bricks and fire-clay goods. There are two public parks in the town, and its public buildings include a theatre, a technical school and mining college, hospitals, and the academy and Baird Institute at Gartsherrie. Janet Hamilton, the poetess (1795-1873), spent most of her life at Langloan—now a part of Coatbridge—and a fountain has been erected to her memory near the cottage in which she lived. For parliamentary purposes the town, which became a municipal burgh in 1885, is included in the north-west division of Lanarkshire. About 4 m. west by south lies the mining town of Baillieston (pop. 3784), with a station on the Caledonian railway. It has numerous collieries, a nursery and market garden.