When was east kilbride founded

Roman coins and footwear have also been found in the area. East Kilbride takes its name from an Irish saint named St Bride or Brigit , who founded a monastery for nuns and monks in Kildare , Ireland in the 6th century.

The anglicisation Kil , takes its root from the early Celtic monastics that St. The original parish church was located on the site of a pre-Christian sacred well, which is possibly the origin of the association with St. Brigit, since the well was dedicated to the Celtic goddess Brigid , whose traditions have been continued through the reverence of St. Over the centuries, the church has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, and, as a result, its current location has moved from the original site by about 50 metres ft.

The area of Calderglen was celebrated as a picturesque wooded valley. It was the home of a noble family known as the 'Maxwells of Calderwood' who resided in Calderwood Castle. The remnants of Calderwood Castle were demolished in and only a few parts of the structure remain. East Kilbride grew from a small village of around inhabitants in to eventually become a large burgh.

The rapid industrialisation of the twentieth century underpins this growth and left much of the working population throughout Scotland's Central Belt, from Glasgow to Edinburgh, living in the housing stock built at the end of the previous century. The Great War postponed any housing improvements, as did the Treaty of Versailles and the period of post-war settlement it created.

In turn, this was followed by the Great Depression. After the Second World War , Glasgow, already suffering from chronic housing shortages, incurred bomb damage from the war. From this unlikely backdrop a new dawn emerged which would bring East Kilbride to its unlikely success. In , the Clyde Valley Regional Plan allocated sites where overspill satellite "new towns" could be constructed to help alleviate the housing shortage.

Glasgow would also undertake the development of its peripheral housing estates. East Kilbride was the first of five new towns in Scotland to be designated, in , followed by Glenrothes , Cumbernauld , Livingston and Irvine The town has been subdivided into residential precincts, each with its own local shops, primary schools and community facilities. The housing precincts surround the shopping centre, which is bound by a ring road.

Industrial estates are concentrated on the outskirts of the town, in northern, western and southern directions. East Kilbride forms part of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. However, the urban area is not directly connected to any other. The hamlets of Nerston and Jackton which were once separate settlements are now on the periphery of the expanding town.

In recent years work has been done on the Village to improve and restore it and it is once again a pleasant place to visit and to shop. While preparing land for the development of a new golf course in East Kibride, on a section of land known as Law Knowe, developers have uncovered what appear to be a bronze age, pictish burial ground. Members of the East Kilbride History Society have appealed to Playgolf Holdings, owners of the new golf course, to place some kind of permanent memorial there.

The Kittoch Water flows through the town, while to the east flows the Rotten Calder. The village of East Kilbride began in the 12th C. Bride or Bridget. Its industries included dairy farming and weaving primarily muslin while a cotton spinning mill was established by General Stuart of Torrance in ; this soon shifted east to use the water power of the Rotten Calder at Newhouse.

Other industries in the area included bootmaking, coal, lime, tile-making from local clay , cement production and clock-making. Notable in its early years for a young economically-active population, with more than one job per household, East Kilbride's industry is wide ranging and includes a large Science Park at the Peel Park Campus and the Scottish Enterprise Technology Park where significant operations have included the National Engineering Laboratory, Motorola and Rolls-Royce.

Walter later handed over the Barony of Kilbride to the Lindsay family from Renfrewshire, but their line died out in poverty during the 17th century. The 16th and 17th centuries saw the growth of the Covenanters, Scottish Presbyterians who bound themselves by a series of solemn oaths or covenants to maintain Presbyterianism as the sole religion of their nation.

The struggle often erupted into armed conflict, the most famous being the Battle of Drumclog and the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in After their defeat at Bothwell, commander of the Covenanter army, James Reid, charged the King's army alone and snatched the Kilbryd as it was then spelt Standard and escaped back through enemy lines. The faded yellow flag, with the red letters "Kilbryd, for God, King and Covenants" is now in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, which is currently closed for refurbishment.

In the early part of the 18th century, Kilbride added the East prefix to distinguish itself from Kilbride in Ayrshire which added "West" to its name. The town was also given the status of burgh of barony, allowing it to hold weekly markets and four annual fairs.

The famous Open Cattle Show Society was formed in which, by the late s, was the largest one-day cattle show in Scotland, taking place in the Show Park which is still there today, owned by the farming community but also home to junior league football club, East Kilbride Thistle. In the parish church, now the Old Parish Church, was built in what is now referred to as the Village.