Bellshill

This article is about the town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. For other places of the same name, see Bellshill (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 55°48′59″N 4°01′34″W / 55.81647°N 4.02615°W / 55.81647; -4.02615

Bellshill
Scottish Gaelic: Cnoc a' Chluig[1]
Scots: Bellshull[1]
St. Andrew's Church, Bellshill
Bellshill  Bellshill shown within North Lanarkshire
Population	30,000 (2001 Census)
- Edinburgh	33 mi (53 km) ENE
- London	341 mi (549 km) SSE
Council area	North Lanarkshire
Lieutenancy area	Lanarkshire
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BELLSHILL
Postcode district	ML4
Dialling code	01698
Police	Strathclyde
Fire	Strathclyde
Ambulance	Scottish
EU Parliament	Scotland
UK Parliament	Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill
List of places: UK • Scotland •

Bellshill (pronounced Bells-hill) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, 10 miles south east of Glasgow city centre and 37 miles west of Edinburgh. Other nearby towns are Motherwell (2 miles), Hamilton (3 miles) and Coatbridge (3 miles). Since 1996, it has been situated in the Greater Glasgow metropolitan area. The town has a population of 30,000 (2001).

History

The earliest record of settlement in the Bellshill area is a village called Belmill, recorded on a map by Timothy Pont published in 1654. The village consisted of a row of quarry workers' houses owned by Mr. Bell, who owned a stone quarry to the south of Belmill. After the quarry closed, the village disappeared and a settlement developed nearby called Crossgates. About 1810, this new settlement took on the name Bellshill and continued to grow absorbing nearby villages such as Black Moss, Sykehead and Nesnas.

After the mid-19th century, large coal and iron deposits were discovered nearby and a number of mines opened, the first being the Thankerton mine. This rapidly increased the size of the town, even bringing in immigrants from abroad particularly Lithuania so much so it is sometimes referenced as little Lithuania.[1] The rise in the migrant Lithuanian population led to the opening of The Scottish Lithuanian Recreation and Social Club within Calder Road in the Mossend area.

A number of railway stations were opened in the area, including Mossend, Fallside and Bell Cross.

The settlement is now served by Bellshill railway station.

In the 1870s, Bothwell Parochial Board built the two ward Bellshill Hospital. During World War I, the hospital specialised in infection diseases. In 1917, the hospital began to specialise as a maternity hospital, the first in the Lanarkshire area, with new dedicated maternity buildings being opened in 1958 and 1962. The hospital was also the first in the world to have an 'Obstetric Flying Squad'. The hospital was the birth place of many famous faces including politician Robin Cook, footballer Ally McCoist and singer Sheena Easton. The hospital closed down in 2001 and was demolished in 2003 to make way for new housing developments.

According to a report by the Halifax Building Society, in the first quarter of 2005 Bellshill was the UK's property hot spot with a 46% rise in house prices. This took the average property price to £105,698 (according to reports published April 2005).

The streetscape project which will see Bellshill town centre completely changed started in April 2007 and is scheduled to run for 75 weeks, once complete this will see an end to Bellshill Cross and Main Street will be a one way street. Bellshill has 6 primary schools including Belvidere Primary School which closed in early June 2010 and has now been demolished. There are also two fairly large secondary schools, these are Bellshill Academy and Cardinal Newman High School. There are also several churches including St Andrews Church of Scotland, The West Church, St Gerard's, Sacred Heart and Macdonald Memorial to name but a few. There is a free public library and leisure facilities available for all in the town.

Music

Bellshill is also known for its music, especially since the mid 1980s. Bands such as Soup Dragons, BMX Bandits and Teenage Fanclub put Bellshill on the map as an indie rock hot-spot in Scotland. The scene - known as the Bellshill Sound or the Bellshill Beat - was celebrated by influential DJ John Peel in the Channel 4 television series Sounds Of The Suburbs. Bellshill continues to produce well respected and influential independent pop music, with members of current bands The Tranquil, Mogwai, De Rosa, Rockburn & The Lonely Souls... hailing from the town.

Notable people from Bellshill

Bellshill was home to Lanarkshire's maternity hospital. The following list refers to all the famous people that were born in the town.

In 1996, a television programme was made about the three world famous football managers who were born in Bellshill - Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Jock Stein. This programme featured interviews with several friends and former neighbours of each of the featured managers.

• Kenny Arthur
• Tom Birney
• BMX Bandits (band)
• Craig Brown
• Sir Matt Busby
• Doug Cameron (politician)
• Stewart Carswell
• William Chalmers
• Gregory Clark (economist)
• Chris Connick
• Robin Cook
• Tom Cowan
• James Dempsey
• Mike Denness
• Pat Sharp
• De Rosa (band)
• Peter Cherrie
• Henry Dyer
• Sheena Easton - Vocalist
• Barry Ferguson
• Derek Ferguson
• Hughie Gallacher - Scottish internationalist footballer and Football League winning captain of Newcastle United
• Peter Grant
• Scott Harrison - Former world boxing champion
• Michael Hart
• Martin John Henry
• Lee Hollis
• Brian Irvine
• Brian Kerr
• Bryan Kirkwood - Former Producer of Hollyoaks and current executive producer of EastEnders
• Bryan Lee
• David Lilley
• Graham Lyle (Member of the Scottish music duo Gallagher and Lyle)
• Malky Mackay
• Kevin McBride
• Ryan McCann
• Frank McCarthy
• Brian McClair
• Ally McCoist
• Lee McCulloch
• John McCusker
• Chris McGroarty
• Paul McGuigan
• Tom McKean
• Billy McNeill
• Hugh Murray
• David Shaw Nicholls
• Phil O'Donnell
• Tommy O'Hara
• Jim Paterson (Plymouth Argyle full-back/winger)
• Daniel Quinn (The Uppers)
• John Rankin
• Dr John Reid
• Sharleen Spiteri (lead singer of the group Texas)
• Soup Dragons
• Steven Smith
• Harry Stanley
• John Stewart
• Teenage Fanclub
• Jim Brown^{[clarification needed]}
• The Vaselines
• Sean O'Kane

Sport

The town has a football team, Bellshill Athletic, that plays in the Scottish Junior Football West Premier League. They play their home games outside of the town, in Glasgow, after New Brandon Park was closed down to reduce costs. The club only has a tiny fan base due to the towns residents being followers of Rangers, Celtic and near-neighbours Motherwell.

Bellshill also has the Sir Matt Busby Sports Complex (Named after the late Manchester United legend who was born and brought up in the area) that opened in 1995. It has an Olympic standard swimming pool, with two large spectator seating areas either side, a large hall and health suite.

There is also a golf course next to nearby Strathclyde Park.

Location grid

References

1. ^ ^{a b} List of railway station names in English, Scots and Gaelic - NewsNetScotland

External links

• www.bellshill.com Information and Facts on Bellshill
• 2001 Settlement Population - Census data
• [2] Towns and villages in Monklands area
• [3] John Peel and Sean Dickson tour Bellshill on camera.