Coalburn, South Lanarkshire

Coalburn is a village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK.

History

Coalburn is a small isolated village that lies on the Coal Burn, a tributary of the Douglas Water, 3 miles (5 km) south of Lesmahagow. Coalburn developed from the 1850s as a railway settlement associated with local coal mines. With the closure of the railway to passengers in 1965 and the last colliery and mineral traffic on the railway in 1968, the village population declined from a peak of nearly 2,300 to 1,267.^[1].

One Stop Shop

In order to provide a better quality of life the people of Coalburn have worked over the last few years to fund and renovate The Coalburn Miners Welfare by developing a modern One Stop Shop. The Coalburn One Stop Shop was opened just before Christmas 2003 and with the help of funding from Rural Challenge, Leader and many more. The One Stop Shop provides a number of community facilities under one roof. The aim was to help the community to develop IT skills, access training for jobs and improve the local childcare facilities. The One Stop Shop project has managed to maintain these aims and provide the community with various services of interest to young people and others, such as an IT suite, internet access, Cruets Cafe, a new childcare facility, The Busy Bees, activity groups, various advice and employment services as well as an archive of local heritage for community use.

Local pool

Coalburn Leisure Complex is a multi-purpose wet and dry sports and leisure centre, with state-of-the-art health and fitness facilities and was opened in 1997, by a gladiator'Siren'. Facilities available include:

• 20 metre swimming pool
• Beauty within
• Wide range of fitness classes, including body attack, body blast, aquafit, etc.
• The Club gym
• Community hall
• Creche
• Health suite
• Alternative therapies inc Reiki, Indian head massage, Swedish massage

Fame

In 1990 Coalburn was used as a location in the film The Big Man starring Liam Neeson, Joanne Whalley and Billy Connolly. Coalburn featured in Taggart on the 15th of December 2008 in the episode called Crossing the Line.

Former Scottish football internationalist Archibald Glen was born in the village.

Until Christmas 2007, a local man, Danny Meikle, decorated his house with over a million Christmas lights, which attracted people from all over Scotland. Danny Meikle appeared on GMTV and Scotland Today to name but a few.

The opencast mine that opened in the village in the late 1980s became the biggest mine in Europe by the early 1990s^[2].

Coalburn's Miners Welfare was featured in BBC3 show "The World's Toughest Driving Tests" whilst the stars of the shows were at a nearby Opencast driving some heavy machinery.

References

1. ^ Current Population (2010)
2. ^ The Jim Hamilton Heritage Society of Coalburn coalburnheritage.org.uk

External links

• Coalburn One Stop Shop
• The Jim Hamilton Heritage Society of Coalburn

Coordinates: 55°35′N 3°54′W / 55.583°N 3.9°W / 55.583; -3.9