Bathgate

Bathgate is a town in Scotland in the county of West Lothian, with about 15,650 inhabitants. Neighboring towns are Blackburn, Whitburn, Livingston, and Linlithgow Stoneyburn. Edinburgh Airport is 21 km away. The town center is about 3 km south of the Neolithic burial site Cairnpapple Hill. The region of Bathgate is inhabited since about 3500 BC.

History

Bathgate first written in 1160. 1315 drew Walter III. Stewart (6th High Stewart of Scotland) in the castle of Bathgate, after he got transferred the lands as a dowry. Walter lived until his death on April 9, 1326 at the castle. 1606 a silver deposit was discovered near the town and a mine opened until the reduction was set in 1613 because of poor quality of the silver deposits. Until the 19th century Bathgate was a small village. Industrialization began with the opening of a railway line between Edinburgh and Bathgate and the mining of coal, limestone and ore in the nearby mines and quarries was taken. 1852 opened with the Bathgate Chemical Works, a large chemical plant. Middle of the 20th century closed due to the steel crisis, most coal and steel industries, and the city became a part of the " Special Development Area ", a structural support area that was initiated by the British government. 1961 built the British Motor Company, a new truck and tractor plant in Bathgate, which had in 1986 already close again.

The first fossil of Westlothiana, a primitive land vertebrate from the Lower Carboniferous, was found in 1987 in a quarry near Bathgate. It is now exhibited in the Museum of Scotland.

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