Old Photographs Armadale Scotland

Old photograph of Armadale, West Lothian, Scotland. Formerly known as Barbauchlaw, is an ex mining town which is also known for its brick manufacturing. It is named after Armadale in Sutherland, this estate being owned by Sir William Honeyman who later acquired the land of Barbauchlaw. Before the building of a new turnpike road between Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1786 the village of Armadale was little more than a rural farm community but its location at a main highway junction brought additional traffic and a toll house was built where the new road intersected with an existing road in the east of the estate. The discovery of large coal deposits and also ironstone in the area attracted the attention of a number of companies and several pits were sunk in the area. A school was first formed in the town also in 1819, and it eventually became necessary to build a dedicated school house in 1839 to accommodate the growing number of students. Tom Hanlin was born in Armadale on 28 August 1907. At the age of 14 he left school and worked on a farm for a year, then got a job at a mine where he worked for the next twenty years. While working as a miner he began to study at a journalism school in Glasgow. After a workplace accident in 1945, he spent three months in the Royal Infirmary, and he began to write stories and sell them, thus realising his childhood dream to be a Scottish fiction writer,.Hanlin died at home on 7 April 1953, after developing heart and breathing problems. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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