Calderbank is a village outside the town of Airdrie,

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire ( sco, North Lanrikshire; gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Tuath) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It als ...

, Scotland. It lies west of the M73, on the west bank of the

North Calder Water The North Calder Water is a river in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It flows for from the Black Loch (in the Falkirk council area) via the Hillend Reservoir, Caldercruix, Plains, Airdrie, Calderbank, Carnbroe and Viewpark to the River Clyde at D ...

. The village lies east of

Glasgow city centre Glasgow City Centre is the central business district of Glasgow, Scotland. Is bounded by Saltmarket, High Street and Castle Street to the east, The River Clyde to the south and the M8 motorway to its west and north. Glasgow City Centre is comp ...

and around west of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. Other nearby towns include: Airdrie (),

Coatbridge Coatbridge ( sco, Cotbrig or Coatbrig, gd, Drochaid a' Chòta) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Airdrie, Coatbrid ...

(), Bellshill () and Motherwell (). It has a population of about ()

Etymology

The village's name is of a doubtful etymology. The first part of the name refers to the

, the small river that flows through the village: however the second element is unknown. Some sources suggest the second element is from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''benc'' " bench". A record of the name from 1182 as ''Celdrebec'' suggests this.

History

The village is famous for being the birthplace of the ''Vulcan'', the world's first iron boat, which sailed from Calderbanks Iron Works to the River Clyde and plied the Scottish canals first with passengers and then with cargoes of iron and coal. Iron from the Calderbanks works was used to build the Queen Mary cruise liner. The

Monkland Canal The Monkland Canal was a canal designed to bring coal from the mining areas of Monklands to Glasgow in Scotland. In the course of a long and difficult construction process, it was opened progressively as short sections were completed, from 177 ...

was extended to the west of the village in the late 18th century and was used as a route to transport coal to Port Dundas in Glasgow away. This part of the canal has been preserved between the village and Sikeside on the outskirts of Coatbridge. And other parts of the canal can be seen in Coatbridge town centre and Drumpelier country park, however much of the canal was covered in the 1950s and 1960s by the M8 motorway which actually runs with the meanders of what was the canal (yet under the motorway large pipes still run water which feed the Forth and Clyde canal today). Calderbank was the site of early Christian settlement, by monks from Newbattle Abbey in the

Borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

. This gave the local area the name of Monklands.

Bibliography

Calderbank: an industrial and social history

References

External links

*
Calderbank
at Gazetteer for Scotland Villages in North Lanarkshire Airdrie, North Lanarkshire {{NorthLanarkshire-geo-stub