Polmont ( gd, Poll-Mhonadh) is a village in the Falkirk council area of Central

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. It lies towards the east of the town of

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had ...

, north of the

Union Canal Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** '' ...

, which runs adjacent to the village. Due to its situation in Central Scotland, many locations can be seen from Polmont, ranging from the

Ochil Hills The Ochil Hills (; gd, Monadh Ochail is a range of hills in Scotland north of the Forth valley bordered by the towns of Stirling, Alloa, Kinross, Auchterarder and Perth. The only major roads crossing the hills pass through Glen Devon/ Gle ...

and the

River Forth The River Forth is a major river in central Scotland, long, which drains into the North Sea on the east coast of the country. Its drainage basin covers much of Stirlingshire in Scotland's Central Belt. The Gaelic name for the upper reach of t ...

, to

Cairnpapple Hill Cairnpapple Hill is a hill with a dominating position in central lowland Scotland with views from coast to coast. It was used and re-used as a major ritual site over about 4000 years, and in its day would have been comparable to better known sit ...

. Although giving its name to Polmont Young Offenders Institution, the prison is in fact in Reddingmuirhead.

History

The name Polmont derives from the

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

term ''Poll-Mhonadh'', which translates into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

as "Pool of the Hill". Old Polmont was situated on a

raised beach A raised beach, coastal terrace,Pinter, N (2010): 'Coastal Terraces, Sealevel, and Active Tectonics' (educational exercise), from 2/04/2011/ref> or perched coastline is a relatively flat, horizontal or gently inclined surface of marine origin, ...

overlooking the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

and the Ochils. There were two

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

temporary marching camps, one on either side of what is now Grangemouth Golf Course: on the western side was Little Kerse, and on the eastern side was Polmont Hill. The

Antonine Wall The Antonine Wall, known to the Romans as ''Vallum Antonini'', was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some ...

ran through Polmont from Mumrills, the largest

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

on the wall, west of Polmont. Remains of the wall can best be seen in Polmont Woods, accessed by a footpath next to the M9 motorway bridge. The first mention of Polmont was in 1498, relating to the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The next mention was in th
Statistical Accounts of Scotland
Old Polmont has changed little as can be seen from thi
1862 Map
but, in 1968, the first section of the M9 motorway cut through farm land between Old and New Polmont. Polmont was originally included within the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

of Falkirk, but was severed under the authority of the

Court of Teinds The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland and constitutes part of the College of Justice; the supreme criminal court of Scotland is the High Court of Justiciary. The Court of Session sits in Parliament House in Edinburgh ...

(''teind'' is the Scots word for

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more ...

), and made an independent parish, in 1724. The parish boundary was from the Firth of Forth up to Muiravonside, and it was later renamed Grangemouth Parish as the port of Grangemouth grew. Nothing of the early history of Polmont has been recorded. New Polmont was built along the Great North Road (A9), south of Old Polmont, and was originally called Bennetstown or Bennestone (named after the Laird of Whyteside, Mr Bennet, on whose land it was built. Apart from housing, agricultural workshops and stores, it also had three public houses: The Crown, The Red Lion and The Black Bull, but only The Black Bull remains and dates from before 1745
Map of Polmont 1860
The village slowly expanded after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

with housing being built on land of former estates of Millfield, Polmont Park, and Polmont House. From the mid-1970s, the population significantly expanded when housing was built on the Gilston Estate, whereupon the village was re-designated as a dormitory town. During World War II, the now-demolished St Margaret's School for girls was used for signals training by Polish forces, and soldiers from various Polish units were assigned there.

Notable residents

* John Gibb Dunlop (1844–1913) Director of John Brown and Company creator of both

RMS Lusitania RMS ''Lusitania'' (named after the Roman province in Western Europe corresponding to modern Portugal) was a British ocean liner that was launched by the Cunard Line in 1906 and that held the Blue Riband appellation for the fastest Atlantic ...

and RMS Aquitania * Gilbert Laurie of Polmont (1729–1809),

Lord Provost of Edinburgh The Right Honourable Lord Provost of Edinburgh is the convener of the City of Edinburgh local authority, who is elected by the city council and serves not only as the chair of that body, but as a figurehead for the entire city, ex officio the ...

*Johan Theodor Salvesen (1820–1865), joint founder of

Christian Salvesen Christian Salvesen was a Scottish whaling, transport and logistics company with a long and varied history, employing 13,000 staff and operating in seven countries in western Europe. In December 2007, it was acquired by French listed transport ...

* James Smith (1808-1863) came to Polmont Bank House with his daughter

Madeleine Smith Madeleine Hamilton Smith (29 March 1835 – 12 April 1928) was a 19th-century Glasgow socialite who was the accused in a sensational murder trial in Scotland in 1857. Background Smith was the first child (of five) of an upper-middle-class ...

to escape the notoriety raised by her infamous murder trial. He died there broken by the affair. She married and moved to America.

Politics

Polmont is within the jurisdiction of Falkirk Council, although the suggestion of east Polmont changing hands for the purposes of the

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

Parliamentary Constituency to Linlithgow and East Falkirk arose, but was soon discounted. In May 2007, the Polmont area merged as part of an expanded Lower Braes seat, as proposed for Falkirk Council by the Scottish Executive. Lord Polmont is a subsidiary title of the

Duke of Hamilton Duke of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in April 1643. It is the senior dukedom in that peerage (except for the Dukedom of Rothesay held by the Sovereign's eldest son), and as such its holder is the premier peer of Sco ...

. This title was originally given to the 2nd Duke of Hamilton in 1639. One of the current councillors for Polmont (and the rest of the Lower Braes Ward) in Falkirk Council is Scottish Conservative Councillor Malcolm Nicol, who has held the role since 2000 following the death of his predecessor, Frank Hodge. He previously represented a seat in

Grangemouth Grangemouth ( sco, Grangemooth; gd, Inbhir Ghrainnse, ) is a town in the Falkirk council area, Scotland. Historically part of the county of Stirlingshire, the town lies in the Forth Valley, on the banks of the Firth of Forth, east of Falkir ...

, originally being elected in 1983. SNP Councillor Steven Jackson has also represented Polmont, which is part of the larger Lower Braes Ward, since May 2007, being elected for the first time through the Single Transferable Vote system. Polmont is unusual for a town in the Falkirk area in that a local by-election in 2000 saw a Conservative candidate returned with over half of the popular vote.

Economy

The economy of Polmont is based mainly upon relatively small scale

private enterprise A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

, such as

pubs A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

cafe A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-c ...

s, hotels,

take-aways A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...

and

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ti ...

s. The majority of these are based in or around Polmont

shopping centre A shopping center ( American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known colle ...

, the focal point of local custom.

Agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

is also a central industry, with

arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for th ...

consuming a sizeable proportion of the area. Polmont is home to the controversial Avondale Landfill, a large employer on the east of the village. Due to the proximity to Grangemouth, a number of the population work at the Grangemouth refineries and

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

. Few of the population work in Polmont itself, leaving it something of a commuter town, largely to Edinburgh and Glasgow. There are several hotels in the area, with the most well known being the Inchyra Grange, a redevelopment from one of the area's many former

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

Transport

Polmont railway station , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Polmont railway station, Stirlingshire (geograph 5433024).jpg , caption = Polmont station in 2018, following bridge rebuilding and electrification works , borough = Polmont, Falkirk , countr ...

is located on the Edinburgh to Glasgow railway line. In 1984 a train collided with a cow that had strayed onto the rail line near Polmont. The crash left 13 people dead and 61 others injured. The M9 motorway runs through the village between Polmont and Old Polmont, with two exit points on the east and west sides. There are numerous bus stops throughout the village, primarily situated on Polmont Main Street, which provide direct bus services to Edinburgh, Falkirk and

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

. The nearest airport,

Edinburgh Airport Edinburgh Airport is an airport located in the Ingliston area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the busiest airport in Scotland in 2019, handling over 14.7 million passengers. It was also the sixth-busiest airport in the United Kingdom by ...

, is located approximately to the east.

Education

Polmont has provided primary level education since the 1700s. The original Parish School still stands across from the church; however, in the 1960s Polmont Primary School became overcrowded and relocated to a set of interlinked wooden huts on Greenpark Drive. Polmont Primary's colours are green and silver reflected in the uniform of green blazer, green/silver tie, grey shorts/skirts and white shirts/blouses. Further expansion of Polmont meant that the school again became overcrowded; finally, a permanent structure was built in the south west of Polmont and renamed St Margaret's Primary School. St. Margaret's had been the name of a private school that had stood between 1895 and 1948 on the site of houses that are now on the west side of Stevenson Avenue. Parishchurchpolmont

Culture

Polmont Parish Church was designed by John Tait in 1844. Polmont is a parish and its religious community is primarily

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

, being home to a

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...

in Old Polmont. The area also has a Christian denominational presence in the form of the

Church of the Brethren The Church of the Brethren is an Anabaptist Christian denomination in the Schwarzenau Brethren (german: link=no, Schwarzenauer Neutäufer "Schwarzenau New Baptists") tradition that was organized in 1708 by Alexander Mack in Schwarzenau, Germ ...

and the

Religious Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

. Scottish rock band Glasvegas have a song entitled "Polmont On My Mind" on their debut album, '' Glasvegas''. Parkhill House and grounds were used as a location in the fourth season of

Outlander (TV series) ''Outlander'' is a historical drama television series based on the '' Outlander'' novel series by Diana Gabaldon. Developed by Ronald D. Moore, the show premiered on August 9, 2014, on Starz. It stars Caitríona Balfe as Claire Randall, a fo ...

The grounds of the former Millfield House contain the only living examples of several exotic trees to be found in Europe.

Sport

Football

Polmont has an amateur football club. Since the 2014–15 season they have played in Division One Stirling & District AFA. The club play their home games at Meadowbank Bank, St. Margaret's in the east of the village. There was once a junior club representing the area but the club only lasted a few years. From the Union Canal - geograph

The most famous sporting export of Polmont is Alex Raisbeck, who spent several years captaining

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

. He also represented

on eight occasions, and was considered to have been one of the finest players of his generation, dating back to 1898. He captained Liverpool to their first ever English championship title in 1901 and did so again five years later. The highest-profile Polmontarian currently playing at senior level is

Derek Niven Derek Dunbar Niven (born 12 December 1983) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He previously played for Stenhousemuir, Raith Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Chesterfield, Northampton Town, Grimsby Town and Buxt ...

, formerly of Chesterfield.

Other sports

Despite its name, Grangemouth Golf Club is located on the outskirts of Polmont. Within the boundaries of Grangemouth Golf Club is Millhall

Reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...

, which is now a fishery. To the east of the clubhouse is Polmont Ski Centre, which includes an artificial ski slope.

References

External links

Archive images of Polmont

St Margaret's Primary School
{{authority control Villages in Falkirk (council area)