Bellshill is a town in
North LanarkshireNorth Lanarkshire is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. It borders onto the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains much of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also borders Stirling, Falkirk, East Dunbartonshire, West Lothian and South Lanarkshire...
,
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, 10 miles south east of
GlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
city centreGlasgow city centre is the central business district of Glasgow, Scotland. Is bounded by the High Street to the east, the River Clyde to the south and the M8 motorway to the west and north which was built through the Townhead, Charing Cross, Cowcaddens and Anderston areas in the 1960s...
and 37 miles west of
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. Other nearby towns are
MotherwellMotherwell is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, south east of Glasgow. The name "Moderwelt" appears on a map of Lanarkshire made by Timothy Pont some time between 1583 and 1611 and printed in the Netherlands in around 1652, although the settlement was probably little more...
(2 miles),
HamiltonHamilton is a town in South Lanarkshire, in the west-central Lowlands of Scotland. It serves as the main administrative centre of the South Lanarkshire council area. It is the fifth-biggest town in Scotland after Paisley, East Kilbride, Livingston and Cumbernauld...
(3 miles) and
CoatbridgeCoatbridge is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. The town, with neighbouring Airdrie, is part of the Greater Glasgow urban area. The first settlement of the area stretches back to the Stone Age era...
(3 miles). Since 1996, it has been situated in the
Greater GlasgowGreater Glasgow is an urban settlement in Scotland consisting of all localities which are physically attached to the city of Glasgow, forming with it a single contiguous urban area...
metropolitan areaThe term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships,...
. The town has a
populationA population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
of 30,000 (
2001A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
).
History
The earliest record of settlement in the Bellshill area is a village called Belmill, recorded on a map by
Timothy PontTimothy Pont was a Scottish topographer, the first to produce a detailed map of Scotland. Pont's maps are among the earliest surviving to show a European country in minute detail, from an actual survey.-Life:...
published in 1654. The village consisted of a row of quarry workers' houses owned by Mr. Bell, who owned a stone quarry to the south of Belmill. After the quarry closed, the village disappeared and a settlement developed nearby called Crossgates. About 1810, this new settlement took on the name Bellshill and continued to grow absorbing nearby villages such as Black Moss, Sykehead and Nesnas.
After the mid-19th century, large coal and iron deposits were discovered nearby and a number of mines opened, the first being the Thankerton mine. This rapidly increased the size of the town, even bringing in immigrants from abroad particularly
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
so much so it is sometimes referenced as little Lithuania.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig_emig/scotland/strathclyde/ The rise in the migrant Lithuanian population led to the opening of The Scottish Lithuanian Recreation and Social Club within Calder Road in the Mossend area.
A number of railway stations were opened in the area, including
MossendMossend is a town on the A775, in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, to the east of its larger sister town, Bellshill, and near to the Strathclyde Country Park....
, Fallside and Bell Cross.
The settlement is now served by
Bellshill railway stationBellshill railway station is a railway station in the town of Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The station is managed by First ScotRail and served by Argyle Line and Shotts Line services. The station is adjacent to Bellshill Main Street, on Hamilton Road, and was opened by the Caledonian...
.
In the 1870s, Bothwell Parochial Board built the two ward Bellshill Hospital. During World War I, the hospital specialised in infection diseases. In 1917, the hospital began to specialise as a maternity hospital, the first in the Lanarkshire area, with new dedicated maternity buildings being opened in 1958 and 1962. The hospital was also the first in the world to have an '
Obstetric Flying SquadAn Obstetric Flying Squad is a form of medical retrieval team that is composed of a obstetrician, anaesthetist, midwife and other healthcare personnel who are on-call to attend to mothers with major obstetric complications occurring in the community....
'. The hospital was the birth place of many famous faces including politician
Robin CookRobert Finlayson Cook was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Livingston from 1983 until his death, and notably served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 2001....
, footballer
Ally McCoistAlistair Murdoch "Ally" McCoist, MBE ; 24 September 1962) is a Scottish football manager and former player. He is the current manager of Rangers in Scotland....
and singer
Sheena EastonSheena Easton is a Scottish recording artist. Easton became famous for being the focus of an episode in the British television programme The Big Time, which recorded her attempts to gain a record contract and her eventual signing with EMI Records.Easton rose to fame in the early 1980s with the pop...
. The hospital closed down in 2001 and was demolished in 2003 to make way for new housing developments.
According to a report by the Halifax Building Society, in the first quarter of 2005 Bellshill was the UK's property hot spot with a 46% rise in house prices. This took the average property price to £105,698 (according to reports published April 2005).
The streetscape project which will see Bellshill town centre completely changed started in April 2007 and is scheduled to run for 75 weeks, once complete this will see an end to Bellshill Cross and Main Street will be a one way street.
Bellshill has 6 primary schools including Belvidere Primary School which closed in early June 2010 and has now been demolished. There are also two fairly large secondary schools, these are Bellshill Academy and Cardinal Newman High School. There are also several churches including St Andrews Church of Scotland, The West Church, St Gerard's, Sacred Heart and Macdonald Memorial to name but a few. There is a free public library and leisure facilities available for all in the town.
Music
Bellshill is also known for its music, especially since the mid 1980s. Bands such as Soup Dragons,
BMX BanditsBMX Bandits are a Scottish 1960s-influenced guitar pop band who have been making music from 1986 to the present day. They have shared members with other Bellshill bands Teenage Fanclub and The Soup Dragons....
and
Teenage FanclubTeenage Fanclub are an alternative rock band from Bellshill, Scotland. The band is composed of Norman Blake , Raymond McGinley , Gerard Love and Francis MacDonald , with songwriting duties shared equally among Blake, McGinley and Love...
put Bellshill on the map as an indie rock hot-spot in Scotland. The scene - known as the
Bellshill Sound or the
Bellshill Beat - was celebrated by influential DJ
John PeelJohn Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
in the
Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
television series
Sounds Of The Suburbs. Bellshill continues to produce well respected and influential independent pop music, with members of current bands The Tranquil,
MogwaiThe word mogwai is the transliteration of the Cantonese word 魔怪 meaning "monster", "evil spirit", "devil" or "demon".-Mogwai/Mogui in Chinese culture:...
,
De RosaDe Rosa was a Scottish rock band from Bellshill. Its components were Martin Henry , Chris Connick , James Woodside , Neil Woodside and Andrew Bush...
, Rockburn & The Lonely Souls... hailing from the town.
Notable people from Bellshill
Bellshill was home to Lanarkshire's maternity hospital. The following list refers to all the famous people that were born in the town.
In 1996, a television programme was made about the three world famous football managers who were born in Bellshill - Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Jock Stein. This programme featured interviews with several friends and former neighbours of each of the featured managers.
- Kenny Arthur
Kenneth James "Kenny" Arthur is a Scottish professional footballer who plays in England for Conference North side Gainsborough Trinity on loan from Conference National side Grimsby Town as a goalkeeper....
- Tom Birney
-Biography:Birney was born Thomas Francis Birney on August 11, 1956 in Bellshill, Scotland.-Career:Birney played with the Green Bay Packers for two seasons. He played at the collegiate level at Michigan State University....
- BMX Bandits (band)
BMX Bandits are a Scottish 1960s-influenced guitar pop band who have been making music from 1986 to the present day. They have shared members with other Bellshill bands Teenage Fanclub and The Soup Dragons....
- Craig Brown
- Sir Matt Busby
- Doug Cameron (politician)
Douglas Niven Cameron is an Australian politician and trade unionist. He has been a Labor member of the Australian Senate since July 2008, representing the state of New South Wales....
- Stewart Carswell
Stewart Carswell is a Scottish professional footballer playing as a midfielder for Scottish Premier League club Motherwell.-Motherwell:...
- William Chalmers
- Gregory Clark (economist)
Gregory Clark is an economic historian at the University of California, Davis.-Biography:Clark, whose grandfathers were migrants to Scotland from Ireland, earned his B.A. in economics and philosophy at King's College, Cambridge in 1979 and his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1985...
- Chris Connick
- Robin Cook
Robert Finlayson Cook was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Livingston from 1983 until his death, and notably served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 2001....
- Tom Cowan
Thomas "Tom" Cowan is a Scottish footballer who played as a defender. He was part of the Huddersfield Town side that gained promotion to the Football League First Division during the 1994–1995 season and is the only player ever for Huddersfield Town F.C...
- James Dempsey
James Dempsey was a Scottish Labour Party politician.Dempsey was educated at Holy Family School, Mossend, the Co-operative College in Loughborough, and at the National Council of Labour Colleges. He was a clerk with a haulage firm and a councillor on Lanarkshire County Council from 1945...
- Mike Denness
Mike Denness is a former Scottish cricketer who played for England, Scotland, Essex and Kent. Scotland did not have a representative international team at the time of Denness' career, so he could only play for England at Test and ODI level. Denness became the first Scotsman to captain England...
- Pat Sharp
Pat Sharp is a British radio and television presenter and disc jockey. In the UK, he is known mainly for his work on the children's television programme Fun House, his former mullet and his radio shows as well as his support of Arsenal...
- De Rosa (band)
De Rosa was a Scottish rock band from Bellshill. Its components were Martin Henry , Chris Connick , James Woodside , Neil Woodside and Andrew Bush...
- Peter Cherrie
Peter Cherrie is a Scottish football goalkeeper currently currently playing for Irish side Dundalk.-Career:Cherrie started his career with Airdrie United...
- Henry Dyer
Henry Dyer was a Scottish engineer who contributed much to founding Western-style technical education in Japan and Anglo-Japanese relations.- Early life :...
- Sheena Easton
Sheena Easton is a Scottish recording artist. Easton became famous for being the focus of an episode in the British television programme The Big Time, which recorded her attempts to gain a record contract and her eventual signing with EMI Records.Easton rose to fame in the early 1980s with the pop...
- Vocalist
- Barry Ferguson
Barry Ferguson MBE is a Scottish footballer who plays as a midfielder for Blackpool.Ferguson has made 82 appearances in European competitions, all for Rangers, which makes him the record European appearance holder at the club. He was also inducted into the Rangers F.C. Hall of Fame...
- Derek Ferguson
Derek Ferguson is a Scottish football manager and former player.A creative midfielder, he is best remembered for his time with Rangers and Heart of Midlothian and made two appearances for the Scottish national side. He is the elder brother of current Birmingham City midfielder Barry Ferguson...
- Hughie Gallacher
Hugh Kilpatrick "Hughie" Gallacher was a Scottish football player in the 1920s and 1930s. In 624 senior games, Gallacher scored 463 times....
- Scottish internationalist footballer and Football League winning captain of Newcastle United
- Peter Grant
Peter Grant is a Scottish former footballer and was, until October 2007, manager of Norwich City. This was Grant's first role in management, but he had previously held coaching jobs at Bournemouth, West Ham United and West Bromwich Albion...
- Scott Harrison - Former world boxing champion
- Michael Hart
Michael Hart is a Scottish footballer who currently plays as a right back for Hibernian in the Scottish Premier League.-Aberdeen and Livingston:...
- Martin John Henry
Martin John Henry is a songwriter from Bellshill in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Henry is noted for his success as the frontman of the rock band De Rosa, who released several albums, singles and other recordings on Glasgow’s influential independent label Chemikal Underground. De Rosa's music was...
- Lee Hollis
Lee James Hollis is a Scottish footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Motherwell. He moved to the SPL club on a free transfer from Lanarkshire derby rivals Airdrie United.-Airdrie United:...
- Brian Irvine
Brian Irvine is a former international footballer who played as a defender.-Career:Irvine began his career with Falkirk in 1983. After two years and nearly forty league appearances for the Bairns - where he played alongside his brother - Irvine moved to Aberdeen...
- Brian Kerr
Brian Kerr is a Scottish international association football player.- Newcastle United :Kerr started his career with Newcastle United, but failed to hold down a regular first team place. Despite this, he won three caps for Scotland under the management of Berti Vogts...
- Bryan Kirkwood
Bryan Kirkwood is a Scottish-born British television producer. He was the producer of teen Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks from 2006 until 2009 and has been the executive producer of the BBC soap EastEnders since 2010.- Personal life :...
- Former Producer of Hollyoaks and current executive producer of EastEnders
- Bryan Lee
Bryan Lee is an American blues guitarist and singer based in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is also known by the nickname braille blues daddy and has been a fixture on Bourbon Street scene since the 1980s....
- David Lilley
David William Lilley is a Scottish professional footballer who usually plays at centre back but also has also played at right back. Lilley was the club captain at Queen of the South from August 2009 until May 2011...
- Graham Lyle (Member of the Scottish music duo Gallagher and Lyle
Gallagher and Lyle was the Scottish pairing of singer-songwriters Benny Gallagher and Graham Lyle.-Career:They joined forces in 1959, initially as members of the local Largs based band, The Bluefrets. They began writing original material for the band and also wrote "Mr Heartbreak's Here Instead"...
)
- Malky Mackay
Malcolm George "Malky" Mackay is a Scottish football manager and former player, who played as a central defender. He is currently the manager of Cardiff City. Mackay began his playing career in Scottish football, with Queen's Park and Celtic. He joined English side Norwich City in 1998, remaining...
- Kevin McBride
Kevin McBride is a Scottish football player. He currently plays for Hamilton Academical, having previously played for Celtic, Motherwell, Darlington, Falkirk, Hibernian and Raith Rovers.-Celtic:...
- Ryan McCann
Ryan McCann is a Scottish professional association footballer who plays in either midfield or at right back and who is currently at Stockport County...
- Frank McCarthy
Frank McCarthy is a Scottish radio presenter and disc jockey, broadcasting on BFBS Radio from October 1992 to date. He is the presenter of his own show that specialises in playing new music first , named after him.-Life and career:Frank McCarthy was born in Bellshill near Glasgow but grew up in...
- Brian McClair
Brian John McClair is a former Scottish international football player who played as a forward, notable for his near 11-year spell at Manchester United, as well as important tenures at Scottish clubs Celtic and Motherwell...
- Ally McCoist
Alistair Murdoch "Ally" McCoist, MBE ; 24 September 1962) is a Scottish football manager and former player. He is the current manager of Rangers in Scotland....
- Lee McCulloch
Lee Henry McCulloch is a Scottish association footballer who currently plays for Scottish Premier League side Rangers.He has been capped on 18 occasions by the Scotland national football team. During his career McCulloch has played for Motherwell, Wigan Athletic and Rangers as club level...
- John McCusker
John McCusker is a Scottish folk musician, record producer and composer. An accomplished fiddle player, he had a long association as a member of the Battlefield Band beginning in the 1990s and was later a band member and producer for folk singer Kate Rusby...
- Chris McGroarty
Chris McGroarty is a Scottish professional football player currently with Forfar Athletic in the Scottish Third Division.-Career:...
- Paul McGuigan
Paul McGuigan is a film director, best known for directing films such as Lucky Number Slevin and Push. He has also directed episodes of Sherlock and Monroe.-Filmography:-Awards:...
- Tom McKean
Thomas McKean is a former Scottish middle distance runner who won the European Championships 800m gold medal at Split in 1990....
- Billy McNeill
William "Billy" McNeill MBE is a former Scottish footballer and manager. He is best known for captaining Celtic to the European Cup triumph in 1967 and he later went on to manage the club. He is now the official Club Ambassador at Celtic....
- Hugh Murray
Hugh 'Shuggie' Murray is a Scottish professional footballer who is currently playing for Scottish Premier League side St Mirren. He came through the youth ranks at St. Mirren and celebrated his testimonial year in 2007.-Club career:Murray broke into the St. Mirren side under Tony Fitzpatrick...
- David Shaw Nicholls
David Shaw Nicholls is a Scottish architect and designer based in New York. Nicholls is known for his modern area rugs and textile designs...
- Phil O'Donnell
- Tommy O'Hara
Tommy O'Hara is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Active in Scotland and the United States, O'Hara made over 350 career league appearances. He also earned a cap with the U.S. national team in 1982....
- Jim Paterson
James Lee "Jim" Paterson is a Scottish professional footballer who plays for Shamrock Rovers in the League of Ireland Premier Division...
(Plymouth ArgylePlymouth Argyle Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Plymouth, Devon, that plays in Football League Two.Since becoming professional in 1903, the club has won five Football League titles, five Southern League titles and one Western League title. The 2009–10 season was the...
full-back/winger)
- Daniel Quinn
Daniel Quinn is an American writer described as an environmentalist. He is best known for his book Ishmael , which won the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship Award in 1991....
(The Uppers)
- John Rankin
John Rankin is a Scottish footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Scottish Premier League club Dundee United.-Early career:...
- Dr John Reid
John Reid, Baron Reid of Cardowan, PC is a British politician, who served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament and cabinet minister under Tony Blair, most notably as Defence Secretary and then Home Secretary...
- Sharleen Spiteri
Sharleen Spiteri is a Scottish recording artist and songwriter, best known as being the lead singer of Scottish rock/blues band Texas. Texas began their career in 1986, and shot to fame in 1989 with their UK Top Ten single, "I Don't Want a Lover" released from Southside...
(lead singer of the group TexasTexas are a Scottish pop band from Bearsden, near Glasgow, Scotland. They were founded by Johnny McElhone in 1986 and feature Sharleen Spiteri on lead vocals. Texas made their performing debut in March 1988 at Scotland's University of Dundee...
)
- Soup Dragons
- Steven Smith
Steven Smith is a Scottish footballer who currently plays for English Football League One side Preston North EndA left back, Smith made an early breakthrough with Scottish side Rangers, and was capped by Scotland B in 2006, aged 21...
- Harry Stanley
Harry Stanley was a painter and decorator who was fatally shot by police in controversial circumstances.-Background:...
- John Stewart
John Stewart is a Scottish footballer currently playing for Bo'ness United.-Aberdeen:Stewart, who began his career with Aberdeen. He was a regular in Aberdeen's reserve team; however, he found opportunities in the first team hard to come by...
- Teenage Fanclub
Teenage Fanclub are an alternative rock band from Bellshill, Scotland. The band is composed of Norman Blake , Raymond McGinley , Gerard Love and Francis MacDonald , with songwriting duties shared equally among Blake, McGinley and Love...
- Jim Brown
James Nathaniel "Jim" Brown is an American former professional football player who has also made his mark as an actor. He is best known for his exceptional and record-setting nine-year career as a running back for the NFL Cleveland Browns from 1957 to 1965. In 2002, he was named by Sporting News...
- The Vaselines
The Vaselines are an alternative rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. Formed in 1986, the band was originally a duo between its songwriters Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, but later added James Seenan and Eugene's brother Charlie Kelly on bass and drums respectively from the band Secession. McKee had...
- Sean O'Kane
Sean O'Kane , is a Scottish actor from Bellshill near Glasgow.- Career :Sean O'Kane grew up in Cambuslang, in a family with twelve siblings. He was interested in acting as a child, then at the age of 19, after a stint in the Territorial Army, O'Kane left the country...
Sport
The town has a football team, Bellshill Athletic, that plays in the
Scottish Junior Football West Premier LeagueThe SJFA Stagecoach West of Scotland Super League Premier Division is the highest division of the West Region of the Scottish Junior Football Association....
. They play their home games outside of the town, in Glasgow, after New Brandon Park was closed down to reduce costs. The club only has a tiny fan base due to the towns residents being followers of Rangers, Celtic and near-neighbours
MotherwellMotherwell Football & Athletic Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. The club compete in the Scottish Premier League and are one of only seven teams to have remained in this league since it was founded in 1998...
.
Bellshill also has the
Sir Matt Busby Sports ComplexThe Sir Matt Busby Sports Complex is a public leisure centre located in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is named in honour of Sir Matt Busby, the football manager who was born in Bellshill in 1909, managed Manchester United from 1945 to 1969 and died in 1994.It opened in 1995, the year...
(Named after the late
Manchester UnitedManchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
legend who was born and brought up in the area) that opened in 1995. It has an Olympic standard swimming pool, with two large spectator seating areas either side, a large hall and health suite.
There is also a
golf courseA golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
next to nearby
Strathclyde ParkStrathclyde Country Park is a country park located in Lanarkshire, Scotland.The park covers some 4 km², centred on the artificial Strathclyde Loch. It is located next to the River Clyde between Hamilton and Motherwell. Strathclyde Park forms what used to be known as the Low parks of the now...
.
Location grid
External links