Crossford

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Crossford, a village in the N of Lesmahago parish, Lanarkshire, near the left bank of the Clyde, immediately above the Nethan's influx, 4¾ miles NW by W of Lanark, under which it has a post office. At it are Free and U.P. churches; and near it are the ruins of Craignethan. 'In 1686,' says honest Patrick Walker, ` many people gathered together about Crossford, where there were showers of bonnets, hats, guns, and swords, which covered the trees and ground; companies of men in arms marching along the water side; companies meeting companies all through other, and then all falling to the ground, and disappearing, and other companies appearing the same way. I went there three afternoons together, and, as I could observe, there were two of the people that were together saw, and a third that saw not; and though I could see nothing, yet there was such a fright and trembling upon those that did see, that was discernible to all from those that saw not,' etc. (Chambers's -Domestic Annals, ii. 485). Pop. (1841) 431, (1861) 530, (1871) 543, (1881) 816.—Ord. Sur., sh. 23, 1865.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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