Wilsontown

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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Wilsontown, a mining village in Carnwath parish, E Lanarkshire, on Mouse Water, 2 miles below its source, and on the road from Lanark to West Calder. By road it is 8 ¾ miles NNE of Lanark, 6 SE of Shotts Ironworks, and 6 NNE of Carnwath village; whilst by a branch line of the Caledonian, formed under an act of 1859, it is 2 ¾ miles WNW of Auchengray Junction and 8 ½ N of Carstairs. Founded in 1779 by two brothers of the name of Wilson for the manufacture of pig-iron, it throve for a time so well that in 1807 its works supported upwards of 2000 persons, with aggregate wages of fully £3000 per month. They were closed, however, from 1812 to 1821, when they were for some years resumed, but on a very diminished scale, by Mr Dixon of Calder Ironworks; and coal mining is now the staple industry. The sculptor, James Fillans (1808-52), was a native. Pop. (1841) 113, (1871) 585, (1881) 808.—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