Blackwood, South Lanarkshire

Blackwood
Blackwood  Blackwood shown within South Lanarkshire
Council area	South Lanarkshire
Lieutenancy area	Lanarkshire
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LANARK
Postcode district	ML11
Dialling code	01555
Police	Scottish
Fire	Scottish
Ambulance	Scottish
EU Parliament	Scotland
UK Parliament	East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow
Scottish Parliament	Clydesdale
List of places UK Scotland

Coordinates: 55°40′02″N 3°54′59″W / 55.667146°N 3.916454°W / 55.667146; -3.916454

Blackwood is a village which borders Kirkmuirhill, near Lanark in the central belt of Scotland. It has a few small shops, a Roman Catholic and Protestant church, a couple of primary schools and pub.^[1]

Location

Blackwood sits adjacent to the M74 motorway - Scotland's main arterial route South to England - but remains a quiet village and a much sought-after place to stay. Blackwood is linked to (and physically runs into) the neighbouring village of Kirkmuirhill, so-much-so that there is no physical sign of where one starts and the other ends.^[2]

Local life

Churches

Kirkmuirhill Church of Scotland,^[3] St. John's R.C. Church^[4] and Kirkmuirhill Gospel Hall^[5] look after the spiritual needs of villagers,^[6]

Schools

There are two primary schools, St. John's R.C. Primary School and Blackwood Primary School.^[7][8]

History of Blackwood Estate

Blackwood sits at the top of the gentle hills on the Western/Southern side of the picturesque Clyde Valley, at the point where the River Nethan sweeps down into the steep valley to join the River Clyde. Close by is Craignethan Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots stayed on her journey South to be tried and executed by Elizabeth I of England.^[9]

Sited on the main route South from Glasgow to Carlisle, both Kirkmuirhill and Blackwood benefited from the traffic passing through although by far the largest employer in this largely rural area in the 18th and early 19th centuries would have been the Blackwood Estate.^[10] Blackwood was (arguably) originally the farming cousin to other local villages, where coal mining was the dominant industry. Blackwood estate provided farming work for local families. The Blackwood Estate, seat of the Weir de Veres since the thirteenth century,^[11] afterwards the Hope-Veres,^[12] was the most extensive estate in the parish of Lesmahagow^[13] and by some accounts the largest estate in the County of Lanark.^[14]

Railway station

The arrival of the railways into the area in 1856 with the opening of the station at Blackwood, resulted in an expansion of mining but the deep pits in the immediate vicinity seem to have had a short lifespan and were worked out fairly rapidly. Surface mining lasted a little longer but by the mid-20th century, mining was no longer a major employment option in the region.^[10]

Blackwood today

Despite this the two villages of Blackwood and Kirkmuirhill seem to have proved pleasant places to live and both enjoyed a major building boom during the 20th century. In 1901 Blackwood had 167 houses and Kirmuirhill 121. By the year 2000 they had a combined total of 1480 and the villages had merged such that it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.^[15]

Economic development

Wind turbines

Junction 9 of the M74 motorway brings visitors to the South end of the village, but the more popular B7078^[16] links the village with Junction 8 (Canderside Toll) and the larger town of Larkhall.^[17] In 2009 three large wind turbines went operational along the B7078, providing power for around 3,000 homes and part of Scotland's growing commitment to renewable energy production.^[18]

Blackwood and Kirkmuirhill community

Blackwood and Kirkmuirhill Community Hall is located on the main road (B7078) through the village and was opened in October 2012.^[19] The hall is incorporated within the Blackwood and Kirkmuirhill Community Wing which adjoins Blackwood Primary School.^[20] Blackwood and Kirkmuirhill Community Wing is run by South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture.^[21] This facility has a gym, community hall, sports hall and library.^[22]

Bibliography

• James Hamilton, Old Blackwood and Kirkmuirhill, Stenlake Publishing, (2000)^[23]
• George Vere Irving, The Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, T. Murray and Son, (1864)^[24]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Blackwood, South Lanarkshire.

Settlements in South Lanarkshire
Towns	Biggar Blantyre Bothwell Cambuslang Carluke East Kilbride Hamilton Larkhall Lanark Lesmahagow Rutherglen Strathaven Uddingston
Villages and hamlets	Abington Allanton Ashgill Auchengray Auchenheath Auldhouse Blackwood Braidwood Caldermill Carnwath Carstairs Junction Carstairs Village Cartland Chapelton Coalburn Coulter Crawford Crawfordjohn Crossford Dalserf Dolphinton Douglas Dunsyre Elsrickle Forth Garrion Bridge Glassford Jackton Kilncadzow Kirkfieldbank Kirkmuirhill Law Leadhills New Lanark Newbigging Nerston Pettinain Quarter Quothquan Ravenstruther Rigside Roberton Rosebank Sandford Stonehouse Symington Tarbrax Thankerton Thorntonhall Tillietudlem Wiston Woolfords Yieldshields
List of places in South Lanarkshire