To counter this, it has been an unofficial project of the town’s community council (the lowest statutory authority in Scotland) as well as several local councillors, the local museum (aka ‘the Bennie’) and Enterprising Bathgate (a development agency) to inform people of the story of the town.

The community council had previously been instrumental in the late 70s and 80s in establishing the Bennie Museum, which has subsequently become very popular with locals and visitors alike. In cooperation with the museum’s trustees, the council has also been responsible for the publication of several leaflets and a walking guide to the town, culminating in the setting up of an information panel in the town square – locally known as The Steelyard – which details the achievements of several Bathgate bairns as well as being the first public monument to commemorate the significance of Peter McLagan, the local MP between 1865 and 1893 and Scotland’s first (and to date only) black MP (see Local History News, May 2024). Finally, and most recently, in November 2023, the council commissioned a plaque in honour of Bill Millan, the main driving force behind the museum on the occasion of his death earlier that year.

So, when it was decided to look at what more could be done to celebrate the town’s history, the idea of installing several commemorative plaques tied in with the walking guide sprang to mind. Consequently, with funding from West Lothian Council as well as support and advice from council officers, Enterprising Bathgate and local people over the past two years, these plaques have been set up in various places in the town centre and beyond. The company used – Photocast Products of Liverpool – has been very amenable to any comments and suggestions made and is much to be commended.

The plaques aim to tell the town’s story by linking it to several surviving buildings but there are obvious problems with this approach: what happens when these buildings no longer survive? In Bathgate’s case, for instance, there is very little that remains of the ‘castle’, birthplace of Scotland’s Stewart dynasty of kings and queens, and so important to the town’s sense of self that it was deemed necessary that a plaque should be created – however, a further problem lies in the fact that the site of the castle is now almost entirely occupied by the town’s oldest golf course! To counter this, two plaques have subsequently been installed – one affixed to a boundary wall which leads – eventually – to the golf course and details the history of Bathgate castle, and another at the clubhouse itself – the home of two Ryder Cup captains, no less!

Another issue of interpretation occurs when the function of the building has changed but you still want to acknowledge its past. An interesting solution to this particular challenge is evidenced by the Bennie Museum itself. Originally the homes of two handloom weavers from the 18th century, the cottages had fallen into disrepair by the mid-20th and were even on the verge of being demolished altogether. Thankfully, this fate was averted owing to the intervention of several local people, led by the community council. Ten years later, after much hard work and local support, the museum was opened to the public in 1989. Its origins are still commemorated by the fact that a working handloom still holds pride of place in one half of the museum.

Following on from the establishment of Bathgate Academy in 1831 – the town’s only neoclassical building – Bathgate reinvented itself as a centre of educational excellence for this part of West Lothian, a position which it was to hold for well over 120 years. The latter end of the 19th century saw the town continue to prosper with several local industries such as coal, oil refining, iron and steel manufacturing established as well as becoming a local transport and services/retail hub. This prosperity is still in evidence by the fact that several fine Victorian and Edwardian mansion houses line two of the town’s principal streets, Marjoribanks Street (named after the town’s first provost) and Balbardie Avenue.

The town can also boast of some fine examples of commercial and public architecture, which are in turn commemorated by several plaques, including the former Royal Hotel in George Street where Robert Louis Stevenson once dined and where he noted a pithy encounter with a local waitress. Opposite that is what was once the town’s post office, built in 1913 to replace an earlier one which still survives in Hopetoun Street and is a particularly fine example of Scots Revival architecture. Although now converted to a Costa café, the building’s exterior has not been allowed to change. Prior to reaching the café, on walking back you will find a plaque which commemorates the location of the two air raid shelters for this part of the town, with the shelters’ frames actually painted on the wall. Further up into the town, on Mid Street, on the Working Men’s Club and Institute – one of the oldest of its kind still surviving in this part of Scotland – a plaque records the fact that it was a donation from Peter McLagan which allowed the club to be partially rebuilt in the 1870s. Finally, a plaque a mile outside the town centre at the local municipal park and almost opposite the remains of the town’s 12th-century parish church, there is a further panel commemorating the town’s links to the Stewarts next to the so-called Stewart Gates.

Although funding for this series of plaques has now dried up, it is hoped that this will be restored at some future date – especially when one recalls that ‘Bathgate and Linlithgow’ is now the name of the revised constituency at Westminster. While the installation of these plaques has been a distinct project, it has been in chime with several other past initiatives – none of which could have been achieved without the backing and support of the Scottish government, the expertise of several West Lothian councillors and the dedication, enthusiasm and determination of a veritable army of volunteers.

David W. Main is a former professional librarian and an honorary member of the board of the Bennie Museum in Bathgate.

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