IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Mid Street, BATHGATE, EH48 1QD

On Mid Street.

Viewed from Mid Street.

This old lamp has stood here for the last 30 years or so, save for a brief period a couple of years back when it was taken away to get tarted up a bit, and modified so it could once again be hooked up to the electricity. In days gone by it used to move about more regularly. The Provost of Bathgate used to have the honour of having the lamp positioned directly in front of his house, and it moved from place to place over time accordingly. A provost is loosely the equivalent of a mayor in England, though the title seems to have become more ceremonial as time has gone on. Bathgate was a Burgh Council - this meant it had a certain amount of autonomy in running its own affairs - until everything to do with local administration was shook up in Scotland in the mid 1970s. All its powers were then subsumed into West Lothian Council, which itself still has a provost, along with about two-thirds of Scotland's other local council areas. The coat of arms adorning the lamp is fanciful in the extreme. There is no disputing that Bathgate once had a castle, but it is generally thought to have been uninhabited since the early 1300s, and a report of the late 1700s states that there wasn't a stone of it left at the time. Then, as now, it was a small unimpressive mound; it is currently located in the middle of Bathgate Golf Course. The flag in between the two Saltires is supposedly that of a family who lived in the castle several hundreds of years ago. The water seems to arise from artistic license, as the moat was tiny, and there are - and were - only smallish ponds in the area, but these are quite a distance away. The uninspiring and meaningless Latin motto translates as : 'The common good between the walls'. While it is perfectly fine in my book to retain the lamp in its original state, I would hope that, should there ever be a need for coats of arms here in the future, this lazy heraldry gets replaced. Quicksmart!

Originally sunk in 1861 this well was rediscovered and rebuilt in 2003.

Despite appearances this is not an especially old building, having been built in the 19th century. It is part of a Category C(S) group of listed buildings.

The school left the site in 1967, and the striking building has slowly decayed since. Now it is the centrepiece of new housing development.

Born in Bathgate, Simpson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Young_Simpson ) was a Scottish obstetrician who pioneered the use of chloroform as an anesthetic and was active in the Free Church. Behind is the former Marjoribanks Street Congregational (now United Reformed) Church; see its C-listing for details (LB50608: http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB50608 ).

This is one of two. There is one behind camera exactly the same size which has '20 P' above it. They were painted in the 1990s to mark the former entrances to air raid shelters that were dug out of the banking behind the wall. There is a plaque nearby which says that it is all connected to 50th anniversary VE Day goings-on, and the writing above the imaginary lintels denotes how many people each air raid shelter could accommodate. The plaque also mentions that Challenge Anneka, a popular TV programme back then, filmed here at the time and that the challenge had something to do with relocating a war memorial. Whether the presenter, Anneka Rice, ever did a piece about the air raid shelters, or was filmed in front of them, is not mentioned. Considering that Bathgate has (and also had during the war) a population of several thousand I should hope that there were a few more dotted about and that these two were highlighted due to their central location, on Bathgate's main road. Thankfully they were never really needed. The plaque states that only one bomb fell on Bathgate in World War Two and didn't explode. For those that know the area it fell on the West side of Whitburn Road, on the ground now occupied by the big surgery just up from Morrisons supermarket.

Work is in progress to lay new paving in George Street, which is fully pedestrianised. It is mainly occupied by the same chain shops as every other small town main street in the country.