Wishaw

For the village in England, see Wishaw, Warwickshire.
Not to be confused with Whishaw.
Wishaw
Scottish Gaelic: Camas Neachdain[1]
Scots: Wishae[1]

Main Street, Wishaw
Wishaw
 Wishaw shown within North Lanarkshire
Population 28,565 (2001 Census)
OS grid referenceNS795555
   – Edinburgh 44 mi (71 km)  
   – London 389 mi (626 km)  
Council areaNorth Lanarkshire
Lieutenancy areaLanarkshire
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town WISHAW
Postcode district ML2
Dialling code 01698
Police Scottish
Fire Scottish
Ambulance Scottish
EU Parliament Scotland
UK ParliamentMotherwell and Wishaw
Scottish ParliamentMotherwell and Wishaw
List of places
UK
Scotland

Coordinates: 55°46′26″N 3°55′08″W / 55.773992°N 3.918915°W

Wishaw is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is on the edge of the Clyde Valley, 15 miles (24 km) south-east of Glasgow.

The main areas of Wishaw are: Cambusnethan, Coltness, Craigneuk, Gowkthrapple, Dimsdale, Greenhead, Wishawhill, Netherton, Pather and Waterloo. There are two adjoining villages, often included as part of the town for administrative purposes: Overtown and Newmains.

Wishaw has long lived in the shadow of its bigger and better known neighbour, Motherwell, with which it formed the joint large burgh in 1920, the Burgh of Motherwell and Wishaw, until its dissolution when Scottish local authorities were restructured in 1975. The Motherwell and Wishaw constituency is represented in the UK Parliament by Frank Roy MP. In the Scottish Parliament the constituency is represented by John Pentland.

History

It is not certain how the name Wishaw came about. The town is probably named after Wishaw House, built in the woods by the South Calder Water, which was likely built some time after the selling of Coltness, Wishaw, Watstein and Stain to Hamilton of Uddsten, the predecessor to Lord Belhaven. It was probably in these days that the estate was named, "wis" being Old Scotch for water, and "shaw" meaning forest or wood. Other theories exist; one such is that it may be derived from the Scots for "Wicket gate in the wood", and that it used to be called Wygateshaw. Alternatively, it may be from the Old English for "Willow Wood". Others believe the name was originally Viashaw, meaning way or road through the wood. Yet another theory is that the name derives from "Wee Shaw", meaning small wood.

The town itself is not very old, but settlement in the area dates back to the 12th century when St. Nethan established a kirk dedicated to St. Michael by a bend (Gaelic camus) in the Clyde near what is now Netherton. The area then became known as the parish of Cambusnethan, and remained so until the Reformation. The site of the original church remains as a ruined burial ground, including an impressive mausoleum to Lord Belhaven, although the church is in an irreparable state.

The village itself was laid out in 1794, named Cambusnethan, and later renamed Wishawtown. On September 4, 1855, the town was incorporated with the villages of Coltness and Stewarton to form the Burgh of Wishaw, with a population of approximately 5,000.

In November 1996, the world's worst recorded outbreak of E. coli O157 occurred in the town, in which 21 people died and around 200 were infected.

The Wishaw Press is the town's local newspaper, and has been serving the town for over 50 years.

People

Notable people from Wishaw include:

Transport

Bus

The town has a comprehensive bus network operated by First. Other smaller providers include: JMB Travel, Stuart's, Henderson Travel, Coakley and Whitelaw's. Destinations that can be reached by bus from the town include:

Historically, bus services in the Wishaw area were operated by a local company, Hutchison's. Their distinctive blue and cream buses finally gave way in 2007 to a friendly takeover by one time rival First.

Despite initially closing the Hutchison depot in Overtown upon the takeover, and moving all staff and vehicles to Blantyre, First have since launched new services in the Wishaw area, that has required the re-opening of the depot and indeed a major recruitment campaign.

Wishaw was formerly served by an intensive network of services provided by McKindless. This company was wound up in 2010 following a tax investigation. This had the potential to leave many parts of Lanarkshire without a decent public transport link as McKindless had forced many other operators to abandon routes to places such as Lanark and Shotts. However, SPT and Irvine's and First stepped in to replace most services almost straight away.

Railway

The town has a railway station on the Argyle Line (running from Lanark and Carstairs to Milngavie and Dalmuir).

A half hourly service provided by First ScotRail connects Wishaw to places such as:

Wishaw also has a second station, Shieldmuir railway station, serving the Craigneuk area of the town. There is also a twice daily service to Edinburgh Waverley.

Trains on the West Coast Main Line pass through the town at 115 mph, but no passenger service trains stop there, as the main Wishaw South railway station on the line closed over 40 years ago.

Roads

Wishaw is on the A71, Edinburgh, Livingston and Kilmarnock road which links the town to the M74 as well as the A73 which links the town with the Borders regions and the M8.

Following a campaign by local politicians, the area is now well signposted from the nearby M8 and M74 motorways. This move was considered necessary as although the town is not considered a principal destination from either of these roads and therefore not included as standard on the signage, it is now the home to the main hospital for an area stretching right down the M74 corridor almost to the English border approximately 75 miles (120 km) away.

Airport

The nearest airport to Wishaw is Glasgow Airport at 20 miles (32 km) distant, though at 26 miles (42 km) Edinburgh Airport is not much further. Connections to both airports are only via the cities they serve as no direct public transport links are available.

Industry

Former industrial employers in the area include many steelworks such as British Steel, Clyde Alloy, Bone Connell & Baxter, though most of these are now defunct due to the decline of the steel industry. Wishaw and its nearby neighbour of Motherwell were once the centre of steel manufacture in Scotland, as both towns were located either side of the former Ravenscraig steelworks.

As a result of its history as a steel manufacturing and mining community, Wishaw was also home to mining and industrial equipment manufacturers such as Anderson Boyes (now part of Long-Airdox) and Svedala, but both these businesses have since gone through changes leading to their movement away from these businesses and the Wishaw area.

The (now-defunct) local firm of R Y Pickering & Co Ltd (later Norbrit-Pickering) built railway rolling stock (especially wagons) and many tramcars for tram systems throughout the UK. One of its last tramcar orders was for 10 double-decker trams for Aberdeen Corporation Tramways in 1949.

These days, North Lanarkshire Council suggest that the majority of the biggest employers in the town are supermarkets, with the exceptions of Royal Mail, which has its main Scottish distribution centre at Shieldmuir and the NHS as a result of Wishaw General Hospital. There are many service industry businesses located in the town's industrial areas, though none with more than a few hundred employees.

Education

At present there are three high schools in the area: Clyde Valley High School in Overtown, Coltness High and St. Aidan's High School, both in Coltness. Historically, Wishaw had four high schools, with Wishaw High School being the fourth situated on Dryburgh Road, but this was closed and demolished to make way for a new housing estate.

Primary schools in Wishaw include Calderbridge (Lammermoor and Coltness) St. Thomas',St. Aidan's, Cambusnethan, St. Ignatius' and Wishaw Academy (with both the latter two schools being a joint campus). All of the St. Matthew's pupils were moved into St. Thomas' in 2010, due to the former being closed and demolished.

The town does not have a university or college at present, with the nearest college being Motherwell College, based in Ravenscraig, and the University of the West of Scotland (formerly Bell College of Technology) in Hamilton being the nearest university.

Health establishments

Wishaw General Hospital

Wishaw has a general hospital in the Craigneuk area. It serves nearby settlements such as Motherwell, Newmains and Shotts. It is one of three acute hospitals in Lanarkshire, the others being Monklands Hospital in Airdrie and Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride.

Also based in the town, directly across from the town library in Kenilworth Avenue, is Wishaw Health Centre.

Shopping

Main Street is the predominant shopping area in Wishaw. It is partly made up of major national stores such as W H Smith, Peacock's, Poundland, Iceland and Superdrug.

The Main Street shopping area also features small independent retailers. There are also many supermarkets in the area, with a new small format ASDA in the eastern suburb of Newmains that opened on October 2007. A Tesco Extra superstore was also opened during November 2007, and is adjacent to the railway station, replacing the smaller Metro store on Main Street, about 150 metres (500 ft) from the new store. A 1991 built Morrisons (originally Safeway) exists on the eastern edge of the town centre and the original Safeway on Kirk Road (previously a William Low supermarket), about 300 metres (1,000 ft) from the new store, was a small market style mall and hosted various stalls and a café, however this mall closed on March 2009 and has been converted back to its supermarket form into B & M Bargains discount store. All three supermarkets mentioned have petrol stations situated next to them.

There is also an Aldi superstore in Glasgow Road that opened on September 2008, with the original store 150 metres (500 ft) away being converted into Sports Direct.

Wishaw also has the "Caledonian Centre", a shopping complex in the northern suburb of Craigneuk consisting of other national store chains such as Argos, Matalan, Brantano, Pets at Home and Homebase.

Improvements

Wishaw countryside

The first stage of the modern town centre regeneration programme was completed in 2004, with a new car park being constructed between the local library and health centre and with the formation of a taxi rank adjacent to the library also a water fountain was put on the ground of Wishaw Library which looks like the old one which used to stand near Wishaw Health Centre. In 2011, a small car-park located behind farmfoods was built.

A piece of eyesore land between Station Road and Alexander Street (the railway station and sports centre) was converted into a park and ride facility, as part of this programme. This has led to a decrease in railway parking and traffic next to the station. The facility was later increased in size as it was too small.

In late 2011, Kitchener Street was converted from a small neighborhood to a main road, routing traffic away from the Main Street to Kenilworth Avenue, where a new roundabout was built. Lammermore Terrace, which was previously one-way, was converted into a two-way street.

Also, Main Street will be closed for up to eighteen months from April 2012 because of renovation works, with one section of the street being converted at a time. The Dryburgh Road block has been completed with the Main Street block up to Belhaven Terrace in the process of being renovated. The Main Street block also contains a "Project Office" for the improvement work.

Churches

Wishaw has many churches in it of various kinds and denominations. There are several Church of Scotland congregations - serving principally the town centre are South Wishaw Parish Church and Wishaw Old Parish Church, and serving the outlying parts of Wishaw are - Cambusnethan North Church, Cambusnethan Old and Morningside Parish Church, Craigneuk and Belhaven Church, Coltness Memorial Church (Newmains) and St. Mark's Church (Coltness). The Church of Scotland "charges" have been reduced in recent years through the union of Thornlie and Chalmers Churches to form South Wishaw Parish Church, and the linkage of Wishaw Old Parish Church with that of Craigneuk and Belhaven Church who now share one minister.

The town also has a United Free Church, an Episcopal Church dedicated to St. Andrew, a Baptist church (both in Belhaven Terrace), a Gospel Hall (Ebenezer Gospel Hall), a Methodist church (now known as Netherton Methodist Church), a Christian Outreach Centre and 5 Catholic churches of the Roman Rite: St. Ignatius of Loyola (Young Street), St. Aidan's (Coltness), St. Thomas' (Caledonian Road), St. Brigid's (Newmains) and St. Patrick's (Shieldmuir).

Sports, restaurants and recreation

Leisure and entertainments

Wishaw has a very large Mecca Bingo hall in Kirk Road. Robert Flannigan bingo caller In recent years, the town has turned into a good nightspot when it comes to pubs and clubs that are on offer. The Commercial Hotel has an nightclub called the Soul Suite, and as well as this, the hotel is also a restaurant, bar and hotel, with rooms and accommodation for overnight stay. The forever changing old Wishaw cinema(situated on Kirk road next to the Mecca bingo) which has also been formerly Zico bar, Play nightclub and Cotton Club and Shuffles nightclub,Koi Chinese buffet restaurant and is now formerly the Ratpack with nothing underneath it. Pubs include, Girdwood's, the Cross Keys, the Waverley ' and the Yard The Westend and The Corner have now sadly shut down in 2012. Sherlock's shut down about 4 or 5 ago or possibly could be more. Behind farmfood in a small door there is a The Master's Snooker Club

Eating establishments

As well as the Commercial, the town is home to a Wetherspoon's restaurant, known as the Wishaw Malt, directly opposite the Mecca bingo. . There is an Indian buffet restaurant, known as the Pink Turban, located in the Waterloo suburb. Wishaw has a McDonald's restaurant and a KFC restaurant (both located on Glasgow road), and also two national sandwich chains, Subway and Greggs. The town is also host to a modern Scottish restaurant called Artisan and an traditional Italian restaurant BadaBing. It also has large number of independent takeaway restaurants and cafes, most of which are located in the main street. The cafe shabbab located in newmains.

Sports facilities

There is no professional football team in Wishaw, as many of the town's residents are followers of Rangers, Celtic and near-neighbours Motherwell. There is however a junior football team, Wishaw, who play their home games at the newly established Beltane Park, near to the town's sports centre. IThere is also a large juvenile football club, Wishaw Wycombe Wanderers, who have 260 registered young players playing football in age groups from Under 6's to Under 21's.

Wishaw has a King George's Field in memorial to King George V, next to the town's hospital. This small park has two full-sized football pitches as well as a swingpark and play-area.

To the northwest of the town, there is a large golf course.

The town's municipal sports centre also includes two small swimming pools, badminton and martial arts facilities and gymnastic equipment. A full length running track is also on site along with a full-sized football pitch. Long jump pits and throwing cages are also issued within the track. There are also 5-aside astroturf pitches for football, and construction of a skatepark is planned. There may also be many more developments and refurbishments as the 2011 International Children's Games based in Lanarkshire and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow draw nearer, as the centre may well be used as a pre-games training facility.

Elsewhere, all-weather pitches and a children's play area behind Morrison's have been closed for a new shared campus primary school by St. Ignatius Primary and Wishaw Academy Primary. The local council has made no announcement on whether these facilities will be replaced.

The town previously had a large swimming pool complete with a large spectator grandstand, an underwater viewpoint and diving facilities (with boards at 1.5m, 3m and 5m). This was closed during the late 1990s to make way for a much smaller facility on the site of the town's sports centre. The reason given for this decision was the cost of maintaining such a facility for a town as small as Wishaw. Over the years it had played host to many regional swimming events and also benefited from being within walking distance of the two main secondary schools in the area as well as a host of primary schools.

Wishaw General Hospital also has a specialist heat pool for specialist physio treatment.

Town park

Wishaw also has a town park named after Lord Belhaven, Belhaven Park. It has a swing park with plenty of climbing frames and slides, a hole in the ground (formerly a paddling pool) and plenty of benches. There is a pathway at the back of the park which leads through the trees and into a council estate. In March 2011, the parks play-area underwent a significant upgrade.

Main article: Be in Belhaven

On August 2, 2008, Wishaw's first music festival was held in the park. This was repeated on 15 August 2009, and again on 7 August 2010, with a fourth festival on 13 August 2011. On 2012 and 2013 Be in Belhaven was held in Beltane Park due to the road works on the main roads.

Geography and climate

Wishaw lies within a very populated area in North Lanarkshire, which itself is the 4th largest local authority in Scotland (based on population).

The town is located in the relatively level Central Belt area of Scotland. While there are valleys and high moors within this area, there are no hills or summits over 1,640 feet.

The climate is temperate maritime, which leads to mild but wet winters and dry humid summers. Snow is not a regular occurrence during winter months, though rain is very regular. In the summer the area benefits from unobstructed warm southwesterly winds.

Location grid


Destinations from Wishaw
Glasgow (32 km), Coatbridge (20 km) Airdrie (15 km), Newhouse (10 km) Edinburgh (58 km), Livingston (34 km)
Motherwell (6 km), Hamilton (10 km) Newmains (2 km)
   Wishaw  
Kilmarnock (52 km), East Kilbride (21 km) Larkhall (10 km) Carluke (10 km), Lanark (18 km)

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Scots Language Centre: Scottish Place Names in Scots

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wishaw.