Livingston is West Lothian’s largest town and one of Scotland’s new towns. During the past forty years over 40,000 people have chosen to call it home. This is a remarkable achievement considering that before the 1960s few beyond the immediate area had even heard of it. That all changed in 1962 when a new town was needed to relocate people from overcrowded Glasgow.
The area had long been recognised as a good place to live. In the eleventh century the area was used as a site for a royal hunting lodge and in the twelfth century a Flemish nobleman call de Leving settled in the area. Around his keep grew up a small settlement of cottages--called ‘Leving’s Toun’.
It was the nineteenth century that saw the rapid growth of industry in the area. The discoveries of James ‘Paraffin’ Young saw the rise of the reddy-orange shale oil bings as well as the growth of transport links to feed the new oil industry.
These great changes were nothing compared to the vast developments that have taken place so recently. Livingston’s classification as one of Scotland‘s official new towns resulted in such dramatic growth that the town is now the administrative, economic and shopping centre for the whole of Wesy6 Lothian. These are just some of the successes celebrated in words and pictures in Livingston.
Contents:
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Village Life
2. Lords, Lairds and the Leisured Elite
3. The Shale Oil Bonanza
4. Life in the Rows
5. The New Town
6. Livingston at School
7. Livingston at Play
8. Almond Valley Heritage Centre
