New East Kilbride history book shows how town has developed over 100 years

A new history book mirroring 100 year-old pictures of East Kilbride with shots of how the landscape looks today is out now.

East Kilbride Then & Now shows the area as it used to be with modern images from the same viewpoint for comparison.

Published by Stenlake Publishing Limited, the thought-provoking picture book contains 48 pages of 50 illustrations in both colour and black and white.

East Kilbride is well-known as Scotland’s first post-war New Town, but it has a long history going back to the 16th century at which time it had a school.

Kilbride (the East came later) was a farming parish with a weekly market and four fairs a year and by the late 1830s had a post office, a brewery and a cotton mill. Before 1947 the village had three factories making agricultural equipment, but it was then earmarked to be developed with new housing and industry.

The East Kilbride Development Corporation was hugely successful in both aspects, attracting many big name industrial players. At the last census the population of the town had reached 75,000. Inevitably, such an influx had an impact on the old parts of the village and the environs saw fields turn into housing and factories.

The Development Corporation overzealously also dismantled Calderwood Castle, now a ruin and the railway through the estate also closed.

The book contains lovely old views of the town as it was a century ago, partnered with new shots showing how the locations have changed.

The cover of the book illustrates what used to be on the site of the current Lidl supermarket.

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