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'Gartcosh', from the Gaelic 'Gart' meaning 'field' and 'Cos' meaning 'hollow'. Gartcosh is a village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The village lies roughly halfway between the major Scottish city of Glasgow and the town of Coatbridge.
Recent house-builder development, by RedRow, has seen the population of Gartcosh double.
In May 2005, Gartcosh railway station was built at a cost of approximately £3m. The station is on the line which is served by Glasgow's Queen Street Station to the West and by Falkirk to the North-east.
Though originally an agricultural village, in the 20th century Gartcosh became the home of the Smith & McLeans and subsequently Colville's steel mills. British Steel took ownership of the Colville's steel mill in Gartcosh in 1962 and was in operation until its closure in February 1986. The mill has long since been demolished.
Smith & McLeans had considerable trouble purchasing the land for the steelworks from the original owners. Most of Gartcosh at the time was owned by two strict presbyterian spinster sisters who were unswayed by the considerable financial offerings of the company. They eventually relented, on the condition that no public house, bookmakers nor Catholic church would ever be housed within the Gartcosh boundaries. This legislation still holds to this day.
For this reason, Chapman's Public house is built immediately outside of the natural boundary of Gartcosh (a small burn running to Glenboig). In the sixties, there was a successful application for licensed premises, under the label of Gartcosh Social Club. There has never been a licensed bookmakers in Gartcosh. The now significant Roman Catholic population travel to the neighbouring villages of Muirhead or Glenboig to practice their faith.
There is a well attended Church of Scotland parish in Gartcosh whose church hall is utilised for various community projects including 1st Gartcosh Boy's Brigade.
The defunct Anglican church at the top of the hill on Lochend Road was demolished in 1997 for property development.
The original Gartcosh police station closed in the early nineteen nineties hovever, a new police agency campus is currently being developed on part of the old strip mill site.
Local services in Gartcosh currently include a village shop, pub (Chapmans), Chinese restaurant (Silk cottage), Social club, Plant nursery and a recently opened Tea House on the banks of Johnstone Loch.
A leisure complex providing a franchised restaurant, hotel and petrol station has also been proposed on this site, just off the M73.