Delving into the past of Bridgend village

The Courier and our friends at West Lothian Local History Library have teamed up to help readers take a trip down memory lane.

We will be featuring regular photos and details from West Lothian’s past in the paper and on our website.

This week: The history of the village of Bridgend.

Bridgend was built in 1885-86, by the Linlithgow Oil Company, to house its miners and oil workers, at this time the village was called Auldhill Entry.

It is presumed that Auldhill Entry was a local name and possibly came from the road that still goes through Bridgend.

Forty houses were built at first. They were miners’rows, single storey houses built of brick.

Most of them were two-roomed, with a few having only a single room. By 1913, there were 86 houses at Bridgend, and 108 houses at Kingscavil.

In 1885, approval was given to build a brick school for the children of Bridgend, with an extension added in 1911.

Between 600 and 700 men were employed at the Oil Works and most of them lived in Bridgend or Kingscavil.

Unfortunately the shale produced from the company’s mines was of poor quality and the company didn’t make enough money.

In 1902, the Oil Works stopped working and the Linlithgow Company was wound up after less than 20 years.

The closure was a disaster for Bridgend and Kingscavil and many of the workmen left the village and went to look for work elsewhere.

By the 1920s and 30s, many Bridgend men worked at the Philpstoun Oil Works.

This was the time of the Depression: trade was bad, and many hundreds of thousands of people in Britain were unemployed. In 1931, the Oil Works in Philpstoun had also closed down, putting many Bridgend men out of work.

By this time, the old miners’rows at Bridgend were in poor condition. By modern standards, they were very bad – small, with no proper bathrooms or kitchens.

Some of them were standing empty because the people had gone away when the Philpstoun Oil Works closed down.

West Lothian Council applied for Government money to replace them with good, modern council houses.

In 1939, the owner of the pub at Kingcavil – the Kavil Inn, closed that pub and opened a new pub and hotel at Bridgend. He called it the New Inn and it was Bridgend’s first pub.

Built at the corner of Linlithgow Road, the hope was that it would attract lots of passing trade from tourists and motorists.

On the November 5, 1936, a Clearance Order was filed by the ‘County Council of the County of West Lothian’for the demolition of 104 houses at Kingscavil. The whole village of Kingscavil was gone.

Many of the Kingscavil residents were moved into the newly build houses in Bridgend, the first tenants moving into the house in the summer of 1937.

However, there were 12 residents of Kingscavil who refused to move into the newer, larger built houses. It was suggested by Linlithgow’s Sanitary Inspector, that instead of demolishing the dilapidated Bridgend Rows that the County Council could make them suitable for these people, who were mostly single persons or older couples. The County Council agreed to this.

February 1961, saw the opening of the community centre, with an additional Youth Community Centre opening in 1972.

The community centre was closed in 1997, reopening again in 2002 after the building was converted into a new primary school for Bridgend.

Over the years, Bridgend has had its fair share of ups and downs, but it’s never lost its sense of community.

If you require any further information on the history of Bridgend, please get in touch with us at the West Lothian Local History Library.