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Bishopbriggs
Bishops' Riggs (Scots)
OS grid reference:	NS655735
Population:	23,500
Council area:	East Dunbartonshire
Constituent country:	Scotland
Sovereign state:	United Kingdom
Police force:	Strathclyde Police
Lieutenancy area:	Dunbartonshire
Former county:	Lanarkshire
Post town:	GLASGOW
Postal:	G64
Telephone:	0141
Scottish Parliament:	Strathkelvin and Bearsden
UK Parliament:	East Dunbartonshire
European Parliament:	Scotland

Bishopbriggs is an affluent commuter suburb in the northern outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland. Though once an independent burgh, Bishopbriggs is now one of the main towns of the East Dunbartonshire Council Area. It currently has a population of approximately 23,500 people.

Contents 1 History 2 Modern Bishopbriggs 3 Demographics 4 Etymology 5 External links

Bishopbriggs was first documented in Cadder Parish records of 1655, and according to one historian only had eleven residents in the mid-1700s. Even more than a century later, after substantial growth, the village was still being referred to in the terms of its mother parish of Cadder. ‘Bishopbriggs’, Neil Thomson stated in 1903, ‘is the fast growing capital of Cawder’. Despite fears that the village would end up being swamped by nearby Glasgow, its house-building programmes of the twentieth century, combined with its strong sense of identity, have ensured its survival. Instead it was the fate of Cadder, a gift from King William the Lion to the Bishop of Glasgow in 1180, that fell by the wayside, with 2000 of its acres being donated to the city during the 1920s and 30s. The town has also been known as 'Bishopbridges' and was so described in published maps up to the mid-1850's. The arrival of the railway heralded a change, although the first printed tickets called the station Bishopbridges, platform signage showed Bishopbriggs and it has remained so ever since.

By 1793, the introduction of new farming techniques had improved yields. While crops such as oats, barley, potatoes and flax flourished, Cadder’s population fared less well; a decrease of around 600 from the mid-1760s was attributed to new agricultural methods which combined smaller farms or Run rigs and swept away independent tenants, known as the Lowland Clearances. By 1836 there were ‘almost no cotters’ with the largest farms employing no more than ten people, and some of those as maid servants. Land reclamation (through drainage) changed the landscape so that crops could grow, where once there was only marshland. Dairy products, dispatched to Glasgow markets, were relied upon to cover ground rents. The districts' farmers claimed their produce was the finest in Scotland.

Development during the 19th century was slow compared to the industrial expansion of other nearby areas, such as Springburn, and in 1836 Bishopbriggs population stood at 175, compared to neighbouring Auchinairn Village's 284. The missing factor was coal, but since this was transported to the village via the area's excellent communication links (the canal, road and rail links), there was little incentive to invest in discovering it. Bishopbriggs train station, opened in 1842, underlined its status as the emerging focus of the parish although expansion was slow throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Carron Company (an iron and mining concern), was the district’s main employer, building the hamlets of Mavis Valley and Jellyhill to accommodate its workers, and there were also many small mining communities in the area, including quarries in nearby Cadder, Crowhill, Huntershill and Kenmure. As a result the town was a major centre for freestone quarrying during the 19th Century, supplying many major municipal building projects in Glasgow, such as Sir George Gilbert Scott's Glasgow University main building (the second largest Gothic Revival building in Britain), via the Forth and Clyde Canal until the exhaustion of the quarries around 1900.

Heavy industry didn’t fare for long, however and Bishopbriggs suffered a decline in the early decades of the twentieth century. With the working out of the quarries around the turn of the century, what mines it had closed systematically thereafter, throughout the 1920s. Luckily, manufacturing industries arrived after the First World War to soften the blow, with engineering firms, a wire-rope factory, Trebor Bassett, and Blackie and Sons Publishers amongst those providing alternative employment. In 1929, new printing works for the Blackie company were erected on Kirkintilloch Road, and retaining the original name 'The Villafield Press', were built on this 13 acre site (opposite ASDA). During the Second World War, Blackie & Son Ltd used 33% of their Bishopbriggs works for the manufacture of 25 pound shells for the Ministry of Supply. They also undertook some toolmaking for another Glasgow company, William Beardmore & Co Ltd, and, for a short time, produced aircraft radiators. By 1960 the publishing and administration section of the company relocated to join the printing section in Kirkintilloch Road, Bishopbriggs, and in 1971, new premises were occupied in Wester Cleddens Road, eventually becoming the headquarters of the company. The printworks were now no longer required and earmarked for demolition, following a demand for residential property in the area. The Villafield name lives on in these residential streets.

In the 1930s Bishopbriggs emerged as an administrative centre for local government, although the final stage of its expansion was yet to come. The last major boost to the town's population came about as a result of the building programmes of the fifties and sixties which replaced Balmuildy and Woodhill farmlands with private housing estates. A campaign by the local Ratepayers Association won Bishopbriggs its late bid for burgh status in 1964, and this same organisation played a major role in keeping Bishopbriggs out of Glasgow district (and within Strathkelvin) during the local government reorganisation of the mid-70s.

The principal retail area of Bishopbriggs Cross is known as the Triangle shopping centre. This was a redeveloped area made possible by the demolition of older tenement housing stock to facilitate the construction of new council offices, retail units, and a large Safeway supermarket (now Morrisons) in the early 1990s. Tenement buildings dating from the Victorian era are still present on the western side of Bishopbriggs Cross.

There is also a pedestrianised area at Cross Court which includes the war memorial, erected in 1920 by the Stirling family, once major land owners in the area. The family seat was Kenmure House (now demolished) in parkland which is now Bishopbriggs Golf Course. Cadder House (1654) was also a Stirling family residence. It is now the clubhouse of Cawder Golf Club. Bishopbriggs is also notable for its superior villas, constructed during the 1850s, adjacent to the then recently completed Glasgow-to-Edinburgh Railway, its art deco 'Garden Suburb' on the former Brackenbrae and Balmuildy Estates, and also for its large scale modern housing developments. In the 1960s the town residents campaigned successfully to avoid being absorbed into the City of Glasgow boundaries, resulting in the formation of Bishopbriggs Town Council. Following local government reorganisation and the creation of Regional and District Authorities, Bishopbriggs became part of Strathclyde Region, and the Town Council gave way to Strathkelvin District Council, along with Kirkintilloch and Lenzie. With the introduction of the present unitary local government system in 1996, and the dissolution of the Regional and District setup, Bishopbriggs became part of the East Dunbartonshire Council area.

In the last decade or so, major housing developments in the nearby village of Robroyston, adjacent to the M80 motorway, have led to residents of that area relying on Bishopbriggs for most vital services such as churches, schools, and recreational facilities. As a consequence there have been calls in recent years for Robroyston to be formally incorporated within Bishopbriggs and transferred from the City of Glasgow to the control of East Dunbartonshire Council.

Famous residents from the area have included the actor and writer Dirk Bogarde, the Oscar-winning director and actor Peter Capaldi, musicians Paul Buchanan and Paul Joseph Moore from The Blue Nile, bassist Jack Bruce of seminal 60's supergroup Cream, Owen (Onnie) McIntyre, rhythm guitarist and vocalist with The Average White Band, and the political radical Thomas Muir of Huntershill, after whom one of the local Secondary schools is named. The area is served by seven Primary schools and three Secondary schools, which are set to be rebuilt as the result of a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) investment into education infrastructure, with support from the Scottish Executive. The Roman Catholic Secondary, Turnbull High School, is set to be rebuilt on its present site whilst the two non-denominational Secondary schools, initially set to merge to a new school on the site of the present Bishopbriggs High School near Bishopbriggs Cross, are set to merge to form a new school named Bishopbriggs Academy on the present Thomas Muir High site. Although the decision to change the location of the new school against public opinion has caused significant local controversy, this will make a large area of land adjacent to the Cross available for expansion and commercial development. The town has a municipal library, which forms a prominent local landmark, housed in the B-Listed former buildings of the Bishopbriggs School. The library has been enhanced by a £400,000 refurbishment in recent years. Bishopbriggs also has a large sports centre, the 'Leisuredrome' which is one of the best equipped facilities of its kind in Scotland.

Lowmoss Prison is located on the outskirts of the town at the site of a former World War II RAF Barrage balloon station, near to the Strathkelvin Retail Park and Lowmoss Industrial Estate. In early January 2007, it was announced that East Dunbarton Council had lifted its objection to plans for the prison to be extensively modernised and extended, and after completion will be three times its present size, capable of containing 900 inmates in a medium-security facility. Whilst HarperCollins publishers in the Westerhill area of Bishopbriggs remains a notable local business, currently employing some 340 people, and nearby Norwich Union's national customer service centre currently employs over 1,000, Bishopbriggs still remains very much a commuter suburb of Glasgow, with around 80% of its workforce commuting to work in the city itself.

Total Population aged 15+: 19969	Total of households: 9398
Total men: 9800	Total population of social class ABC1: 12238
Total women: 10169	Total population of social class C2DE: 7731
Total population aged between 15 and 34: 6780
Total population aged between 35 and 54: 6921
Total population aged 55 or more: 6268

NRS Classifications:[1]

The derivation of the name Bishopbriggs has caused some controversy over the years. Some prefer the explanation that it was named after ‘the Bishop’s Bridge’, supposedly that over the Callie Burn that runs through Bishopbriggs Park, whereas others believe the middle ‘b’ is a corruption. This, so the argument goes, appeared because it rolls off the tongue more easily than the original name of ‘Bishop’s Riggs’. In this alternative ‘riggs’ refers to the fields which the Bishop of Glasgow raised teinds (tithes) from.

• Images of Bishopbriggs
• East Dunbartonshire Council
• Bishopbriggs Cross

Coordinates: 55°54′N 4°14′W