The town of Lanark is situated above and beside the river Clyde, twenty-five miles to the south-east of Glasgow and around thirty-two miles to the south-west of Edinburgh. Its situation on rising ground above the Clyde is in a relatively central location where several early communication routes come together, such as a Roman road and a highway to Ayrshire. It is this position near these early routes and beside the river Clyde which is at the heart of why the town was born and, at least initially, developed. Its convenient position allowed the town to attract the attention of the surrounding rural communities, serving as a more or less central hub which supplied necessary services, as well as being the first link in trade out with the immediate area.
The town also attracted early Royal attention, due mainly to the abundance of wildlife in the surrounding countryside which led to several kings, including David I, using the town as a base for hunting. The site of the medieval castle (now a bowling green) was probably initially developed as kind of hunting lodge for this purpose, but was later developed, upkept and maintained along with the town itself by the occupying English forces during the Wars of Independence in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Again this was due to the position of the town being along a lateral route of supply and communication, between Edinburgh and Ayr. However, the early interest of Scottish kings in the town was the main driving force for the continued development of Lanark from the twelfth century onwards.
According to local tradition the town was granted Burgh status by David I in 1140 although there are no written records which back up this claim. Certainly by the late 12th century the town was well and truly up and running, one of the earliest written records of the town coming from Pope Lucius III who around 1183 confirmed the rights of Dryburgh Abbey to the parish of Lanark [1]. The parish church itself was situated to the south-east of the town and was initially granted to Dryburgh Abbey by David I sometime around 1150 to 1153. Its situation out with the town coupled with the connection with Dryburgh Abbey may possibly indicate that David I intended something more than a simple parish church be developed on the site. He perhaps intended to create another Melrose or Dryburgh Abbey and thereby give the town, through encouraging such an institution, a further economic boost. However as he died in 1153, there is no way to back up this assertion as regards his intentions. Whatever the case it is more or less certain that the town, through its royal connections and its geographical position, did indeed achieve some considerable advances and development in urban organisation.
By 1170 a provost is recorded as being present in the town, implying that it had been established for some time previous to that date [2]. As I have already indicated it was the close royal association and links with the town which no doubt initially instigated and encouraged urban development. However, Lanark was in its own right a local centre for trade, being a market for cheese, corn, and wool amongst other commodities. It had also, by the twelfth century, a well established Flemish colony which traded, largely in wool, with both the French coast as well as Flanders itself. This economic growth though mainly on a local scale, allowed Lanark to maintain its position as a urban market centre for the surrounding rural communities.
As far as further development was concerned Lanark was somewhat confined both (paradoxically) geographically and in terms of close competition from other developing urban settlements. The presence of the Clyde gorge to the south, the Mouse gorge to the north, and the expanse of Lanark moor to the south-east, effectively hemmed in the town curtailing any further urban expansion during the medieval period. The development and gaining of Burgh status by other nearby urban settlements also played a part in curtailing further development. Burghs such as Biggar, Carnwath, Stonehouse and Hamilton all competed with Lanark in providing services, local trade and market fairs. Lanark for example held a weekly market and held four annual fairs. Burghs like Biggar however are recorded as having held ‘several fairs’... of ‘greater value’ than Lanark’s own [3]. This increased local competition, along with the geographical limitations of the site of the town, acted to limit Lanark in aspiring to be anything more than a relatively prosperous town, incapable of developing further onto the next stage in urban development, namely a city.
In conclusion then, it can be seen that Lanark owed its initial development to royal interest, which coupled with its convenient location at the hub of communications in the local area allowed it to assume some modicum of local importance. Where it failed, in terms of further urban development, was in the immediate and limiting geographical site of the town, hemmed in by two gorges and a long stretching moor, as well as also in the competitive growth of other nearby urban settlements, Hamilton etc. The town itself has remained more or less in the same position ever since, with the exception of some light industries such as shoe manufacture and textile dying, the industrial revolution passing Lanark by. Although this too has now gone leaving the town on a more or less dormitory basis.
[1] A. D. Robertson., ‘LANARK: The Burgh and its Councils 1469 - 1880’, 1974, page v.
[2] A. T. Simpson & S. Stevenson., ‘Historic LANARK, the archaeological implications of development’, 1981, page 15.
[3] A. T. Simpson & S. Stevenson., ‘Historic LANARK, the archaeological implications of development’, 1981, page 2.
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