Causeystanes – naming the area

Pictured is the junction of Broompark Road and High Blantyre Main Street in 1905. This pre-first world war photo is a great picture showing that this area was just as busy as it is today. Causeystanes is the name given to this immediate area, prominently cast in sandstone on the actual Blakelys Bar tenement on the left which was built in 1894. The buildings on the left leading down Broompark Road are no longer there, now replaced by a Dentists surgery and small housing estate, bordering on to Kirkton Park. Similarly, the tenements on the right have since gone too, 100 years later replaced by A childcare nursery and garage car park. The wall and trees have also gone and modern houses stand there today.The old dirt roads now replaced by macadam.

Digging a little deeper i was interested to see that on the 1860 map, the area is marked Causeystones, but on later maps called Causeystanes, the Scottish version of the name. Now, this may have due to the Scottish naming of the Blakelys building with Causeystanes engraved, so perhaps Causeystones as a name is slowly being forgotten? Most people do know the area now as Causeystanes not to be confused with the modern Blantyre street of the same name on the outskirts of the area.

On the old ordnance maps, the ground levels are marked on and i can see that nearby fields were higher, with the area of Causeystanes sitting in a dip. This naturally may have meant some bad drainage in that area and hence the need to reinforce the roads with some pavement stones or cobbles.

There is another strong theory as to how this area got it’s name. On the old 1860 map, again long before the buildings were named, there is a note saying “Check – TP – Toll Point”. An old tollboth looks very likely as being situated at the end of Broompark Road, actually on Main Street. Broompark Road and Main Street were 2 very prominent streets in the emerging , growing town and in the 1600s and 1700s (possibly even 1800s too), the roads connected Lanarkshire to Glasgow, with Broompark leading directly to Pathfoot (Pech Brae) and onwards to Glasgow. The crossing point was certainly an ideal position to erect a toll booth and TAX visitors with carts , sums of money to pass through. This would not have applied to local businesses, but certainly would if you were passing through from other towns. With “heavy horse traffic” passing through frequently, the road and pavements in this area would have to have been upgraded, reinforced with stone, hence the need for causey stanes, or cobbles. Indeed it was a requirement of law for local shops and businesses to upgrade the immediate pavement area outside their premises. No councils existed then and people were responsible for the upkeep of their own pavement area. If they were trampled on, or used by non locals, the businesses according to legislation of the 1700’s were entitled by law to collect these tolls from anybody who drove carriages or carts, hence the need for the tollbooth and the birth of the name Causeystanes.