Torphichen
Encyclopedia
Bathgate
Bathgate is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, on the M8 motorway west of Livingston. Nearby towns are Blackburn, Armadale, Whitburn, Livingston, and Linlithgow. Edinburgh Airport is away...
, West Lothian
West Lothian
West Lothian is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland, and a Lieutenancy area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Falkirk, North Lanarkshire, the Scottish Borders and South Lanarkshire....
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The placename may be Gaelic in origin, eg, "Tóir Féichín" (the boundary/sanctuary of St Féichín), Tor Fithichean (Hill of the Ravens) or British, eg, modern Welsh "tref fechan" (little town).
The village church is said to have been founded by St. Ninian in about 400CE, a small wooden structure on the site of the present church (itself rebuilt in 1756). The Knights Hospitaller of St. John made their Scottish headquarters at Torphichen from about 1160 and the Preceptory stands as testament to their presence.
Torphichen Parish "came out" in the Disruption of 1843 and the village has the oldest purpose-built Free Church, erected that same year, and now (since the reunification of the churches) the St. John's church hall.
The village clustered around the church and the village Square for centuries, slowly expanding northwards, a process accelerated by the creation of the James Wood Park in 1922 and of the building of council houses from 1945 in Greenside and Bowyett. In the mid-1950s, council housing was built in Priorscroft in the north and in St. John's Place in the south of the village. At that time, the village included a branch of Bathgate Co-op Society, a miners' welfare (reflecting locally resident miners rather than any substantial colliery) and a residents parish council.
In the early 1960s, the last council housing built in the village was erected in Northgate and Priorscroft in the north and also at Manse road in the south of the picturesque village.
The 1960s and 1970s saw an expansion of the village to the south with a scattering of substantial new private houses in Cathlaw Lane and Craigs Court. The 1990s saw building of more private homes at Priorsgrange and in the Loan but the village still has fewer than 350 dwellings.
Now, the commercial life of the village is focused on the post office/shop and the Torphichen Inn. A strong community life exists with an active church, SWRI, annual Children's Gala day and civic week, community centre and a range of other organisations.
The Children's Gala day celebrated its Centenary in 2008 when Queen Caroline Perry was crowned by the First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond
Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson "Alex" Salmond MSP is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party , having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon...
MSP.
Torphichen is part of the (UK) Falkirk East and Linlithgow Constituency (Michael Connarty
Michael Connarty
Michael Connarty is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Linlithgow and Falkirk East since 2005, and a variation of the same seat since 1992.-Early life:...
, Labour); Scottish Linlithgow Constituency (Mary Mulligan
Mary Mulligan
Mary Mulligan is a Labour politician, and formerly Member of the Scottish Parliament for Linlithgow constituency from 1999-2011. She lost her seat to the Scottish National Party's Fiona Hyslop in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election..She was appointed Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care...
, Labour); and part of the Armadale and Blackridge Ward of West Lothian Council (Stuart Borrowman, Independent; Jim Dixon, Labour; and Isabel Hutton
Isabel Hutton
Isabel Hutton is a Scottish National Party politician. She is currently the Executive Councilor for Social Policy on West Lothian Council, and holds the national appointment of being the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities spokesperson for Education, Children and Young People.-External...
, Scottish National Party).
Knights Hospitaller
Torphichen PreceptoryTorphichen Preceptory
Torphichen Preceptory, is a church in the village of Torphichen, West Lothian, Scotland. It comprises the remains of the Preceptory of the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in Scotland...
is a religious house founded by Knights Hospitaller
Knights Hospitaller
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...
at the invitation of King David I
David I of Scotland
David I or Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians and later King of the Scots...
in the 1140s. The last Preceptor of the House, Sir James Sandilands
James Sandilands, 1st Lord Torphichen
James Sandilands was born circa 1511 in Calder, West Lothian, Scotland, and died in 1596.He was the second son of Sir James Sandilands, 7th Lord of Calder...
, surrendered the lands of the preceptory during the Reformation
Scottish Reformation
The Scottish Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Papacy in 1560, and the events surrounding this. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation; and in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along Reformed lines, and politically in...
to the crown, but then bought them back as a private individual. He received the title Lord Torphichen
Lord Torphichen
Lord Torphichen is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created by Queen Mary in 1564 for Sir James Sandilands , with remainder to his heirs and assigns whatsoever. Sandilands had previously served as Preceptor of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta in Scotland, and...
.