Uphall, p.786.

[Gazetteer of Scotland Contents]

   UPHALL, a parish in Linlithgowshire; bounded on the north-west by Linlithgow; on the north by the northern part of Ecclesmachan; on the east by Kirkliston; on the south-east and south by Edinburghshire; and on the west by Livingstone and the southern part of Ecclesmachan. Its form is that of a half-moon upon a radius of very nearly 2 miles, with the straight line or chord facing the south-east, and sending out from its middle a projection 1½ mile long, and 7 furlongs broad. Its superficial extent is 3,922 statute acres. The rivulet Broxburn passes eastward through the main body, and gives its name to a village, with 500 inhabitants, a little north-east of the centre of the parish: see BROXBURN. The river Almond bounds the south side of the projecting district. Though most of the surface is naturally moorish, and gently but not tumulatedly upland, it is all enclosed, and exhibits the results of skilful and assiduous cultivation, and possesses extensive plantations. The soil is, in many parts, a rich clay upon till, and, on the lower fields, a fine black loam, – both very fertile. The chief minerals are workable coal, excellent sandstone, many seams of valuable ironstone, limestone, marl, reddish-coloured chalk, clay fit for the uses of the brickmaker and the potter, and some coarse Fuller’s-earth. The mansions are Middleton, Kirkhill, Houston, and Almondell. The parish is traversed by the middle road between Edinburgh and Glasgow; and, in bold serpentine curvatures, by the Union canal. The village of Uphall, with 160 inhabitants, and the stage, well-known as Uphall-inn, are situated in the west side of the parish, 13 miles from Edinburgh. Population, in 1801, 786; in 1831, 1,254. Houses 215. Assessed property, in 1815, £5,258. – Uphall is in the presbytery of Linlithgow, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, the Earl of Buchan. Stipend £233 6s. 1d.; glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds £403 10s. 6d. The church is of unknown date, but seems in part to have been built in the middle of the 17^th century. Sittings about 300. Of 1,091 persons, whom an ecclesiastical census of 1838 exhibited as then constituting the population, 903 were churchmen, and 188 dissenters. School-master’s salary £34 4s. 4½d., with £56 fees, and £4 other emoluments. – The parish was anciently called Strathbroc, ‘the Valley of brocks or badgers;’ and it retains the vestige of this name in the designation of its chief stream and larger village. The parish-church, which preceded the present one, stood 700 yards north-east of the mansion of Kirkhill; and, being dedicated to St. Nicholas, had a bell, inscribed, ‘Campanum Sancti Nicholai de Strathbroke, 1441,’ and still preserved in the more modern church. The parish was in early times a rectory, and was afterwards annexed to the provostry of Kirkheugh, and formed one of its prebends. A chapel appears to have anciently stood at Bangour. In the chancel of the parish-church lie the mortal remains of the celebrated barrister, the Hon. Henry Erskine, and those of his brother, the Lord-chancellor Erskine.