Bellshilll is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, situated in the suburbs of Glasgow two miles north of Motherwell. The town has a population of 20,705 (2001).

The earliest record of settlement in the Bellshill area is a village called Belmill, recorded on a map by Timothy Pont published in 1654. The village consisted of a row of quarry workers houses owned by Mr. Bell, who owned a stone quarry to the south of Belmill. After the quarry closed, the village disappeared and a settlement developed nearby called Crossgates. About 1810, this new settlement took on the name Bellshill and continued to grow absorbing nearby villages such as Black Moss and Sykehead.

After the mid-1800s, large coal and iron deposits were discovered nearby and a number of mines opened, the first being the Thankerton mine. This rapidly increased the size of the town, even bringing in immigrants from abroad (particularly Lithuania). A number of railway stations were opened in the area, including Mossend, Fallside and Bell Cross.

In the 1870s, Bothwell Parochial Board built the two ward Bellshill Hospital. During World War I, the hospital specialised in infection diseases. In 1917, the hospital began to specialise as a Maternity Hospital, the first in the Lanarkshire area, with new dedicated maternity buildings being opened in 1958 and 1962.

External links

• 2001 Settlement Population (http://www.northlan.gov.uk/your+council/facts+and+figures/population/2001+settlement+population.html) _ Census data