Backmuir Of New Gilston
Backmuir Of New Gilston ~ LAR S NO4308 1 374 200m
Guilston Backmuir 1753 Roy sheet 18, 1
Newtown of Gilston 1775 Ainslie/Fife
New Gilston 1828 SGF
Backmuir of New Gilston 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
New Gilston 2001 OS Explorer
Sc backmuir + en New Gilston
Shown on OS Explorer (2001) simply as New Gilston, the name has fluctuated over the past 250 years. According to Cunningham, the village of New Gilston was built around 1700, and owes its existence to coal-mining (1907, 79). In 1753 Roy shows only three or four buildings in a cluster. In 1775 Ainslie/Fife shows Newtown of Gilston with the plan much as it is today, with settlement on both sides of a street some 500 m from east to west, and Gilston Coalpits some 400 m to the north. The village has the same plan on SGF (1828), where it is called New Gilston. But on the OS 6 inch map (1855), at the west end of the street, a new and substantial edifice has been added which bears the name New Gilston, while the village itself is called Backmuir of New Gilston, and this explains the lay-out of these names on maps such as OS Pathf. However, the name has still not quite settled down: on the OS Explorer of 2001, both the village and the building at the west end are called New Gilston (the former in larger, bolder type than the latter). When visited in March 2007, the building at the west end displayed the name ‘New Gilston Farm’, while the village sign proclaimed ‘New Gilston’.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 2