LCT Lectures
2026-27 Lecture Series
The 2026-27 Lecture series is now under way.
- From Bonny Banks to Smelly Banks
Cameron Easton
Thursday 29 October at 7:30pm
Queen Margaret Hall, 53 Blackness Road, Linlithgow, EH49 7JA
Shoemakers’ Land From its earliest times, Linlithgow was one of Scotland’s most important Royal Burghs noted for the production of leather and leather goods. In 1845 there were five master tanners in the town employing 298 men, as well as twenty-six master shoemakers, employing 319 men, and 30 women.
By 1881 leather working and shoemaking employed more than a third of the town’s total workforce. Indeed, at one point, Linlithgow was renowned throughout Scotland as the supplier of that well-loved school accessory – the tawse.
Cameron will explain where the cordiners of Linlithgow sourced the material they needed to produce their leather goods, how they processed it and how their work affected the town and its people. So big was their impact that maybe the old rhyme could be changed from:
“Glasgow for bells, L’gow for wells, Fa’kirk for beans and pease”
to: “Linlithgow for Smells”