People of Coatbridge: 16 famous faces who were born and brought up in Coatbridge

Coatbridge is one of the largest towns on the outskirts of Glasgow and has produced some incredible talent.

The town made a name for itself during the industrial revolution, but there is evidence that the area was settled before even the Romans, as far back as as the Mesolithic Age 3,000 years ago - when a circle of bronze age coffins were found in Drumpellier estate in 1852.

Coatbridge owes its name to a bridge that carried the old Edinburgh-Glasgow road over the Gartsherrie Burn, at what is now Coatbridge Cross. This first appears on a survey in 1755 as Cottbrig, one of a number of places on the wider Coats estate. The name Coats most likely comes from the Scots wordcot(t), meaning “cottage”, although an alternative theory links it to the name of the Colt family, who owned land here as early as the 13th century.

In the last years of the 18th century, the area developed from a loose collection of hamlets into the town of Coatbridge. The town’s development and growth have been intimately connected with the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution.

Here are some of the famous faces who once called Coatbridge home including musicians, actors and footballers.