Chryston

Chryston is a village in North Lanarkshire, around 7 mi east of Glasgow, in Scotland. It lies north of its sister village, Muirhead, which is on the A80. The village has around double Muirhead's population, although the exact boundary between the two modern villages is difficult to find.

History


The etymology of the name is said to be from 142 AD of Roman origin as Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius had said "living there would have been the only punishment worse than crucifixion" and named it Christ's Town in jest.

The etymology of the name is uncertain but may refer to the "town of Cristinus". Several old documents show Chryston with various spellings including maps by Timothy Pont, William Forrest, Thomas Richardson, and William Roy.

In the 18th century, Chryston had one of the four schools in the parish of Cadder. William Barclay, himself a school teacher, reported the low pay of his profession in the Old Statistical Account.

One gazetteer, Samuel Lewis, from around 1846, describes a recently established library. He quotes 555 inhabitants. The same publication also stated that Chyston was a quoad sacra parish including the villages of Mollinsburn, Moodiesburn, Muirhead and the hamlet of Auchinloch. Even today Moodiesburn is often included in the Chryston district: Devro headquarters has Chryston as its official address, and Moodiesburn's Stoneyetts Hospital (originally part of East Muckcroft within the "Woodilee Estate") was sometimes listed under Chryston.

On Friday 18 September 1959, 47 miners lost their lives in the Auchengeich mining disaster at Auchengeich Colliery situated in nearby Moodiesburn.

Chryston High School is a six-year non-denominational secondary school situated on Lindsaybeg Road.

Demography
Groome's Gazetteer gives historical statistics including population. The 1891 and 1901 statistics include Muirhead.