Bathgate

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BATHGATE

Burgh

Incorporated into : 1975 West Lothian District Council (1996 West Lothian Area Council)

Official blazon

Azure, on a mount between two oak trees, a castle triple-towered Proper, an open gate Gules, the main tower flagged with the arms of Fitzalan (videlicet: Gules, a lion rampant Or, armed and langued Argent) and the other two towers with a banner of Scotland (videlicet: Azure, a saltire Argent), in base a loch undy Argent and of the field.

Above the Shield is placed a mural coronet and in an Escrol under the same this Motto "Commune Bonum Intra Muros".

Origin/meaning

The arms were granted on May 17, 1938.

Bathgate was well known by the fourteenth century as its Castle was the residence of Waiter Fitzalan, 6th High Steward of Scotland. It was created a Burgh of Barony in 1663 in favour of Sir Thomas Hamilton of Bathgate.

The arms are based on the device on the Burgh seal adopted in 1892. They show the Castle of Bathgate under a blue sky with Waiter Fitzalan's banner flying over it. The open gate, the loch and the wooded mound are supposed to refer to "the bath gate" where horses and cattle were watered; the loch also recalls the marshy ground on which the Castle was built.

The oak trees could just have a Hamilton reference.

The Latin motto "The common good within the walls" comes from the seal.

Seal of the burgh as used in the 1890s

Community Council

Official blazon

Azure, on a mount between two oak trees a castle triple towered Proper, an open gate Gules, the main tower flagged with the arms of Fitzalan videlicet:- Gules, a lion rampant Or, armed and langued Argent, and the other two towers with a banner of Scotland videlicet: Azure, a saltire Argent, in base a loch undy Argent and of the Field.

Above the Shield is placed a Coronet appropriate to a statutory Community Council, videlicet:- a circlet richly chased from which are issuant four thistle leaves (one and two halves visible) and four pine cones (two visible) Or, and in an Escrol below the Shield this Motto "Commune Bonum Intra Muros".