Haddington, United Kingdom

Haddington is located predominantly on the left bank of the River Tyne, and was once famous for its mills. It developed into the fourth-largest town in Scotland during the High Middle Ages, and later was at the centre of the mid-eighteenth century Scottish Agricultural Revolution.

In 1641, an Act was passed by the Parliament of Scotland to encourage the production of fine cloth, and in 1645 an amendment went through stating that the masters and workers of manufactories would be exempt from military service. As a result of this, more factories were established; these included the New Mills. This factory suffered during the Civil War with the loss of its cloth to General Monck. A new charter was drawn up in May 1681, and major capital invested in new machinery, but the New Mills had mixed fortunes, inevitably affected by the lack of protectionism for Scottish manufactured cloth. The Scots Courant reported in 1712 that New Mills was to be "rouped" (auctioned). The property was sold on 16 February 1713 and the machinery and plant on 20 March. The lands of New Mills were purchased by Colonel Francis Charteris and he changed their name to Amisfield.

Haddington has three state primary schools; the first being Haddington primary school,the second being St. Mary's RC Primary School and third being Letham Mains primary school. Both HPS and Saint Mary’s are located adjacent to Neilson Park at the southern edge of the town centre and Letham Mains is in the Letham estate on the western outskirts . Prior to October 2012, Haddington Infant School was two separate buildings; the main building (built in 1897) and the annex (built in 1965) was located at Victoria Road/Meadowpark and the old St. Mary's Primary School was located at Tynebank Road. Following the discovery of structural defects at the old St Mary's RC Primary School in early-2009, the pupils temporarily attended makeshift classrooms at King's Meadow Primary School until the building was deemed safe again around mid-2009. In April 2011, East Lothian Council decided to build an entirely new school, because both schools would still be left with major problems even after substantial upgrades. A third primary school started construction at Letham Mains in April 2019, to serve the large number of new houses that have been built on the west side of the town from 2016 onwards. Secondary school pupils attend Knox Academy at Pencaitland Road. The Compass School, an independent fee-paying primary school and nursery, is located on the West Road.