Tranent, United Kingdom

There is a long history of settlement in Tranent, perhaps dating back to prehistory. There are several historic buildings in and around the town, including the ruins of the old parish church, parts of which date from the 11th century and which was demolished in 1797, while a few miles south-west of the town stands Fa'side Castle, sometimes known as Falside or Fawside, a fourteenth-century L-shaped tower house.

Isabella Begg née Burns, the youngest sister of Robert Burns, moved to Tranent from Ormiston with her family after her son William resigned his post as the schoolmaster. She supported her family with the help of her daughters Agnes and Isabella, working as dressmakers. In 1843 she moved to Bridge House in Alloway, South Ayrshire.

Coal was first mined in Tranent Parish when Robert de Quincy granted rights in the early-thirteenth century to the monks of Newbattle to mine at Prestoungrange, which was then part of that parish. Soon many wealthy families in the parish joined the rush to mine coal. Heughs (surface mines), were being cut throughout the area. Longniddry, St. Germains, Fa'side, Ormiston (much later town) and Elphinstone, all parts of old Tranent, had their collieries and for the next 750 years, the industry prospered. Other industries grew to employ increasing populations: distilleries, breweries, tanneries and metal implement works. Quarries opened providing stone for homes. Farming was modernised and mills opened to provide food. The nineteenth-century saw a slowdown in industrial growth and, gradually, industry centralised and moved to larger centres. The coal industry had peaked and the twentieth century brought about a slow, but terminal decline. The last large deep mine closed in 1961, then in 2000, the opencast mine at Blindwells closed.