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Livingston, West Lothian

Livingston (Leivinstoun, Baile Dhunlèibhe) is the largest town in West Lothian, Scotland. Designated in 1962, it is the fourth post-war new town to be built in Scotland. Taking its name from a village of the same name incorporated into the new town, it was originally developed in the then-counties of Midlothian and West Lothian along the banks of the River Almond. It is situated approximately fifteen miles (25 km) west of Edinburgh and thirty miles (50 km) east of Glasgow, and is close to the towns of Broxburn to the north-east and Bathgate to the north-west.

The town was built around a collection of small villages, Livingston Village, Bellsquarry, and Livingston Station (now part of Deans). The town has a number of residential areas. These include Craigshill, Howden, Ladywell, Knightsridge, Deans, Dedridge, Murieston, Almondvale, Eliburn, Kirkton, and Adambrae. There are several large industrial estates in Livingston, including Houston industrial estate, Brucefield Industrial Estate, Alba Business Park, and Kirkton Campus. The locality of Livingston as defined by the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) includes Uphall Station and Pumpherston. The wider urban settlement, also defined by the GROS, further includes Mid Calder and East Calder. Other neighbouring villages include: Kirknewton, Polbeth and West Calder. The 2001 UK Census reported that the town had a population of 50,826. The 2011 UK Census showed the population of Livingston had increased to 56,269. Livingston is the second-largest settlement in the Lothians, after Edinburgh.

Before 1962
Livingston is first mentioned in an early 12th-century charter as Villa Levingi (Leving's town). In 1128, David I granted the newly founded Abbey of Holyrood control of the church at Livingston and its income in a charter that was witnessed by Turstani filii Levingi (Thurstan son of Leving). He built a fortified tower (Livingston Peel) which no longer survives. The settlement that grew up around it became known as Levingstoun, Layingston, and eventually fixed at Livingston. The Leving family controlled the area until dying out in 1512. From 1512 until 1671 the tower house was occupied by the Murrays of Elibank. In 1670, the Edinburgh botanic garden was founded by Dr. Robert Sibbald and Dr. Andrew Balfour using the plant collection from the Elibank private gardens of Sir Patrick Murray, 2nd Lord Elibank, following his death in September 1671. In the late 17th century, the Peel was demolished and replaced by a house called Livingston Place. The estate eventually passed from the Murray family to the Cunningham family and it was eventually acquired by the Earl of Rosebery in 1828 and demolished in 1840. The area of the former gardens and house is now a local garden and park, named Peel park. The formal layout and planting in the park reflect the historic gardens, and a new peel mound and moat was recreated to reflect the earlier history.

The area around Livingston was historically an important shale oil area, and the world's first oil boom occurred in West Lothian. This was based on oil extracted from shale, and by 1870 over 3 million tons of shale were being mined each year in the area around Livingston. Output declined with the discovery of liquid oil reserves around the world in the early 1900s, but shale mining only finally ceased in 1962. The "bings" that characterise oil shale mining in West Lothian have largely been flattened. Two shale bings nearby are scheduled monuments – Five Sisters and Greendykes.

By 1898, the main Livingston village was recorded as having several houses, a mill, a Church of Scotland church, a United Free church, a school, and a coaching inn. The oldest church, Livingston Old Kirk, in its current form, dates from 1732 and is an example of plain Presbetryrian architecture from the Georgian period. It stands on the site of a pre-Reformation church which appears to have stood on the site from c. 1350. The nearby coaching inn was built in 1760 and the poet Robert Burns is said to have been a guest. The nearby Livingston Mill was also built around the same date, in 1770 although there is evidence that suggests there may have been a mill on the site since the 14th or 15th century. Around 1 mi north of Livingston village, there was a railway station with a smaller settlement called Livingston Station which is now part of Deans. Livingston station was built as a settlement to serve the workforce and their families of the nearby Deans Oil Works, owned by the Pumpherston Oil Company. Livingston Station had six streets with homes, as well as a store, a small church and a works institute. The original Livingston railway station was operated by the Edinburgh and Bathgate Railway and opened on 12 November 1849. British Railways closed the station on 1 November 1948 following the ending of passenger services on the line. In the 1980s, a site was chosen for a new railway station on the line to the east of the original station and Livingston North station opened on 24 March 1986, concurrent with the re-introduction of passenger services. The Livingston Village and Livingston Station settlements were both subsequently incorporated into Livingston new town in the 20th century.

New Town
Under the New Towns Act of 1946, Livingston was designated as a New Town on 16 April 1962 in order to ease overcrowding in Glasgow. Livingston was the fourth new town of five in Scotland; the others were East Kilbride, Glenrothes, Cumbernauld and Irvine. Three villages (Livingston Village and Livingston Station in the old parish of Livingston and Bellsquarry in the parish of Mid Calder) and numerous farmsteads were incorporated into the Livingston new town. Published in July 1962, the first edition of the Livingston plan designated new areas for housing for up to 100,000 people, as well as areas for new industry and offices, marked by new roads, pathways, and recreational spaces, under an 84 sqmi survey led by Professors Donald Robertson and Sir Robert Matthew. Many of the initial houses were factory-built. A subsequent edition to the plan was published in 1966 with Livingston intended as the centre of a new population area of up to 250,000 persons in the Lothians. The new town plan envisaged Livingston as a focal point for economic growth in the Lothian region, incorporating 'overspill' population from Glasgow and Edinburgh. The design incorporated a vision of mixed development, connected by a new series of roads in a grid system by means of grade separated junctions and roundabouts. While the new town plan considered the car to be the principal form of transport, it also envisaged a series of core footpaths to connect communities under the Radburn design.

In order to build, manage, and promote Livingston, a quango organisation was formed, the Livingston Development Corporation (LDC). Sir David Lowe, a local large scale farmer and businessman, was appointed chairman. Following designation of the new town, the first large building begun was the Corporation's own offices in 1963. Residential construction began in 1962 with the first homes to be built as part of the new town being constructed in Deans (to house corporation employees and construction workers). The first major development of the new town took place in Craigshill, with the first people moving into the newly built housing areas in April 1966 at Broom Walk. The construction of the areas of Howden, Ladywell, and Knightsridge began in the late 1960s and this was followed in the 1970s by the creation of Dedrige and further development of Deans. Some of the first prominent buildings in the new town built in these decades included Riverside Primary School (the first primary school built in the new town in April 1966), Livingston Fire Station (1967 by the architects Bamber & Hall), the new town's first public house (the Tower in Craigshill built in 1968), Craigshill school (the first secondary school built in the new town in 1969), and the 'Centre' (Livingstons shopping centre) built in 1977. Craigshill was said to exemplify the spartan, geometric approach to new town planning, with buildings composed of the Danish style Jesperson blocks and high-density, low-rise concrete homes with Scandinavian style mono-pitch roofs.

By 1971, the town's population had risen to 14,000. On 9 November 1979 the Livingston UFO Incident took place, when Robert Taylor, employed by the Livingston Development Corporation, is said to have encountered a UFO on Dechmont Law and the incident was subsequently investigated by Lothian and Borders Police. It is the only UFO incident that was part of a criminal investigation in the United Kingdom.

In 1984, a new railway station was built for the town on the Shotts Line called Livingston South which was shortly followed by another station Livingston North on the redeveloped Edinburgh to Bathgate Line in 1986. These stations replaced the former Livingston and Newpark stations which had closed before the construction of the town. In 1995 Livingston gained its professional football team, Livingston F.C. The first team was essentially formed from the relocation of Meadowbank Thistle F.C. from Edinburgh.

While in 1980, the LDC owned 90% of the town's housing, by 1996 this had reduced to some 40% through sales and increasing private home ownership. The Livingston Development Corporation guided Livingston until its mandate expired on 22 March 1997 and the town was transferred to the West Lothian Council. The last major construction operation carried out by the LDC was the Almondvale Stadium. Housing development continues under West Lothian Council, through private developers such as Barratt Developments and Bellway, and under the management of housing associations such as the Almond Housing Association and the West Lothian Housing Partnership.

In September 2021, the town submitted a bid for city status in the United Kingdom as part of the Platinum Jubilee Civic Honours Competition. Although the town was not successful in being raised to city status, 2022 marked its 60th anniversary as a town.

Geography
Livingston is the eighth-largest settlement and the third-largest town in Scotland. It is also the 171st largest settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies 30 mi from Glasgow and 15 mi from Edinburgh.

The Livingston new town was planned so that the River Almond, the namesake of the Almondvale district, runs through the town centre.

Outer Livingston districts include Wester Dechmont, Deans (including the Deans Industrial Estate), Kirkton, and Houston to the north, Craigshill to the east, Bellsquarry (including the Brucefield Industrial Estate) and Murieston to the south, and Adambrae and Kirkton Campus to the east of the town. Craigshill takes its name from the Scottish Gaelic word for the slopes of a hill.

Inner central districts in the town include Almondvale, Livingston Village, Eliburn, Howden, Ladywell, Knightsridge, and Dedridge. Ladywell takes its name from a historic well that was dedicated to Mary and was said to have been used by medieval Scottish Kings as a site for a yearly Royal touching ceremony.

The geology of Livingston is similar to that of West Lothian in general, characterised by former glacial history and composed of till. This includes areas of clay, sand, silt, and gravel, primarily along the Almond river valley environment. Parts of Livingston also have isolated areas of carboniferous sedimentary rocks (primarily in and around the Deans area of the town) which were worked and extracted for shale oil in the 19th and 20th centuries. The oldest rocks are classified as part of the Inverclyde Group (primarily located in the south-east of Livingston between Linhouse Water and Kirknewton). There are also several areas of underlying sandstone in Livingston which were used as local quarries, now since defunct, including Dedridge quarry, refilled and landscaped as a local park (Quarry Froggy Park). Bellsquarry originates from a former Burdiehouse limestone quarry and the surname of its owner, Mr Bell. The quarry was in operation by 1782 and continued until the early 20th century, when it was used as a rubbish dump before being tidied and covered.

Until the development of the new town, except for localised industry in areas such as Deans, the area was primarily agricultural, with farming focused on the alluvial soils of the Almond river. The area is now primarily an urban area although as a new town, Livingston is characterised by large areas of forested paths, public parks and open spaces. Forested areas in Livingston include Livingston Old Wood (38.97 acre) in Eliburn, the Wilderness in Adambrae (45.91 acre), Bellsquarry Wood (43.86 acre), Kirkton Woods (15.64 acre), Linhouse Glen, and Calder Woods (on the boundary with East Calder).

Economy
The area where Livingston now sits was historically dominated by oil shale mining, which is evident from the bings which still exist on much of the surrounding landscape. The designation of Livingston as a new town in the 1960s attracted new light industries to the area, with high technology and pharmaceutical companies moving into the town. Livingston formed a major hub in Scotland's Silicon Glen with factories constructed in purpose-build business parks at Houston Industrial Estate and Kirkton Campus. Like most other areas, this went into a slow decline from the late 1990s with companies including Burroughs Corporation (now Unisys), Motorola and NEC closing down their factories. Several multi-national companies still have factories in the town, including Wyman Gordon who manufacture aircraft components on the Houston Industrial Estate. Other companies on the Houston Industrial Estate include Mitsubishi Electric (who have an electric air conditioning factory which produces almost 150,000 air conditioning and heat pump units every year), Paterson Arran (a food manufacturer whose bakery, the Royal Burgh Bakery is located in Livingston), and DS Smith (who have a box production plant on the estate).

From the 1970s, Kirkton Campus on the western edge of the town was developed as Scotland's first technology science park. Developed for private businesses by the LDC, it included 300 acres of landscaped offices and factory sites along the Killandean Burn and River Almond. Former businesses included Ethicon, Boehringer Mannheim, Canon Business Machines and Seagate Micro Electronics. While these factories on the Campus have closed, it is still home to several businesses, including Sky UK who is one of the largest private sector employers in Livingston with a range of offices and their biggest UK contact centre at Kirkton Campus. Other companies at Kirkton Campus include Merck (a pharmaceutical company), Gore W L & Associates (a clothes manufacturer in a triangular plan building built in 1984), Edinburgh Instruments (a molecular spectroscopy instrumentation manufacturer), SCION Instruments (a chromatography and gas detector manufacturer), Techcomp Lab Products (a manufacturer of laboratory instrumentation), JPT Foodtech, and Palletways (a distribution service which owns a 50,000 sqft hub facility).

Other large employers include Tesco (whose distribution centre for Scotland and Northern Ireland is located on the northern edge of the town), Schuh (whose head office and customer service centre is on the Deans Industrial Estate in Livingston), Shin-Etsu Europe (who have a manufacturing facility in Livingston that produces semiconductors), those in the retail sector in the shopping centres, supermarkets, and the health care sector such as NHS Scotland. The Witherby Publishing Group, established in 1740, is one of the oldest publishers in the United Kingdom and their offices and warehouse is located in Livingston at Navigation House. Valneva SE is a biotech company that has a manufacturing facility in Livingston which produces vaccines, including a vaccine against COVID-19.

The Brucefield Industrial Estate is located west of Bellsquarry and includes companies such as Diet Chef (a food manufacturer), ScoMac (a catering equipment manufacturer), and Snag Tights (a textile manufacturer based in Livingston that exports to 90 countries).

Alba Business Park is located in Livingston to the west of Adambrae and includes a technology innovation centre. Companies in the Alba Business Park include Glenmorangie, the whisky distillers, who have offices and a bottling facility that was opened in 2011. Quintiles IMS, a healthcare data provider, have a large office in the business park. The prosthetic company Össur (Touch Bionics) has a research and development facility in the park.

Town centre
Livingston town centre sits on the southern edge of the Almond Valley and provides shops and services for the surrounding area. It is bounded by a ring road to the east and has been purposely planned, distinguishing it from many other town centres. Howden Park is located immediately north of the town centre and adjoins Howden House, an 18th-century house which contains an arts centre and private housing. The south western edge of the town centre is dominated by retail parks. Livingston's town centre also contains a large number of offices. Private sector offices are also concentrated at the eastern and western edges of the town centre and along the Almondvale Boulevard. Other facilities in the town centre include: hotels, a swimming pool and local authority gym, and restaurants and pubs. Almondvale Football Stadium and West Lothian College are located at the north western edge of the town centre.

The Livingston Civic Centre was completed in June 2009 and officially opened by then-First Minister Alex Salmond on 25 November 2009. The Civic Centre is located just north of The Centre on the bank of the River Almond. It was home to the divisional headquarters of Lothian and Borders Police until the creation of Police Scotland in 2013, as well as the sheriff and justice of the peace, West Lothian Council, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration, Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service, and the West Lothian Community Health and Care Partnership.

Shopping
Livingston has three major shopping centres, three medium large retail parks, and clusters of small local stores located throughout the different areas. The largest shopping centres are 'The Centre' (formerly named the Almondvale Shopping Centre, comprising more than 1 e6sqft of retail space) and Livingston Designer Outlet (the largest outlet mall in Scotland, formerly called the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Centre). The combined retail spaces of central Livingston form the largest indoor shopping location in Scotland and the 10th largest in the UK.

The first phase of the Livingston's shopping centres was completed in 1977 to facilitate the needs of the local residents and workers at The Centre, known as the "Livingston Centre" at that point. The first major refurbishment was completed in 1988 by Land Securities. The centre was extended by 230000 sqft in 1996/1997, creating phase 2 of the development, bringing the size of the centre to over 550000 sqft. It has since been renamed "The Almondvale Centre". The Centre was completed in its current structure on 16 October 2008. The total development has around 155 shops and eating establishments. In early 1999, construction started on phase 3 of the development with the construction of McArthur Glen Designer Outlet Centre (reamed as the Livingston Designer Outlet in 2007). This opened in October 2000, with other work continuing into 2002. The Livingston Designer Outlet, contains a VUE multiplex cinema, a food court with many chain fast-food outlets, bars, restaurants, and cafés, as well as around 70 outlet shops. In the early 2000s, Asda constructed a new supercentre at the other end of the shopping centre in place of the old Woolco store (which had also been used as a Gateway hypermarket before Asda acquired the firm in late-1989). This Asda supercentre is the largest Asda store in Scotland.

Until 2016, there was also a large B&Q in the south-west of the town centre, as well as a large Morrisons supermarket which remains open. The Homebase store closed in July 2010 and Argos moved to premises across the road. The former Homebase and Argos stores were converted into a large Sainsbury's supermarket that opened in December 2010. Also in the town centre are discount supermarkets such as Aldi and Lidl, the latter of which is located beside the Almondvale Stadium.

Under the original Livingston plans, neighbourhood shopping centres were to be located at strategic points around the town and the first of these to be built was The Mall at Craigshill, which claimed to be one of the first covered shopping centres in Scotland. This was followed by the Carmondean Centre in Deans and groupings of shops in Ladywell and Murieston.

Walking / cycling
Livingston has an excellent 'core path network' which is shared use, and available to pedestrians and cyclists. It connects all of the main areas of the town with shopping and work areas. It is for the most part segregated from roads and uses an extensive network of under/over pass systems to keep pedestrians and cyclists away from motorised traffic.

Road
Livingston has excellent connections to the central Scotland road network: the M8 bounds Livingston in the north and the A71 in the south; The A899 dual carriageway spine road passes north south along Livingston's eastern edge and connects the two; The A89 runs east west on the north side of the M8.

Buses
Livingston has a central bus terminal with seven stances located on Almondvale Avenue between the two shopping centres in the town centre. This provides regular services to surrounding towns and villages. McGill's Scotland East and Lothian Country Buses are the main bus operator in Livingston. Other operators include E&M Horsburgh, Blue Bus, SD Travel, and Stagecoach. Livingston has buses to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Lanark, Fife, Falkirk, and most West Lothian towns and villages.

Rail
Livingston has three railway stations; Livingston North, Livingston South and Uphall (on the eastern edge of Livingston).

Livingston North is located adjacent to the Carmondean Shopping Centre between Eliburn and Deans and is on the North Clyde Line. The station opened on 24 March 1986, concurrent with the re-introduction of passenger services on the Edinburgh to Bathgate Line. On 12 December 2010, with the completion of the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link, Livingston North is now served by trains running to Glasgow Queen Street and Airdrie.

Livingston South is located at the Murieston Shops and is on the Shotts Line and has trains running between Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley via Shotts. It was opened by British Rail on 6 October 1984.

Airports
Livingston is 7 mi west of Edinburgh Airport and 35+1/2 mi east of Glasgow Airport, both of which have regular flights to British and international destinations.

Media
The local newspaper covering Livingston is the West Lothian Courier (published under the Daily Record). There was previously a Livingston Post newspaper which was stopped in the early 1990s. There was also a newspaper called West Lothian Herald & Post that served Livingston but that ceased to print in July 2011. Dedridge Grapevine is a voluntary community magazine, delivering several thousand copies to houses in and around Dedridge, founded and edited by Kathleen Ross-Hale since 1976. Konect is a free local magazine that serves the West Lothian area, including Livingston, with approximately 10,000 copies a month delivered in the Livingston area.

Livingston previously had its own Radio Station called River FM that was broadcast from the Almondvale Stadium, from 1 September 2003 until 29 January 2007. Current local radio includes the local BBC station BBC Radio Scotland and local commercial radio including Capital Scotland and 97.3 Forth One. Livingston also has a hospital radio station called Radio Grapevine which broadcasts to St John's Hospital.

Livingston is covered by the BBC Scotland and STV Central regions.

Local
Livingston is the administrative centre of West Lothian Council. Within West Lothian, Livingston is covered by four multi-member wards each electing four councillors. They are Livingston North, Livingston South, East Livingston, and East Calder wards.

Many of the responsibilities of West Lothian Council were previously the responsibility of the Livingston Development Corporation (LDC) until 1997 when the LDC was disbanded.

Scottish Parliament
Livingston is in the Almond Valley constituency for the Scottish Parliament, and the Member of the Scottish Parliament is Angela Constance of the Scottish National Party. Livingston is also covered by the Lothian electoral region which gives the area seven additional MSPs.

House of Commons
Livingston has its own constituency in the House of Commons; Livingston. It is currently represented by the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) Gregor Poynton. Livingston for the majority of its existence has returned Labour MPs since the town was founded in 1962. However, in the election of 2015, the constituency voted in Hannah Bardell of the SNP as their member for Parliament. She remained as MP until the 2024 United Kingdom general election when the seat returned to Labour.

It was for the 1983 general election that Livingston gained its own constituency at Westminster. The first MP elected for Livingston was Robin Cook who held the seat for six consecutive elections and held many government positions, most notably Foreign Secretary between 1997 and 2001. In 2005 Robin Cook suddenly died of a heart attack and a by-election was called and won by the Labour Jim Devine. Devine was deselected in 2009 after being caught up in the 2009 expenses scandal.

European Parliament
Before Brexit, Livingston was part of the Scotland European Parliament constituency. It was represented by six MEPs; the nearest ones to Livingston were Alyn Smith (SNP) and Struan Stevenson (Conservative) who were both based in Edinburgh and David Martin (Labour) who was based in Roslin. Livingston used to be part of the Lothians European Parliament constituency.

Education and libraries
Livingston has 18 nursery schools, 17 primary schools, and five special schools. There are four secondary schools in the town which are Inveralmond Community High School, The James Young High School, St. Margaret's RC Academy and Deans Community High School.

West Lothian College offers higher and further education and its central campus is based in Livingston. The college has sports facilities, a library, a training restaurant for hospitality students (which was awarded Scottish Restaurant of the Year in 2015 and 2017), and a salon/spa. The college provides educational services to over 8,000 students a year and has 350 staff. The Scottish Institute of Theatre, Dance, Film and Television has its main educational site in Livingston. A local history library which includes items on the history of Livingston is located in nearby Linlithgow.

Livingston has three public libraries which are Almondbank Library in Craigshill, Lanthorn Library in Dedridge, and Carmondean Library in Deans. A local history library which includes items on the history of Livingston is located in nearby Linlithgow.

The Scotland Japanese School (スコットランド日本語補習授業校 Sukottorando Nihongo Hoshū Jugyō Kō), a weekend Japanese school, is held at St. Margaret's Academy in Livingston. It first opened in 1982 and moved to Livingston in April 2003.

Health
Livingston is part of the NHS Lothian region in NHS Scotland. Livingston previously had a psychiatric hospital with a general hospital in the Dechmont area of the town called Bangour Village Hospital. The hospital opened in 1904, and started closing in the 1990s. It closed completely in 2004 after the remaining services were transferred to St John's Hospital.

Livingston has a large hospital called St John's Hospital in the Howden. The construction of the hospital began in 1981 and it opened in 1990. The hospital has its own Accident and Emergency and has 550 beds. St John's is a teaching hospital for the University of Edinburgh Medical School.

Arts Centre
Howden Park Centre is the arts centre for the town which includes a 300-seat theatre providing arts performances, recitals, plays and other events.

Museum
The Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry was created in 1990, to preserve the history of the shale industry in West Lothian and beyond. It is sited on a former mill at Millfield in Livingston and is attached to the Almond Valley Heritage Centre, a large farm and play area in Livingston. The Almond Valley Light Railway is a narrow gauge heritage railway running at the Almond Valley Heritage Trust site.

Parks
Livingston has several public parks, including Eliburn park, Almondvale park, Howden park, Peel park, Campbridge park (Murieston), Quarry park (Dedridge), and Bankton Mains park. Eliburn park (in the north-west of Livingston) is a 16.5 hectare site owned by West Lothian Council which features a reservoir (fed by the local Nell burn) with fishing access, sports facilities and a children's play area. Almondvale park, located in the centre of town, is an outdoor recreation area, with an adventure playpark, health walk/run and wildflower meadows. Bankton Mains park is a large park with a sports centre, bowling club, tennis and football pitches and play park.

Youth activities
Livingston has its own Air Training Corps squadron, 2535 (Livingston) Squadron (located in Craigshill) and Army Cadet Force unit (based at Dedridge). The town also has Cubs, Scouts, Boys' Brigade, Brownies, and Guides units, and other organisations such as LGBT Youth Scotland and the Youth Action Project (WLYAP), and Firefly Youth Theatre (formerly West Lothian Youth Theatre) also operate at Howden Park Centre. The youth action project involves a music session and many gigs and is widely attended by teenagers from the surrounding area.

Livingston Skate Park
The Livingston Skatepark opened in 1981, at a time when most commercial skateparks were closing, and was one of the most important facilities in Britain during a critical period in the development of skateboarding. It is an example of a free, unsupervised facility which achieved international status. The park was designed by Scottish architect Iain Urquhart and was the subject of a 2020 BBC Radio 3 documentary 'Curves and Concrete' which explored the impact the design had on other UK skateparks.

Sport
The town has a local cricket club, Livingston Cricket Club; a rugby union club, Livingston Rugby Football Club; a professional football club, Livingston F.C.; and a East of Scotland League club, Livingston United.

Livingston is also home to; two competitive swimming clubs, the Livingston & District Dolphins and the Aquanauts of Livingston; Livingston Handball Club, Livingston and West Lothian Hockey Club, which has several men's and women's teams and provides junior coaching; West Lothian Wolves Basketball Club, with men and women's teams at all age groups; and two track and field athletics clubs, Livingston & District AAC and Lothian RC.

Livingston also has a number of youth football teams with the most successful being Murieston United who have teams ranging from the ages of under 9s to under 21s. They have some notable former players: Scott Arfield, Chris Innes, Derek Fleming, and Gary Wales.

Livingston FC
Livingston F.C., known to locals as "Livi" or "The Lions", are the most notable football team in the town. They were formed in 1995 on the relocation of Edinburgh-based side Meadowbank Thistle. The stadium opened in November 1995, but the Livingston name had already been adopted some months earlier when the club was still playing at its former home Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh.

Although they were playing in the Scottish Third Division in their first season in Livingston, six years later the club was promoted to the Scottish Premier League, finished third in their first season and qualifying for the UEFA Cup. Relegation to the Scottish First Division in 2006 came after the club entered administration in 2004 as well as other financial problems. In 2009 they narrowly avoided going out of business and as a result were placed back in the Third Division.

The Lions managed to gain promotion to the Scottish Second Division the following year, and returned to the First Division after back to back league championships, on 6 August 2011. They currently compete in the top tier of Scottish Football (Ladbrokes Premiership).

Swimming
Public pools within Livingston are located in local schools including Deans Community High School and Inveralmond High School. The Bannatyne Health Club has a private pool for members. Xcite public swimming pools operated by West Lothian Leisure are located in the nearby towns of Whitburn, Bathgate, and Linlithgow.

Livingston Cricket Club
Livingston has a cricket club known as the Kingfishers which fields teams for juniors and seniors and has fielded professional paid players. The club plays in the East of Scotland Cricket Association and is based in the Murieston area of Livingston. The club was founded in 1981 by Dr Salem Patel and Doug Druce, playing its first match in August of that year in Armadale. The club joined the East League for the 1982 season, winning Grade D and promotion. The club played at several locations in Livingston, including Bankton Mains and at Bangour Hospital sports field. The 1st XI remained in Division 4 until winning the league in 1992. In 1994 sponsorship by the Livingston Development Corporation enabled the club to successfully negotiate the big step up to Division 2 where half of the clubs employed paid professional players. West Indian Mark Harper became the club's first paid player and regularly set new batting records throughout the season. The creation of the National leagues in 1996 and the subsequent re-organisation of feeder leagues saw Livingston become a Division 1 club due to reconstruction of the East League. In 1999 the club finished third, their highest league position to date. This coincided with a move back into Livingston to a large new ground in the Murieston area. Being almost in the foothills of the Pentlands, rainfall is heavier and the growing season considerably shorter than most of the other grounds in the Central Belt, which causes major problems in getting the ground ready for play in April. A new pavilion, the Gerry Toms Pavilion was officially opened on 22 August 2004.

Golf
Golf clubs in and around Livingston include Deer Park Golf & Country Club, Pumpherston Golf Club, and Harburn Golf Club.

Christianity
Uniquely in Scotland, Livingston was from its formation designated an "Ecumenical Parish" in a joint initiative by the Church of Scotland, Scottish Episcopal Church, Methodist Church in Great Britain, and the Congregational Union of Scotland (which subsequently united with the United Reformed Church). The Ecumenical Parish has six places of worship. The ecumenical parish church is based at the Lanthorn Community complex, a ziggurat style building built on Kenilworth Rise in 1976.

Apart from the Ecumenical Parish, Livingston Old Parish is a congregation solely within the Church of Scotland. There are also churches of other denominations. These include the Catholic Church (who have three congregations: Saint Peters in Carmondean, Saint Andrews in Craigshill, and St Philips in Dedridge). St Andrew's Church in Craigshill is seen as a notable architectural example in Brutalist style. Designed by George R M Kennedy and Partners, it was designed in 1968 and completed in 1970. It consists of a dramatic swirl made of shutter-marked concrete and is Category B listed.

Also represented in the community are the Baptist Church (who have two congregations in Dedridge and Ladywell), Jehovah's Witnesses (who have two congregations: Livingston Deans and Livingston Dedridge), the Free Church, and The Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints (who have a Ward in Deans).

Other religions
There is a mosque in the Craigshill area of the town called Livingston Mosque and Community Centre and also another within the Deans area. In recent years Jehovah Witnesses have built a Kingdom Hall in Eliburn.

Notable residents
Notable residents of Livingston include Robin Cook (the former MP for Livingston and Foreign Secretary from 1997 until 2001; died 2005) and Ian Colquhoun (author, born and educated in Livingston).

Actors, musicians and entertainers include Nina Nesbitt (singer songwriter) and David Cicero (singer/keyboardist and associate of the Pet Shop Boys who moved to Livingston as a child).

Livingston sports personalities include Craig Benson (Olympic swimmer and World junior men's breaststroke champion, born and educated in Livingston), Peter 'Snakebite' Wright (born in Livingston, PDC World darts champion), and Elise Christie (short track skater, who competed at the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2014 Winter Olympics). Livingston is the birthplace and home of several Scottish footplayers, including Scott Arfield (football player for Rangers F.C), Mark Burchill (footballer, educated in Livingston), Paul Dickov (former Arsenal player and former manager Doncaster Rovers from 2013 to 2015), James Penrice (professional footballer for Partick Thistle), David Robertson (footballer for St Johnstone F.C.), Jimmy Scoular (former Portsmouth FC and Newcastle Utd football player and Cardiff City manager), Gary Wales (former Hearts player, and Kilmarnock player), Tommy Walker (former Hearts and Chelsea player and manager for Hearts), Keith Watson (footballer, previously for Hartlepool United), and Danny Wilson (footballer, player for Rangers, Liverpool and a former Hearts captain).

Town twinnings
Livingston is twinned with:
 * Hochsauerlandkreis, Germany.
 * Grapevine, Texas, US.

title: Livingston, West Lothian


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Jim Laker

James Charles Laker (9 February 1922 – 23 April 1986) was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club from 1946 to 1959 and represented England in 46 Test matches. He was born in Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire, and died in Wimbledon, London.

A right-arm off break bowler, Laker is generally regarded as one of the greatest spin bowlers in cricket history. In 1956, he achieved a still-unequalled world record when he took nineteen (of a maximum twenty) wickets in a Test match at Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester, enabling England to defeat Australia in what has become known as "Laker's Match". At club level, he formed a formidable spin partnership with Tony Lock, who was a left-arm orthodox spinner, and they played a key part in the success of the Surrey team through the 1950s including seven consecutive County Championship titles from 1952 to 1958. Laker batted right-handed as a useful tail-ender who scored two first-class centuries. He was considered a good fielder, especially in the gully position.

For his achievements in 1951, Laker was selected by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (Wisden) as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in its 1952 edition. He was selected as the New Zealand Cricket Almanack Player of the Year in 1952 after playing for Auckland in the 1951–52 season. In 1956, his Surrey benefit season realised £11,086 (£ in 2021 terms) and, at the end of that year, he was voted "BBC Sports Personality of the Year", the first cricketer to win the award. He later worked for BBC Sport as a cricket commentator in its outside broadcast transmissions.

Early life and school years
Jim Laker was born on 9 February 1922 in Shipley, near Bradford, which was then in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He was raised by his mother Ellen Kane, a schoolteacher, and had four sisters. His father, a stonemason called Charles Laker, had deserted the family when Jim was two years old. Laker began playing cricket at a very early age. His mother was a lifelong enthusiast of the game, and, throughout his childhood, he played cricket continuously with her full encouragement. She used to make his sisters bowl to him because she was convinced he had the makings of a batsman.

In the years around 1930, Ellen was employed at Frizinghall Council School in Bradford, which Laker attended until 1932. He won a grammar school scholarship which entitled him to a free place at the Salts High School in nearby Saltaire. About that time, Ellen took up with a new partner called Bert Jordan and the family moved to Baildon, which is near Saltaire. This was a sound relationship, and Laker was able to enjoy a settled home life through his senior school years from September 1932 for seven years. He said later that he was very happy at Salts and he became a regular member of the school cricket team, playing primarily as a batsman but also as a fast bowler.

In March 1938, aged 16, Laker was invited to attend special coaching by Yorkshire County Cricket Club in their winter shed at Headingley. He recalled his mother taking him to buy new cricket gear at Herbert Sutcliffe's shop in Leeds. He said the sacrifice she made was "frightening to contemplate" but she was determined to see him succeed as a cricketer. Yorkshire's coaching sessions were run by the former county batsman Benny Wilson, who was the first to show Laker how to spin the ball and encourage him to develop the skill. Although Wilson ran the teenage coaching classes, Laker was also coached by former Yorkshire players George Hirst, Maurice Leyland, Emmott Robinson and Alfred Wormald.

Yorkshire recommended him to join Saltaire Cricket Club, who played in the Bradford League, and he made his debut for them at their Roberts Park ground against Baildon, his local club. He played for Saltaire for three seasons, from 1938 to 1940, on one occasion scoring a century. In the 1938 season, his last at school, he played for Salts HS on Saturday morning and for Saltaire CC in the afternoon. Laker still thought of himself as a batsman and his contemporary Ronnie Burnet, who became Yorkshire's captain in the late 1950s, recalled that Laker bowled a mixed bag of "fast off-cutters-cum-spinners" before the Second World War. Charlie Lee, one of Laker's Saltaire team-mates, had a similar recollection saying that "Jim bowled all sorts of stuff and generally enjoyed himself without ever appearing to have the makings of a great bowler".

Army service and move to Surrey
Laker left school in February 1939 and obtained full-time employment at Barclays Bank in Bradford city centre, working a nine-hour day for £5 a month (£ in 2021 terms). In early 1941, now aged 19, he volunteered for active service and joined the Army. He went to Leicestershire for infantry training and was then posted to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC), serving in Palestine and Cairo until 1945, although he was never involved in front line fighting.

While Laker had done enough at Saltaire to be well remembered there, his cricketing career really gathered pace and took off while he was with the RAOC in Egypt. Playing on coconut matting wickets in inter-service matches, he decided to develop the off spin technique he had been taught by Benny Wilson. He recalled that, "to my utter amazement", he could turn the ball "quite prodigiously" on the matting strips. John Arlott later wrote that English cricketers in Egypt were writing home and talking about "a Yorkshire lad who could bowl off spin like a master". In 1943, Laker went to Alexandria to play for the RAOC against an RAF team and took five wickets for ten runs including a hat-trick. In 1944, he played against a South African Air Force XI, scored a century and then took six wickets for ten runs. In these matches, he encountered several top-class players including Norman Yardley, Peter Smith, Bert Sutcliffe, Ron Aspinall, Dudley Nourse and Arthur McIntyre.

Laker returned to England on leave in early 1945. Soon afterwards, his mother died of a heart attack. She left him an estate worth £1,000, which was fairly substantial at the time (£ in 2021 terms). Bert Jordan had died during the war and, all his sisters having married and moved on, his northern roots were broken and he no longer had any pressing reason to return to Bradford. He was able to keep his options open when his military service ended. He had to return to Egypt but was then repatriated in summer 1945 with a year of service still to perform before demobilisation. He was posted to the War Office itself in central London and was invited by an army friend called Colin Harris to lodge with his family in Forest Hill, a couple of miles from Catford. This was meant to be a temporary arrangement but Laker ended up living with the Harris family for over five years, until he was due to get married himself.

Despite being on Yorkshire's books, Laker's circumstances after the end of the war led almost inevitably to his being approached by Surrey County Cricket Club. While he was resident with the Harrises at Forest Hill, he continued to play for service teams and, in March 1946, he joined Catford Cricket Club. Some impressive performances for Catford, including ten for 21 against Bromley, were noted by Andrew Kempton, Catford's club president, who was a member of the county club. Kempton knew Andy Sandham, the former England opening batsman who was Surrey's coach in 1946, and recommended Laker. Sandham invited Laker for a trial at The Oval. Soon afterwards, on 17 July, Laker made his first-class debut when Surrey hosted a Combined Services XI, whom they defeated by six wickets. Laker had the creditable figures of three for 78 and three for 43. He was still in the RAOC but was demobilised in August.

One of his options was a permanent career in the Regular Army, perhaps even a commission. He considered a return to banking and asked Barclays if they would reinstate him and transfer him to a London branch. They agreed but, as Fred Robinson, one of Laker's old school friends, later told biographer Alan Hill, "neither of those ventures ever really came within his considerations". As soon as Laker was demobbed, Surrey offered him a professional contract, subject to Yorkshire's approval. Yorkshire agreed to his release and he signed for Surrey on terms of £6 a week in winter (£ in 2021 terms), augmented by match fees in summer. Laker played in two more first-class matches at the end of the 1946 season. Only seventeen months later, in January 1948, he made his Test debut for England at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados.

1947 season and first international tour
Laker bowled well at county level in 1947, taking 79 wickets and topping the Surrey bowling averages. His best performances were at Portsmouth, where he dismissed Hampshire with eight for 69, and at Chelmsford, where he took seven for 94 against Essex. Near the end of the season, he was invited to play for Pelham Warner's XI against the South of England in a Hastings Festival match. Whether he knew it or not at the time, this match was effectively a Test trial. He took eight wickets in the match, including a second innings hat-trick. In its 1948 edition, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (Wisden) said that the discovery of Laker was "very satisfactory" for Surrey. He was described as specialising in off breaks, "fielding smartly" in the gully and showing promise as a batsman.

Soon afterwards, he was selected by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) for their 1947–48 tour of the West Indies. He played in four Tests and, on debut, took seven for 103 in the first innings of the first Test. This tour was a disaster for MCC and the inaugural 1948 edition of Playfair Cricket Annual (Playfair) headlined it as "An Ill-Starred Venture". Planning and preparation were poor and the team was badly led by Gubby Allen. Playfair said Laker was the only player who "really justified his selection". Wisden said Laker "excelled" and was "undoubtedly the find of the tour", despite problems with an abdominal injury.

1948 season
Playing for Surrey in 1948, Laker took 79 wickets and the team were runners-up in the County Championship behind first-time winners Glamorgan. Still inexperienced at Test level, however, he came in for some heavy punishment when he played in three Tests against the 1948 Australians, an outstanding team that was unbeaten in the whole tour. Laker took nine wickets in the three matches but at a cost of 472 runs and the very high average of 52.44 runs per wicket – in comparison, his full Test career average was an outstanding 21.24.

England's worst performance in the 1948 series was at Headingley where they actually played well for the first four days and set Australia a seemingly impossible last day target of 404 to win. Australia, led by Don Bradman, won by seven wickets. Godfrey Evans said the England team was complacent because no one had ever achieved such a target before in Test cricket. Evans himself was a prime culprit because he missed stumping chances, including one off Laker with Bradman beaten and out of his ground. Bradman later said that it was the key moment of the Australian innings. In the match as a whole, Laker bowled 62 overs and took three wickets for 206 runs. The situation was well summarised by Playfair saying that England needed "a leg-spinner or a Verity" (Hedley Verity was a slow left arm orthodox bowler) but they had neither. The implication was that the pitch was not one on which an off-break bowler such as Laker could succeed. Playfair went on to criticise "tactical errors, missed chances and a sad lethargy in the field".

After the Headingley match, Laker was omitted from England's team in the final Test at The Oval, his home ground, and he was not included in the squad for the tour of South Africa in 1948–49. Despite his continuing success for Surrey, he could not afterwards find a regular place in the England team until 1956 and went on only one international tour, to the West Indies again in 1953–54, between those in 1947–48 and 1956–57.

Alan Hill recorded that, while Laker may not have enjoyed the Headingley Test, its host club were very concerned indeed that Yorkshire-born Laker had eluded their attention. Fred Trueman later recalled that the Yorkshire club president Ernest Holdsworth contacted Laker in 1948 and invited him to dinner at a London restaurant. Laker accepted but was then astonished when Holdsworth tried to persuade him to return and play for Yorkshire. Although Laker did not like the social divide in place at Surrey, he wished to stay with his adopted county and thanked Holdsworth for the offer, which he declined. Len Hutton recalled that, also in 1948, he was asked by the Yorkshire committee to make some discreet enquiries about Laker's situation in Surrey. He reported back that Laker was content where he was and did not wish to play for Yorkshire. Hutton agreed that Yorkshire "went on needing Laker badly" and ruefully admitted that he "tied us in all sorts of knots" in Yorkshire's matches against Surrey.

1949 to 1950–51
In 1949, Laker played in only one of the four Tests against New Zealand even though he took 122 wickets in the season. In this series, England chose Eric Hollies, a leg spinner, in all the matches and Laker's only selection was in the final Test at The Oval when he replaced Les Jackson, a pace bowler, as an extra spinner for the venue. The match was drawn and Laker, bowling well, took 4/78 in New Zealand's second innings. England had no overseas tour in the winter of 1949–50.

In 1950, Laker took eight wickets for only two runs in an innings in a Test trial at Bradford Park Avenue when playing for England against "The Rest". The match, scheduled for three days, began on Wednesday, 31 May with a chill wind blowing. The wicket had been uncovered and was drying after recent rain, which meant that a spinning delivery would act unpredictably when pitched. Laker took full advantage. He set an attacking leg side field and bowled around the wicket, concentrating on line and length with minimal flight, which gave the batsmen no time to come forward to the pitch of the ball. Some balls would gain extra bite from the pitch surface and rear up while others would "turn" to an unexpected degree. The Rest were all out before lunch for only 27. Batting conditions improved afterwards and England went on to win by an innings inside two days. As a Test trial, the match was of no use to the selectors and it was argued afterwards that the pitch should have been covered or, failing that, the England team should have batted first. One certainty that the match ensured was that Laker would play in the first Test that summer against the West Indies. Unfortunately, Laker injured his hand when batting in the Test, which impaired his bowling. He took only one wicket in the match, which England won, and the selectors decided to leave him out of the team thereafter. Without him, England lost the series one to three.

Although Laker took 166 wickets in 1950, his highest-ever season tally, the selectors continued to ignore him when they chose their squad to tour Australia in 1950–51 and so he accepted an invitation to tour India and Ceylon with a Commonwealth XI, playing in ten matches and taking 36 wickets. The Commonwealth squad was a multi-talented group considered stronger than the England one touring Australia. It was nominally captained by Les Ames but, because of injuries, he handed over to Frank Worrell. The Commonwealth XI were undefeated in 29 matches played between 1 October and 6 March, including four unofficial "tests" against India and one against Ceylon. Laker had to return home in early December because of sinusitis but he enjoyed the tour. He later recalled one incident when a huge rat ran across the field and onto the pitch just as he was about to bowl. Laker stopped and was then astonished to see a kite hawk swoop down, seize the rat in its talons and fly away with it. Laker was used to pigeons on the field at The Oval and he was so surprised by this that, when he did bowl the next ball, it bounced twice and was struck to the boundary.

1951 to 1955
After his recovery from sinusitis, Laker got married just before the 1951 season. He took 149 wickets that season and played in two of the five Tests against South Africa. In the final Test at The Oval, he took ten wickets in the match for 119 runs and England won by four wickets.

Laker went to New Zealand in the winter of 1951–52 as a player-coach for Auckland, taking his wife with him for what was effectively an extended honeymoon. He played in four matches for Auckland, taking 24 wickets. The Lakers were in New Zealand for five months and liked it so much that they seriously considered emigrating there. Laker decided that, on balance, his cricketing future was in England and regretfully declined an offer from the Auckland Cricket Association to re-engage as player-coach in 1952–53.

In 1952, the season in which Surrey won the first of their seven consecutive County Championship titles, Laker played in four Tests against India. In 1953, he played in three Tests against Australia, including the series decider at The Oval in which England won The Ashes for the first time in twenty years. He toured the West Indies again with MCC in 1953–54, playing in seven matches including four Tests and taking 22 wickets. He played in one Test against Pakistan in 1954 but was not chosen for the 1954–55 tour of Australia. He played in one Test against South Africa in 1955.

1956
Laker finally secured his Test place in 1956 and took part in all five Tests against Australia. He took all ten wickets in an innings for Surrey against the Australians. This was the first time a bowler had taken all ten against the Australians since Ted Barratt in 1878. Laker took 46 wickets in the 1956 Ashes series to establish a still-unbroken record for a five-match Test series between England and Australia, but Sydney Barnes still holds the world record of 49 wickets taken in 1913–14 for England in South Africa. Laker's effort led to him being awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award in 1956, the first cricketer to win the award. Surrey won the County Championship for the fifth consecutive time in 1956. Roy Webber's history of the competition was published soon afterwards and, in his review of the contemporary county teams, he wrote that "it is difficult to imagine a better and more balanced bowling attack than that presented by Alec Bedser, Peter Loader, Stuart Surridge, Jim Laker and Tony Lock".

"Laker's Match"
In its report of the fourth Test at Old Trafford, Wisden began by saying that "this memorable game will always be known as Laker's Match because of the remarkable performance by the Surrey off-break bowler in taking nine wickets for 37 runs in the first innings and ten wickets for 53 in the second". The match took place from Thursday, 26 to Tuesday, 31 July. England, who had won the toss and decided to bat first, won the match by an innings and 170 runs.

England batted until mid-afternoon on the Friday and amassed a total of 459, which included centuries by Peter Richardson and David Sheppard. In reply, Australia were dismissed for 84 and, following on, reached 53 for one at the close. In Australia's first innings, England's two pace bowlers, Trevor Bailey and Brian Statham, bowled only ten overs between them before Laker and Lock were introduced. Laker began from the Warwick Road End but did not take a wicket until he switched to the Stretford End. Before tea, when Australia were 62 for two, he dismissed opener Colin McDonald, who was caught by Lock for 32, and Neil Harvey, who was bowled without scoring. Lock took the wicket of Jim Burke, caught by Colin Cowdrey at slip, with the first ball bowled after tea and England dominated from then on. In only 37 minutes from the restart, Australia collapsed to 84 all out. Laker terminated the innings by taking the last seven wickets for only eight runs in just 22 deliveries. His figures were nine for 37 while Lock's were one for 37.

Australia were asked to follow-on and had reached 28 for no wicket when McDonald suffered a knee injury which forced him to retire hurt. Harvey replaced him and was out first ball after hitting Laker to Cowdrey at short mid-on. Australia's best batsman had collected a "pair" and, despairingly, threw his bat into the air as he departed. Burke and Ian Craig put up some resistance and were still together at the close. According to Wisden, the Australians made a protest about the pitch on Friday evening and accused the hosts, Lancashire County Cricket Club, of preparing a pitch suited to spin bowling. Lancashire strongly denied the charge. Australian captain Ian Johnson made no public comment about the issue.

It then seemed as if the match was doomed to be ruined by the weather as only 47 minutes of play were possible on the Saturday and only an hour on the Monday. During that time, Australia lost Burke to Laker and reached 84 for two with McDonald (who returned when Burke was out) and Craig batting. On Tuesday, the final day, conditions improved and play began only ten minutes late. McDonald did his best and put up a strong defence, eventually scoring 89. Craig, who made 38, stayed with him until lunch when the score was 112 for two. The morning had been cloudy and the sun began to shine as lunch was taken. This caused the ball to spin quickly and create increased problems for the batsmen. During the afternoon session, Laker took four wickets in nine overs for three runs but then Richie Benaud joined McDonald and they stayed together for 75 minutes to the tea interval. The pitch was taking prodigious spin after tea and Australia's hopes faded when Laker dismissed McDonald with the second ball of the evening session. At 17:27, with just over an hour to go, Laker bowled to Len Maddocks and appealed for leg before wicket. Maddocks was given out and Laker had taken all ten wickets for 53 runs to give England victory.

Wisden pointed out that the rain returned on Tuesday night and, on the Wednesday, the entire first-class programme was washed out. Wisden commented that "it can be seen how close was England's time margin, and how the greatest bowling feat of all time nearly did not happen". Writing in 2005, Richie Benaud recalled that there was rain in the Old Trafford area on the final day itself but it did not fall at the venue. Benaud was so impressed by Laker that he decided to shorten his own run-up and, he said, "my bowling attitude". In its match report, Playfair said that Laker "had enjoyed one of the most remarkable bowling performances that has ever been seen on a cricket field". The 1957 edition of Wisden included an article by Neville Cardus that paid tribute to Laker's performances in 1956.

Laker's ten for 53 was the first time a bowler had taken all ten wickets in a Test innings. Only two bowlers have achieved the feat since, India's Anil Kumble, who took ten for 74 against Pakistan in 1999, and New Zealander Ajaz Patel, who took ten for 119 against India in 2021. Including Laker himself with nine for 37 in the first innings, there have been 17 instances of a bowler taking nine wickets in a Test match innings. Laker's match bowling figures of nineteen for 90 remain a world record in first-class cricket. The record for the most wickets taken in a Test match was previously held by England's Sydney Barnes who took seventeen for 159 at the Old Wanderers, in Johannesburg, against South Africa in December 1913. Barnes remains the only bowler other than Laker to take seventeen in a Test match. Two common factors link Laker and Barnes. They are the only two bowlers who have taken seventeen or more wickets in a Test match and they both played for Saltaire in the Bradford League, Barnes from 1915 to 1923, Laker from 1938 to 1940. Laker is the only bowler to have taken more than eighteen wickets in a first-class match. There had been 23 previous instances of seventeen or more in a match but, since Laker's feat, only John Davison of Canada in 2004 and Kyle Abbott of Hampshire in 2019 have taken seventeen wickets in a match.

1956–57 to 1964
Laker toured South Africa with MCC in 1956–57, playing in fourteen matches including all five Tests. He took fifty wickets, which was his career-best tally in an overseas season. He played in four Tests against the West Indies in 1957 and four against New Zealand in 1958.

The 1958 season was the last of Surrey's seven consecutive County Championships but it was marred by a quarrel between Laker and the team captain Peter May, who had accused Laker of "not trying" in a match against Kent at Blackheath in July. Kent won the match by 29 runs. Laker bowled a total of 54 overs in the match and that immediately followed a haul of 63 overs in a match against Glamorgan at Swansea, which Surrey won. It seems that Laker's spinning finger was definitely suffering from "wear and tear" at the time and this probably reduced his effectiveness. His colleagues held differing views about the matter. Peter Loader said May was completely out of order while Micky Stewart suggested that May should have been aware that "Jim was knackered". Godfrey Evans, who played for Kent in the match, said that Laker was "ill-supported by May". Raman Subba Row blamed May for his "management style" which was not at all people-oriented, unlike that of Stuart Surridge, May's predecessor as Surrey captain, who was a "people person" and "down to earth". On the other hand, Arthur McIntyre blamed Laker for his batting in the Kent match because he "holed out" and made a more general comment about Laker "crying wolf" over injuries to his fingers.

On England's disastrous tour of Australia in 1958–59, Laker was one of the few players to enhance his reputation, bowling well on unhelpful pitches, but he badly damaged his spin finger and had to return home early. He played in ten matches including four Tests. The fifth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in February was his last. He was not selected by England for the series against India in 1959. Because of his damaged finger, he decided to retire from playing at the end of the season, in which Surrey surrendered the title to Yorkshire. His final match for Surrey was against Northamptonshire at The Oval in September. Surrey lost by four wickets and Laker took only one wicket.

In 1960, Laker's ghost-written autobiography Over To Me was published. It was controversial because it contained severe criticism of May, especially about the row which followed the match against Kent at Blackheath in 1958. Hill says that the book "testified primarily to Laker's abiding dislike of the social chasm in cricket" created by amateurism. Micky Stewart commented on Laker's view that the game should not be run by the "traditional Oxbridge axis" by saying Laker firmly believed that ability and not background were what counted in administration of the sport, but Stewart added that Laker had no problems with Oxbridge amateurs who were capable. Official displeasure with Over To Me led to the withdrawal by Surrey of Laker's free entry pass to facilities at The Oval. Soon afterwards, the MCC decided to support Surrey and cancelled Laker's honorary membership. Both were eventually restored. Surrey reinstated his free entry pass in 1964 and the MCC his honorary membership in 1967.

In 1962, Laker was "persuaded" out of retirement by his old England team-mate Trevor Bailey and, as an amateur, he played in thirty matches for Essex. He remained a formidable bowler through 1962 and 1963, and twice won matches with ten-wicket hauls. He was less effective in the 1964 season, after which he retired for good.

Statistical summary
Alan Hill's biography includes an extensive statistical appendix, compiled by Paul E. Dyson.

Laker made his first-class debut on 17 July 1946, playing for Surrey against the Combined Services XI at The Oval. His last appearance in a first-class match was on 27 February 1965, playing for the International Cavaliers XI against Barbados at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown. He played in 450 first-class matches and took a total of 1,944 wickets. His best return was ten for 53 in the 1956 Test at Old Trafford. His career average was 18.41 runs per wicket. He captured five wickets in an innings on 127 occasions and ten wickets in a match 32 times. His best season total was 166 wickets at 15.32 in 1950. His best season average was an outstanding 14.23 in 1958, the last year of Surrey's run of seven titles, when he took 116 wickets. He first took 100 wickets in a season in 1948 and achieved the target in eleven consecutive seasons to 1958. Laker's best overseas tally was 50 in 1956–57 on the MCC tour of South Africa. His best overseas average was 15.79 in 1951–52, taking 24 wickets, when he played for Auckland.

Although he was a tail end batsman, he scored two centuries with a highest score of 113 (in 1954) and had one score of 99 among eighteen half-centuries. His career batting total was 7,304 runs at the average of 16.60 runs per completed innings. His best season total was 828 runs at 24.35 in 1948. He usually fielded in the gully position and held 271 career catches, with a best season performance in 1954 when he held 29 in as many matches.

Laker made his Test debut for England on 21 January 1948, playing against the West Indies at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown. His last appearance in a Test match was on 18 February 1959 against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He played in 46 Tests and took 193 wickets at the average of 21.24. His best return was, as above, ten for 53. He took five wickets in an innings nine times and ten in a match three times. His best series return was 46 wickets at 9.60 against Australia in 1956. He scored 676 runs at 14.08 in Test matches, including two half-centuries with a highest score of 63 against Australia in 1948. He held a total of 12 catches.

Issues with amateurism
According to the former amateur player Charles Williams, Laker was a "serial complainer" about "shamateurism". Unfortunately, however, he sometimes spoke and acted unwisely in his opposition to the amateur concept which, in any event, was abolished only three years after he retired.

In March 1958, an MCC sub-committee delivered a report on the continuance of amateurism with special emphasis on the question of broken-time payments. Soon afterwards, Laker addressed a meeting of The Cricket Society and declared that a cricketer who can't afford to play as an amateur should either turn professional or stop playing. He described broken-time payments as "poppycock" because they were "payments on the side" that enabled amateurs to make more money than professionals; even so, he was not saying anything new as the issue pre-dated even the Grace brothers. After MCC announced their squad to tour Australia in 1958–59, Laker proposed to turn amateur for the duration of the tour and then become a professional again on his return to Surrey. His thinking was based on the possible misinformation that amateurs on the tour would be paid an allowance of £1,000 (£ in 2021 terms) to cover their expenses while the professionals were to receive a fee of £800 (£ in 2021 terms). MCC refused his request. Williams wrote that Laker ruined his case through characteristic bluntness and by not fully understanding the reasons why amateurism existed, rightly or wrongly, in the first place. Ironically, Laker did end up playing as an amateur when he came out of retirement to join Essex in 1962.

Style and personality
In the 1986 Barclays World of Cricket, Colin Cowdrey wrote a mini-biography of Laker, whom he praised as "perhaps the best off-spin bowler the game has seen". Cowdrey described Laker as the "perfect model" for an aspiring slow bowler because he was tall and strong with big hands and a high action. Laker's strength gave him the capability to undertake long spells of bowling. His varied flight of the ball was difficult for the batsman to predict and, if he was given any assistance by pitch or weather conditions, Laker could generate extra pace and spin so as to be at times "almost unplayable".

John Arlott once wrote that batsmen at the non-striking end "could hear the ball buzz" as Laker imparted spin on to it. Garry Sobers agreed with him, saying that "you could hear the ball fizz as Jim spun it". Sobers said that Laker was the "undoubtedly the best off-spinner I ever saw" with Lance Gibbs not far behind. Sobers was especially wary of Laker's straight ball because, unusual among spinners, it was delivered at lesser pace than his spinning deliveries and it "drifted" (i.e., as an outswinger).

Fred Trueman, who knew and got along with Laker very well, described him as "a modest, laconic, sometimes dour guy". Like everyone else in cricket, Trueman was astounded by Laker's world record at Old Trafford in 1956 but was more impressed by Laker's "self-effacing" reaction to the achievement. As Trueman says, photographs of Laker in the next day's newspapers show him strolling towards the pavilion, not even smiling, sweater over his shoulder, "as if returning from net practice". Trueman went on to say how he "shuddered to think" what sort of posturing would ensue in the unlikely event that Laker's performance should be matched by a 21st-century cricketer.

In Peter May's autobiography, he wrote about how Arthur McIntyre kept superbly to the great Surrey bowling attack of Bedser, Loader, Laker and Lock on difficult wickets. McIntyre himself said that, of the four, he had the greatest difficulty keeping wicket to Laker who "spun the ball so viciously".

In 2006, Peter Richardson considered the differences between Laker and Lock, saying that Laker was "slightly cynical, difficult to connect with, laconic and moody". Richardson said that Laker and Lock did not get on together and were always competing. Their approaches to the game differed as Lock "would attack" while Laker just kept "chipping away". Richie Benaud had also noted their different characteristics in the way they appealed for a dismissal: "Laker was apologetic, Lock a demander". May, who was Laker's Surrey captain after Stuart Surridge retired in 1956, said that the mere idea of Laker showing enthusiasm was "absurd".

Personal life and post-retirement
Having recovered from the sinusitis he contracted in India in December 1950, Laker began to think seriously about marriage. He had courted his fiancée Lilly for some years. She was born in Vienna but, opposed to Nazism, she left Austria after the Anschluss and was in the Middle East when World War II began. She joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in Cairo and met Laker when he was posted there with the RAOC. They worked in the same office and then met again in London at a service reunion event. They married on 27 March 1951 at the Kensington register office and spent a rain-swept honeymoon in Bournemouth before the cricket season began. Lilly survived Laker by 35 years, dying in September 2021 at the age of 102. She and their daughters Fiona and Angela helped Alan Hill with his research for Laker's biography.

Being Austrian, Lilly did not know much about cricket. She took numerous congratulatory telephone calls after his 19-wicket feat and, when Laker arrived home, she asked him: "Jim, did you do something good today?"

In July 1956, only three weeks before his record-breaking performance at Old Trafford, Laker was Roy Plomley's guest on his Desert Island Discs radio programme. His musical choices included Ol' Man River by Paul Robeson, songs by Vera Lynn and Gracie Fields and classical pieces by Pietro Mascagni and Franz Schubert. His luxury choices were a piano and a cricket ball.

Laker developed an interest in broadcasting and, after he retired from playing, became a highly regarded cricket commentator for ITV from 1966 to 1968 and for BBC Television from 1968 until his death in 1986. Fellow commentator John Arlott described Laker's commentary style as: "Wry, dry, laconic, he thought about cricket with a deep intensity and a splendidly ironic point of view" whilst Colin Cowdrey praised Laker's "own brand of television commentary" that made him a respected figure in the medium. Ted Dexter, as a summariser, worked with commentators Laker and Richie Benaud at the BBC and later remarked on how "a new style of interpretation had evolved as ball-by-ball commentary became their preserve", their trademarks being "patience, accuracy and persistence". The commentary was spoofed in Monty Python's Flying Circus "Trailer" sketch in the "Archaeology Today" episode in 1970.

Laker was still employed by the BBC when he died at the Parkside Clinic in Wimbledon, aged 64, on 23 April 1986. The cause of death was complications from gall bladder surgery. His body was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium and his ashes were scattered at The Oval.

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title: Jim Laker