The roots of the town stretch back to at least the 17th Century, where records show that a meeting house was used for prayer services for the community.

One old description of the town from the 19th century from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland by Francis H. Groome, 1885 is as follows: Holytown, a town in Bothwell parish, Lanarkshire, 1 mile [1.5 km] E by N of Holytown Junction on the Caledonian railway, 5+1⁄2 miles [9 km] SSE of Coatbridge, and 11 ESE of Glasgow.

It includes the suburb of New Stevenston, 1⁄2 mile [800 m] SSW ; and has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, a branch of the Clydesdale Bank, 3 insurance agencies, gasworks, a quoad sacra parish church, a Free church, and has 2 public schools.

The quoad sacra parish is in the presbytery of Hamilton and synod of Glasgow and Ayr ; its minister's stipend is £120.

[4] Mining work was a dangerous life with long hours and accidents resulting in death were not uncommon in Lanarkshire.

Life was harsh, but forged the character of the working class mining community in the face of hardship, especially the politics of Keir Hardie, the founder of the Labour Party in the UK.

In 1847 the union attempted to restrict output, to combat a 1s (5p) per day wage reduction proposed by the owners.

The establishment nearby of the EuroTerminal hi-tech industrial estate in the 1990s did not bring a huge boom in jobs as expected[citation needed].

Other well-known local employers include Honeywell, a large electronics firm based in the Newhouse industrial estate.

Notable people from Holytown include the politician Keir Hardie, the Rt Rev Dr Shaw Paterson (Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 2024-2025), World War I nurse Jean Aitken Bell, who won medals for having served in Serbia and the footballers Harry McShane and Matt Balunas.

Holytown was also the birthplace of James Williamson, noted Scottish civil engineer involved with many of the Hydro-electric power schemes of the 1930-1950s.

There is no longer a Post Office (with the premises most recently occupied by a desserts store), the nearest such services are located in New Stevenston and Bellshill.

In the 2010s, a large new housing development, Torrance Park (featuring an adjacent 18-hole golf course of the same name, designed by Dave Thomas)[6] was established to the south-east of the village, off the main road to Newarthill.

[7][8][9] Although referred to as Holytown in documentation, the development shares the ML1 5 postcode with Newarthill and is counted alongside that town in some statistics.

[11] Ghulam Saqlain Siddiquie was awarded an MBE in January 2014 for his work in creating racial harmony over more than 30 years.

There are still various small amateur teams playing in local regional leagues at all ages representing the community.

He played for Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, Airdrieonians, Motherwell, Dundee, Dunfermline Athletic and Stewarts & Lloyds.

[16] Eddie Pearson (1863–1918), born in Holytown, played for Celtic FC in their inaugural match on 28 May 1888.

[19] The statue was built by Scott & Rae (Sculptors) and James Paterson (Builder), and was unveiled by Alexander Whitelaw on 9 October 1921 with a dedication by Rev JD Dykes.

He was born in the hamlet of Legbrannock in 1856, which is now in the Holytown area, and his old home/cottage has been preserved for future generations ("the Keir Hardie Cottage").