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. Industry 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. Literature William Dunbar's poem the Lament for the Makaris includes the name Clerk of Tranent as a poet, probably of the fifteenth century, citing him as an author of the Anteris of Gawain. Some examples of such works exist but he has not been traced. Tranent is the birthplace of Lizzie in Lucy Booth's novel 'The Life of Death', a chilling love story in which Lizzie/Death enters a pact with the devil to regain her life, live and love. Tranent's Gala Since 1934 Tranent has held a Gala Week which is arranged by local volunteers who are part of the Gala Committee. Events during the gala week include the crowning of the Queen who is accompanied by 29 other children from the town, the celebrations on the fields at Ross High School and the grand parade which is made up of local groups and people and which goes through the town. Tranent Gala is funded by donations and fundraising. The Gala was first formed in 1934 by the miners of Tranent who aimed to form a