 The name is thought to be of Brythonic origin, possibly containing the elements "Tre" and "Nant", meaning town over the stream Travernant.Tranent was once an important mining town, and coal was first worked there in the thirteenth century by the monks of Newbattle Abbey who mined a nearby 2.5m / 7  ft thick coal deposit called the 'Great Seam'.The history of coal mining in Scotland is mirrored in the history of the coal heughs, mines and pits of Tranent.