This community began to grow as a result of nearby Wilsontown. Wilsontown was Southern Scotland’s first integrated iron works starting up in the late nineteenth century on the back of the local presence of coal, ironstone, and limestone. All these ingredients were essential for the manufacture of iron. Unfortunately, Wilsontown missed out on getting a railway early in its history, so by the time the railway arrived, the iron works had closed. Many of the people in Forth lost their job. However, coal mining came to Forth in the early nineteenth century and the mines were still in production till the 1960s. These mines are now superseded by opencast mining.