The village lies south of Airdrie on the opposite side of the North Calder Water from Chapelhall. It was once a prosperous industrial village with a population of almost 3,500 in the middle of the last century. Calderbank revolved around the Iron & Steel industry.  

In 1797, three years after the Monkland Canal had been completed,  The Calderbank Iron Company was set up by an enterprising group of ironmasters to take advantage of the Calder river and the nearby Monklands Canal.  In the 1800's the company was taken over by the Monklands Steel Company who later made the hull plates for the Vulcan - the first iron hulled passenger boat built in Scotland.  The vulcan was constructed at nearby Faskine on the banks of the canal and launched into it in 1819. A fill scale replica of the vulcan was restructured as the centrepiece of the display at the Garden festival in 1988. It was then transferred to the Summerlee heritage Park where it is now on display.   The Monklands Steel Company started producing pig iron.    Puddling furnaces were set up in the 1830's  to meet the demand for malleable iron for the rail tracks for the railway expansion.  By 1841 the village had over 1000 residents.   At that time the works specialised in the production of malleable iron, installing over 60 puddling furnaces, making it, the largest malleable iron works in Scotland. Iron rails and iron plate were exported.