The Monkland Canal was a canal designed to bring coal from the mining areas of Monklands to Glasgow in Scotland. In the course of a long and difficult construction process, it was opened progressively as short sections were completed, from 1771. It reached Gartcraig in 1782, and in 1794 it reached its full originally planned extent, from pits at Calderbank to a basin at Townhead in Glasgow; at first this was in two sections with a vertical interval between them at Blackhill; coal was unloaded and carted to the lower section and loaded onto a fresh barge. Locks were later constructed linking the two sections, and the canal was also connected to the Forth and Clyde Canal, giving additional business potential.
Maintaining an adequate water supply was a problem, and later an inclined plane was built at Blackhill, in which barges were let down and hauled up, floating in caissons that ran on rails. Originally intended as a water-saving measure to be used in summer only, the inclined plane was found to pass barges more quickly than through the locks and may have been used all the year.
In the second and third decades of the nineteenth century, technical advances in iron smelting coupled with fresh discoveries of abundant iron deposits and coal measures encouraged a massive increase in industrial activity in the Coatbridge area, and the Canal was ideally situated to feed the raw materials and take away the products of the industry.
The development of railways reduced the competitiveness of the canal, and eventually it was abandoned for navigation in 1952, but its culverted remains still supply water to the Forth and Clyde Canal. Much of the route now lies beneath the course of the M8 motorway, but two watered sections remain, and are well stocked with fish. Additionally, the branch of the canal, which passes through Summerlee Heritage Park, was designated a scheduled monument by Historic Environment Scotland in 2013.
Route
The eastern end of the final extent of the canal is at Calderbank, south of Woodside Drive, where there were coal pits; the canal was fed there from the North Calder Water. A reservoir was created at Hillend (east of Caldercruix) to sustain the canal in the dry season, and others were made later.
The canal ran close to the north side of the North Calder Water, passing more coal pits (and later ironstone pits) at Faskine and Palacecraig, then turning north there. Palacecraig was later the southern extremity of the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway. The canal passed under the road at Sikeside (now called Sykeside Road, Cairnhill), from where it is nowadays in culvert.
Turning west it passed under what is now Locks Street, Coatdyke; the name refers to the original canal lock; there is a small sign there recording the history. There was a lockIn this article, the term "lock" means a single chamber for the elevation or descent of a barge, controlled by a gate or pair of gates at each end to the east of the road, and a basin and second lock to the west of it. This location was called Sheepford Locks, and was the eastern extremity of the canal as originally built. A branch canal called Dixon's Cut was later built from the basin southwards to Dixon's Calder Ironworks, south of the present-day Greenend housing area. The canal then continued westward, a little to the south of the Airdrie to Coatbridge main road.
It passed south of the present-day Main Street area of Coatbridge, from where the short Dundyvan Branch ran southwards. It was built to serve coal pits and then extended to serve the Dundyvan Ironworks with a complex of railway trans-shipment sidings at its termination. The main canal then ran fairly straight from the present-day A725 roundabout at the east end of Coatbridge Main Street to the Sunnyside Street roundabout. At this time Coatbridge had not developed at all, and the canal was simply described as "passing under the Edinburgh and Glasgow Road, by a wooden bridge, termed Coat Bridge, west of Airdrie."D O Hill and G F Buchanan, Views of the Opening of the Glasgow and Garnkirk Railway; also an account of that and other Railways in Lanarkshire, Edinburgh, 1832
Another branch diverged northwards here, to the west of Sunnyside Road: called the Gartsherrie, Hornock and Summerlea Branch Canal, it ended at the Gartsherrie Ironworks, just south of the present-day Gartsherrie Road. It was originally planned to serve coal pits, but it was still unfinished in 1830 when the Baird Brothers established their Gartsherrie Ironworks at its termination.
Continuing westward, the main canal originally crossed the Gartsherrie Burn on Cotes Bridge, a low aqueduct long and high. (Gartsherrie Burn ran north to south between the alignment of the two present-day railways that cross Bank Street; it was culverted when the area was later developed.) The aqueduct collapsed and had to be repaired in 1858.
The canal then ran broadly west between Bank Street and West Canal Street, then turning a little more northerly from Blairhill Street, south of the present King Street, as far as Blair Street. Just east of Blair Bridge the Langloan branch diverged, heading a short distance south on the eastern margin of West End Park (originally called Yeomanry Park) to a basin serving Drumpellier Pit and Langloan Iron Works, founded in 1841, where Langloan Street now joins Bank Street. There was an tunnel under Bank Street and Buchanan Street.
Onwards from Blair Bridge the canal is open again; the route here arcs northward towards and through the Drumpellier estate, passing north of Drumpellier Home Farm. The estate had a bridge connecting the northern area. The canal then heads west again, with a short northerly spur serving coal pits at Drumpellier, continuing under the present-day railway line, and under the Cuilhill Road bridge. A little to the west was Cuilhill Gullet, where an island in the canal was formed to enable the construction of the terminal of the Drumpeller Railway (the old spelling). The Railway is described below. Still continuing west, but culverted nowadays, the canal was crossed by a swing bridge at Netherhouse Road, and then at Rodgerfield Road, from where the course of the canal is covered by the M8 motorway.
Easterhouse Road and Wardie Road (Bartiebeith) crossed the canal by bridges, followed by Milncroft Road (an eastward extension of the present road) and then Gartcraig Road. This was probably the westernmost point the canal reached at first under James Watt, when the money ran out. When the canal was extended westward, it passed under the main Cumbernauld Road. The Blackhill incline and locks were at the point where the present M80 motorway joins the M8 motorway. The arrangements at Blackhill are described more fully below.
The canal continued on a broadly westerly course, obliterated now by the motorway, terminating in Townhead Basin fronting to Castle Street, at a point where Parson Street and Alexandra Parade would intersect, under the motorway junction.
When the Cut of Junction was formed, a short section of new canal linking the Monkland Canal to the Forth and Clyde branch canal, it was routed north from the basin under Garngad Hill (now Royston Hill). The route then turned west under Castle Street. The grooves worn by the barge towropes can be seen on the iron facing to Castle Street bridge abutment at this point.Canmore, Scotland's National Collection of Buildings, Archaeology and Industry: Castle Street Bridge canmore.rcahms.gov.uk
A short branch was formed off the Cut of Junction to serve industrial premises in the area between the present Royston Road and Charles Street. The Cut of Junction was originally made to the same depth () as the Monkland Canal, but in 1842 it was deepened to accommodate the larger vessels that could use the Forth and Clyde Canal, which could then reach Tennent's chemical works. Opening bridges were provided at Glebe Street and Port Dundas.
Boats The boats used on the canal were originally flat-bottomed wooden vessels with a low freeboard; they had no living accommodation nor any protection for their crew, and they were horse-drawn. Hutton says that they were habitually known as "scows". Steam vessels with screw propellers were introduced from the 1850s.
A iron boat was launched in May 1819 and entered service on the Forth and Clyde Canal as a passenger boat. Named the Vulcan, she is famous for being the first iron boat made in Scotland. Although she operated on another canal, she was made at Thomas Wilson's Faskine boatyard, partly because of the proximity of ironworks and ironfounders. She was scrapped in 1873.
In 1986 Monklands District Council had a replica constructed. This can now be seen on the canal within Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life.
History
Origins Prior to 1743 coal had been mined in Little Govan, close to Glasgow. When that working ceased, the price of coal in Glasgow rose considerably, doubling by 1760 (from between 1/1 and 1/3 per cart of 7 cwt), to between 2/1 and 2/6. (1 cwt = 112 lb or 51 kg). Available coal was mined in Lanarkshire, but, before proper roads were built, the cost of transport by horse and cart was a significant factor. When the Trades House of Glasgow protested, one member cited another cause: that the coal masters had combined to keep prices high; he asserted that the price ought not to exceed 1/6, including 6d for cartage and tolls.Lumsden, Records of the Trades House of Glasgow, 1713 - 1777, quoted in
The inventor and engineer James Watt said later that Monklands was "a country full of level free coals of good quality, in the hands of many proprietors, who sell them at present at 6d per cart of 7 cwt at the pit".James Watt, letter to Dr Small, 12 December 1769, quoted in James Patrick Muirhead, The Life of James Watt, with Selections from his Correspondence, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1859, page 163
By 1768, the rapid growth of Glasgow had vastly increased the demand for coal, and its price: several bodies expressed concern, and the magistrates of Glasgow took action. The Lord Provost was James Buchanan of Drumpellier, and the rich Monklands coalfield was practically untapped. Canals were being promoted all over the country, and seemed to be the obvious solution here; the magistrates commissioned James Watt to recommend a route.
In November 1769 he reported back, suggesting two possible routes; one was expensive, at more than £20,000, entering the Clyde at Glasgow Green. Its route involved 25 locks, with a summit above the level of the Clyde. Watt said:
The Great expense of the above canal and the time that would be consumed in passing the locks ... have made me examine how far it is practicable to bring a canal without any locks ... I find that it can be brought to within a little more than a mile [1.6 km] of the town and that a waggon way or good causeway can be made for the remainder of the way. [This route] ends a little south of Jermiston, there appearing to be no possibility of bringing it near Glasgow on that level."James Watt, A Scheme for making a Navigable Canal from the City of Glasgow to the Monkland Collieries, reproduced in
This proposal seems to ignore completely the major problem of the of vertical interval at Blackhill, an obstacle that was to cause serious problems later.
On 3 January 1770 the cheaper scheme—at £10,000—was laid before a meeting of business people, and following a second meeting on 11 January a subscription list was opened. The Town Council of Glasgow agreed to subscribe £500, with a complicated precondition designed to prevent the coalowners forming a cartel to keep prices high.
The subscription list was swiftly filled, and the necessary act of Parliament, the (10 Geo. 3. c. 105) was secured on 12 April 1770.