formerly with NLC as North Calder Heritage Trail Officer

In the late eighteenth century in Britain, canal fever was in the air. City magnates and tobacco barons in Glasgow decided to build a canal to the extensive coalfields of Monklands and bring much needed cheap coal to the city.

James Watt, the famous engineer and inventor, was commissioned to build the Canal. Work began at Sheepford, Coatbridge, in 1770 but after a couple of years money ran out and the whole project was nearly abandoned.

Sheepford Locks
At the top of the picture is the Lock Street Railway Viaduct. It was built in the 1880’s and carried the Caledonian Line between Rutherglen and Airdrie. Its piers were orientated in an unusual way to accommodate the Monkland Canal underneath.   The road on the left is the road leading to Coatdyke

These improvements were completed in 1794. The Monkland Canal had taken 24 years to complete.

Once it was complete,  coalmasters along the route of the Canal opened up numerous mines and the trade in coal began in earnest. Faskine and Palacecraig Estates (between Sheepford and the eastern end of the canal) were among the first areas exploited for coal.

The Canal became increasingly important in the nineteenth century as the main mode of transport for the ironworks that set up in Coatbridge.    The route of the canal was determined by the need for  the canal to remain on level ground - it twisted and turned on its journey from Calderbank and Coatbridge to Townhead in Glasgow.   On the other hand, Airdrie was built on higher ground and missed out on being directly involved in the Iron and Coal era.

The canal route (using todays placenames) was from Calderbank, through Faskine, Palacecraig, Coatdyke (Sheepford) near the B&Q, Coatbank Way, South Circular Road, crossing under the road to run parallel with Main Street and King Street, through Drumpelier, Cuilhill to Easterhouse, Ruchazie, Riddrie, Blackhill, Blochairn and on to Townhead (The M8 motorway was built on the canal from near Easterhouse to Townhead).   

  
The Bridges at Coatbridge Fountain  

                                Palacecraig

 
The Canal competed successfully with the new railway companies well in to the nineteenth century - the traffic on the Canal reached a peak in 1850’s and 60’s, transporting over 1 million tonnes of coal and iron a year.

Passenger boats operated from below Sheepford Locks to Blackhill whre passengers were obliged to walk to another boat to complete the journey to Townhead.

By the 1920’s however traffic on the Canal had reduced to just 30,000 tonnes a year. In the 1940’s the Canal was abandoned and in the 1960’s the Canal was mostly filled in and covered by the M8.

North Calder Water

North Calder Water attracted industries to it. It was particularly attractive because Forth and Clyde Navigation controlled the flow of water along it as early as 1799 with the building of Hillend Reservoir.

The industries along the river were concentrated at Calderbank, Moffat Mills, Gartness, Caldervale, Plains and Caldercruix. The industries here changed over time and used the river in different ways.

Early on the river was a source of power for grain mills making flour and waulk mills which made woollen cloth.

Water was used for power and for soaking in Flax mills which made cotton cloth.

The next types of industry were forges and ironworks, which used the river for powering hammers and for cooling.

Lastly there were paper mills and print mills which used the river for soaking, washing and as a source of power. The last mill to disappear was Caldercruix paper mill in 1970 putting an end to 400 years of industry

It was the second public railway line in Scotland but in many respects it was the first modern line in Scotland. The line used new Birkenshaw rails, which were much stronger than other rails in use at that time. Stronger rails meant that in 1831 the line became the first in Scotland to successfully run locomotives. The locomotives were the first to be built on the Clyde (a model of the locomotives can be seen in the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh).

ADDENDUM
Unfulfilled Dreams -

The Monkland Canal was constructed during the period 1770—1781 for the purpose of carrying coal cheaply from the Monklands area to Glasgow. The canal prospered until the late 1860s but from then the traffic on the canal began to decline and by the 1930s it had practically ceased. An Act of Parliament extinguished rights of navigation in 1952 and from that time until the late 1960s it was generally considered that the derelict canal was proving to be an obstacle to the proper replanning of Coatbridge. Consequently, over half of the original canal and branches were either piped or infilled.