The effects of  
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
on "The Moss"
"A remarkable place between Airdrie & Coatbridge"

Part 1

In the early 1800's, "The Moss" was a peaceful farming area on the extreme edge of the towns of Airdrie and Coatbridge. The industrial revolution was starting to make an impact. Both towns would be in at the birth of both the railways and the manufacture of iron and steel and the spread of mining activities. "The Moss" would play a large part in these events and would suffer enormous upheaval.

The Railways
In 1826 the first Scottish railway, the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway ran from Monklands coalfields to Kirkintilloch. In 1827 a branch line was opened to Kipps. It was said that the first locomotive on this line was driven by the now famous George Stephenson and was named after him.

In 1828 the Ballochney Railway Company introduced a horse drawn train capable of pulling 2 or 3 passenger wagons. The original station at Leaend in Garden Square was moved in 1844 to Hallcraig after a branch line was laid to Commonhead. In 1831 the Garnkirk - Glasgow line opened for traffic. A locomotive would bring the carriages for Airdrie to Gartsherrie Station where they were detached and drawn from that point to Leaend by horses.
Around this time, travellers from Glasgow to Airdrie used to prefer to alight at Coatbridge and walk over "The Moss" via Leaend, rather than travelling on to Commonhead Station. The reason being that, the latter part of the journey was accomplished by the engine being dragged up the incline with a rope attached to a steam winch at Commonhead. This took a certain amount of time and passengers were also aware of the danger if the rope should break.

A later feature of the Ballochney Railway was the two self-acting inclined planes, which were about 1000 yards long and were located between Kipps and Rawyards. These were known as the Ballochney Inclines and they were both very steep with each having an incline of around 1 in 23. The inclines were double tracked and each was worked by means of a rope, one end was attached to the ascending train and the other to the descending train.

The rope passed around a pulley wheel at the top of each incline. The descending train had to be heavier than the ascending train in order to achieve sufficient momentum to pull the ascending train up the hill. The long rope was supported by rollers placed between the rails every 20 feet or so.
On that part of the line a "dandy–cart" was used. The dandy-cart was coupled behind a length of loaded wagons, which descended, by gravity and the horse travelled as a passenger downhill. The horse would then return up the hill with empty wagons.

The traffic flow on the Ballochney was suited to such an arrangement. Most of the descending traffic was wagons loaded with coal or ironstone for Kipps while ascending traffic was mostly empty wagons.
Rope breakage did happen in the early days and it was known for mineral trains and empty wagons to finish up in a heap of wreckage. At least one passenger train finished up this way.

Kipps Works
In 1838 the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway established a workshop at Kipps and became the first Scottish railway to build it's own locomotives. The works built a few locomotives in its first few years but eventually concentrated on repairs. When it was taken over by North British it became a wagon repair depot which survived until the mid 1960’s.

Beside the workshop was Kipps engine shed, which served the whole Monklands area. This could accommodate some 52 locomotives.    It is interesting to note that the last 0-4-0 tender engine in Britain –number 1011 was withdrawn from there in 1925. The number of railway workers employed at Kipps in 1865 was 137 but in 1890 this had increased to 537.

In 1848 the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway amalgamated with the Ballochney Railway Company and Slamannan Railways to form the Monkland Railway Company. This in its turn became part of the North British Railway in 1865.

GARDEN SQUARE
The village of Garden Square was built around the 1830’s to accommodate some fifty families of railway workers. The Leaend Railway Station was at its north east corner. The village was then quite a way out from the towns of Airdrie and Coatbridge and its very remoteness created a strong sense of community. It was then considered to be ahead of its time and consisted of a mix of 1 and 2 storey houses with communal wash houses and toilets. The village survived for over a hundred years until the early 1930’s. 

Garden Square c1930 by Andrew Muir 

Garden Square c1930 photograph by Andrew Muir 

The Lady in the Park
There is a story that, around 1850, a lady, the wife of a "well to do" businessman, left the train at Coatbridge and started walking home across "The Moss" to Airdrie. She received directions from a fellow traveller and rewarded him with a sixpence.
Thinking that she had plenty of money, the man decided to relieve her of some of it. He picked up an iron bar and followed her. He stole up behind her and hit her on the head with the bar meaning to stun her. He was about to rifle her belonging when he heard a sound and ran off. The woman’s body was found the next day in the Fiddlenaked Park.
For many years after there was reports of ghostly apparitions and the legend began that her ghost haunts the Fiddlenaked Park. This continued for some time into this century when the Park became known as The Woodbine. The Park was avoided by all who had no desire to encounter the Lady in the Park. People today still talk of the ghost that haunts the area and is sometimes known as The Grey Lady.

Airdrie House (now Monklands General Hospital)
Most of The Moss and the area around Whinhall belonged to the Airdrie House Estate until the beginning of this century. The estate was owned and occupied by the Hamilton family for nearly 300 years and it was Robert Hamilton who is credited with being the founder of Airdrie in 1695. The Hamilton reign came to an end in 1749. In 1769 the Aitchison’s bought the estate that the Alexanders later inherited.
In 1987 Sir John Wilson bought the estate and it was to be the home of the Wilsons until it became the local maternity hospital in 1919. This closed in 1962 and was demolished in 1964 to make way for Monklands General Hospital that opened in 1977.

Airdriehouse Brickworks
Bricks were needed for the furnaces and for general building. For a short period of time at the end of the 19th century the Airdriehouse Brickworks carried out quarrying operations just north west of Airdrie House, near the railway sidings. Little is known about the brickworks but that they quarried on the site of an old ironstone pit for a few years but this was later abandoned.
The Penny Spring flowed into the crater and it became the first pond.

The JIGGING
In the early 1900s there wasn’t a lot of organised entertainment. However, most  Sundays the local people gathered on the "red bridge" over the Ballochney railway near Whinhall Farm and danced to the music of a mouthorgan. People came from far and near to join in the fun. The girls from the Airdrie Mill, the people from Garden Square and from Burnie Brae, the workers from Leaend, Mosside and Whinhall farms.  

 Go to part 2 of - The effects of  INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION