Industrial Heritage

East Dunbartonshire has a rich industrial heritage due in part to the important rail and canal routes which passed through it. Discover more about the area’s historically important railways and waterways, and the coal mines, iron foundries and shipbuilders which depended on them.

The Canal

The idea of making a canal across central Scotland had been put forward as early as the reign of Charles II but nothing really was done until the middle of the eighteenth century. The Forth and Clyde Canal - The Great Canal, as it was called in its early days - was the result of a compromise between Edinburgh promoters, who wanted a canal "big enough to take seagoing costal vessels", and Glasgow merchants, who wanted a smaller, cheaper canal. In fact the latter feared they would lose trade if the canal by-passed Glasgow, and so when a branch to the city was added to the plan they gave their consent. Work began on 10th June 1768. The canal was built from east to west, and the whole construction took 22 years, including a seven year break during which no work was carried out because of shortage of funds. The canal extends from the Forth at Grangemouth to Bowling on the Clyde, with a short branch to Port Dundas in Glasgow.

Kirkintilloch's canal basin at Southbank was an important canal site. In 1826 the Monkland & Kirkintilloch Railway established a terminus at Southbank, for shipment of coal from the Monklands. The basin was laid out in the 1830s and iron foundries were later established nearby. Raw material and fuel were brought in and finished castings sent out by boat.

Other industries were also set up beside the canal. Bellfield Works, originally a calico printworks, was taken over by the Springbank Chemical Company, who manufactured fertilisers and other chemical products. It later became a whisky distillery. F. McNeill and Company were based at the foot of Luggiebank Road and made roofing felt.

The world's first practical steamboat, the Charlotte Dundas, sailed on the canal as did Scotland's first iron vessel, the Vulcan. The canal gave birth to the puffers of Vital Spark fame and played host to a delightful fleet of pleasure steamers, the Fairy, May and Gipsy Queens.

Kirkintilloch grocer James Aitken introduced these famous pleasure steamers in 1893. Cruises on the Queens between Port Dundas and Craigmarloch were popular as summer evening and weekend afternoon excursions.

The last of the Queens stopped sailing in 1939 and in 1963 the canal was closed. It was then seen as a dirty, decaying relic of an industrial past. During the 1970s, however, dynamic revival began.

Cruising returned to the canal in 1981 when the Forth and Clyde Canal Society began sailing the Ferry Queen from Glasgow Road Bridge, near Kirkintilloch, to Bishopbriggs.

The Forth and Clyde Canal is part of the huge redevelopment project known as "The Millennium Link". The canal was reopened from coast to coast in May 2001, and a year later the 'Falkirk Wheel' was opened, as a boatlift linking the Forth and Clyde to the neighbouring Union Canal.

Shipbuilding

A boatbuilding yard was established beside Townhead Bridge, Kirkintilloch by Samuel Crawford, in 1866. Crawford launched only one ship, the lighter Rainbow, before relinquishing the yard to the brothers James and John Hay - otherwise known as J and J Hay.

J and J Hay began in 1867 at Townhead. They were mainly concerned with the construction of the famous 'puffers'. Puffers were small steamships that carried cargo to and from the Western Isles. The name came from a puffing sound made by the vessels in their original form.

Puffers were made famous by the books and television programme featuring Para Handy and his puffer the 'Vital Spark'. The 1953 film 'The Maggie' had a Kirky puffer as its star.

Peter McGregor's shipyard operated from 1902 to 1921 at the Canal Basin. During this period an estimated 118 vessels were built at the yard. The output included tugs, launches, ferries, puffers, pinnaces, barges, motor coasters and canal steamers. Some were exported as far afield as Russia, France, Chile, Brazil, Egypt and India.

Launches in Kirkintilloch were spectacular. As the canal is very narrow the ships had to be launched side-on (see above). Large crowds of people turned out to see the event, but those watching from the opposite bank had to be careful if they wanted to avoid a soaking.

Only small vessels could be built on the canal. With modern transport systems it was no longer economic to build ships there. Kirkintilloch's last ship was launched from Hays' yard in 1945.

Coal mining local history

Mining provided employment for the people of East Dunbartonshire for a long period of time. There were mines right across the area, from Baljaffray in the west to Twechar in the east. Coal was the most common mineral found locally, but limestone and ironstone were also mined extensively. The presence of alum shale led to the establishment of an important chemical works at Campsie to process the alum for use in the textile industry. The 'Secret Works', as it was known, was a major employer in Lennoxtown for most of the nineteenth century.

The earliest mines were created by following an angled seam inwards from its outcrop on the surface, extracting the minerals at progressively deeper locations. Vertical pits were also sunk from an early date, with primitive winding gear to raise the minerals to the surface. Several modern collieries were established during the second half of the nineteenth century, some of them employing many hundreds of men. The most important coal-owner was the firm of William Baird & Company, which came to the Twechar area about 1860 and developed extensive mining operations there.

The picture shows a group of miners from Woodilee Colliery circa 1914. East Dunbartonshire Information and Archives hold many photographs depicting local history.

A number of branch railway lines were opened to serve the mining industry, although Baird & Company also made extensive use of the Forth and Clyde Canal for transporting coal. The Carron Company employed the Canal to convey ironstone from the Cadder area to their ironworks near Falkirk.

Mining Artefacts

There are mining artefacts permanently on display in the Auld Kirk Museum, Kirkintilloch. The mining industry had a major effect on the local environment. Apart from the creation of coal workings and spoil heaps, the companies built miners' rows and other housing for their employees. Traditional miners' rows have disappeared, but modern houses were built by Baird & Company for their Twechar coal workers during the 1920s.

The last colliery in East Dunbartonshire, at Gartshore, closed in 1968. After that date there were still many miners living in the area, who travelled each day to collieries in neighbouring districts, such as Bedlay, near Chryston, and Cardowan, at Stepps, but this came to an end in 1983 when Cardowan closed.

Many reminders of the mining industry can be seen today, from spoil heaps to fenced-off shafts. Subsidence of the ground above former mine workings sometimes occurs, as at Grampian Way, Bearsden, in 1982, when a substantial hole appeared in the ground.

Railways Local History

Bishopbriggs Station Local passenger train on the Edinburgh and Glasgow line.

One of East Dunbartonshire's railways, the Monkland and Kirkintilloch, is of historic importance. When opened in 1826 it was the second railway in Scotland (after the Kilmarnock and Troon) to be authorised to carry public goods and passengers. However, it was the first to successfully introduce haulage by steam locomotive power. In 1831 it so became "Scotland's First Steam Railway." It was built to carry coal from the Monklands to the Forth and Clyde Canal at Kirkintilloch, from where it was usually shipped to Edinburgh. The Kirkintilloch terminus was in Southbank Road.

The second railway in East Dunbartonshire was the Edinburgh and Glasgow, with stations at Bishopbriggs and Lenzie. When built this was the first of several railway routes between Scotland's two main cities. It remains today as the most important. In 1848 a branch was built to serve Kirkintilloch (with a station at Eastside), Milton of Campsie and Lennoxtown. This was extended through the Blane Valley in 1867, with a station at Campsie Glen, and eventually reached Aberfoyle.

The railway arrived in Bearsden in the year 1863, when a station on the new Milngavie Branch was opened there. Glasgow businessmen soon began to settle, and a proper community began to develop during the 1870s and 1880s.

The Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway was opened in 1863, as a branch of the Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway (opened 1858). There were originally just two stations, at Bearsden and Milngavie, but a third was added at Hillfoot in 1900. Another station, to serve the new Westerton Garden Suburb, was opened beside the branch junction in 1913.

The final railway route to be opened in East Dunbartonshire was the Kelvin Valley line in 1878-79, with stations at Bardowie, Balmore, Torrance and Twechar. This route was closed to passengers in 1951, as was the Kirkintilloch-Aberfoyle section of the Campsie line.

The remainder of this branch, from Lenzie to Kirkintilloch, lost its passenger service in 1964. The Edinburgh-Glasgow and Westerton-Milngavie lines remain open to passengers. Some of the local stations were recently provided with a Sunday service.