The Forth and Clyde canal

kev · The Forth and Clyde canal

Have just seen Streapadairs latest set of photos the ones taken by his brother of the canal at the Baird st sawmill and the bridge at Glebe street are truly outstanding ...I have never seen a view of the canal where the M8 now is..class
Anyway I am reading an old book at the moment about the Glasgow branch of the Forth and Clyde canal published in the mid eighties by the Woodside and North Kelvin local history project..no idea if they still exist..
There is a whole section on the various industries that sprang up because of the canal and I would hazard a guess that there is a load of Urbex to be done along its banks
Will start with one not far from where I live in Bishopbriggs where the canal starts to leave the countyside and head into the city
The Carron mining company built a village on the north bank of the canal called Mavis Valley to house its workers at the nearby cadder pit

Building began in the middle of the Nineteeth century and they had outside wash-houses and privvys.The two story houses were built around 1901..by the 50s only a few remained and these were occupied mainly by squatters.Not sure when they were all demolished but remember as a kid walking up the main street when we went out nesting and frog hunting

Main street today...total reclaimed by nature

remains of the cobbled street

Some photos of what remains of the houses

The Carron company had its own railway that used to bring coal from the pit and load it onto barges to be taken wherever it was going.It also used a swing bridge that the train could cross to the south side of the canal and go along the present day golf course and load up wagons

All that remains of the swing brige

Train would have transfered onto the bridge from here

To get to mavis valley you have to go along the canalbank from Balmulday road which used to have a bridge that could be raised like most of the bridges and I got the following photographs from a local girl who,s great grandfather was the bridge-kepper for some time

the old balmuldy road bridge

same view today..the cottage on the right is still there

The bridge-keepers cottage with the Caledonian railway signboard on the wall..The company owned the canal.. mavis valley village is on the incline at the left of the cottage

One could be forgiven for thinking that this would be a kind of cut off from the rest of the world community but apparanty on Saturdays the whole village would decend on the shops in Springburn and spend the day there before returning home.

view along the canal from Balmuldy road.Mavis valley is about where the canal dissapears in the photo

Scary

Excellent post Kev

I`ve been over that wee bridge a few hundred times without realising what went on not far down the canal from it, infact I was over it 4 times this week. I need to get up there and see this for myself.

Any info on the Centurion Brick Company (now a waste transfer station) further up Balmuildy Road ?

kev

Any info on the Centurion Brick Company (now a waste transfer station) further up Balmuildy Road ?[/quote]

Cant say I,ve heard of it but a lot of the old houses were built from bricks made in the area..A number of years ago I and the neighbour across the landing in the tenement I live in at the cross knocked down the old washouse in the back garden and all the bricks had the word Bishopbriggs
set in them.
to my eternal regret I never recorded what was in the washouse before I destroyed it..it was a total timecapsule..the old wringer,the boiler the ash hearth and all sorts of stuff was in there and after I had had a good look I binned the lot...shame on me

Will pop over to the library and see what info I can find

Fjord

panoramic view of Monklands Canal now the route of the M8 motorway. A few landmarks still remain.

flim

Hi Kev Did you know that the Carron Company Pit had a disaster when 22 miners lost their lives ,I think it was 1913 ,there are actually photos of the Horse drawn hearses coming from coming along the high towpath from Mavis Valley , with 7 miners bodies-some are buried in the Cadder graveyard ? with 11 buried in St Kentigerns and the others in different sites..

Hi Fjord Terrific panoramic view of the old Monkland Canal I recognise St Rochs School the Caley and others to many to mention Cheers Flim

kev

close ups of some of the buildings in Fjords photo

White building on canal to right of centre of aerial shot

Looking towards Castle st with the newly built Charles st flats in background

Looking along the canal from the left of the aerial shot

Think this was the Castle st entrance to Tennants chemical works which is the main part of the aeriel photo but cant place the tenements in the background

Subzero

Kev, you might be interested in this.
This is an extract of a Lanarkshire county council Education Committee report* from 1948. The gist of it was that Mavis Valley was one of the villages in the county that was destined to disappear.

* by P.A. Grimely.