Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

MONKLAND CANAL
to 78,476 in 1891. Its economic condition has in
consequence become peculiar, presenting a medium
character between that of an open country and that of a
manufacturing city. The following extract from the
official report upon it in 1850 is interesting: — ' The large
mining villages now no longer exhibit the aspect of
extreme filth and neglect for which they were formerly
conspicuous. It requires time to bring a population,
not yet accustomed to habits of cleanliness, to regard it
for its own sake; the masters are, therefore, obliged to
employ men and carts expressly to keep the spaces about
the houses free from accumulations of refuse, and to
look to the drainage, etc. The effect has been salutary
in many respects. The agents also occasionally inspect
the houses themselves, prevent overcrowding, and fine
or dismiss dirty and disorderly families. In many
places proper drains have been made, either covered or
laid with stone or brick, and hard and dry road-ways
have taken the place of the natural soil, which in wet
weather was often deep with mud. Much, therefore,
has been done towards placing the population in circum-
stances in which the decencies and comforts of domestic
life are possible; though the original arrangement of the
majority of the mining villages in large squares or long
unbroken rows must still remain an obstacle ; and it has
been so far recognised as such, that in the most of the
more recent works it has been abandoned, and the
cottages have been built fewer together, larger, and with
more rooms, and with garden-ground and all proper
conveniences nearest hand.'
Since the above was written the more populous places
have become municipal or police burghs with the usual
powers of self-government. Under the various school-
boards the means of education have been greatly
extended, and numerous large schools, well supplied
with all approved conveniences and appliances, have
been planted throughout the district. Technical and
higher education, too, has not been neglected. Among
higher class schools there has been established at Coat-
bridge the West of Scotland Technical and Mining
College. Under the Local Government Act of 1890 the
County Council of Lanarkshire, divided into district
committees, has done much to improve the locality.
Sanitation is well attended to, and a staff of competent
inspectors has been appointed, whose members devote
their whole time to their duties. Overcrowding is still
too prevalent in some places, but it is kept well in check.
Drainage and sewage are also seen to, while the water
supply has been improved, and there is now little
chance of a water famine in periods of drought.
Hospitals have been set up here and there not only for
infectious diseases, but also for those of a non-infectious
nature. Altogether the Local Government Act has
given a decided stimulus to the conduct of local affairs,
and supplied a means for the social and moral improve-
ment of the people which will no doubt be greatly
extended under the Parish Councils Act of 1894, as
isolated populous places are still too much neglected,
and there is no opportunity for those most affected com-
pelling an improvement in many ways. — Ord. Sur. , sh.
31, 1867.
Monkland Canal, an artificial navigable communica-
tion between the city of Glasgow and the district of
Monkland in Lanarkshire. It commences in the northern
district of Glasgow, or rather is prolonged westward
there into junction at Port-Dundas with the Glasgow
branch of the Forth and Clyde Canal; and it proceeds
east-south-eastward, through the Barony parish of Glas-
gow, and the parish of Old Monkland, to North
Calder Water, at the boundary with Bothwell parish.
It sends off four branches, one about a mile in length, to
Calder Ironworks, near Airdrie, in the parish of New
Monkland; one, about a mile in length, to Gartsherrie
Ironworks; one, about J mile in length, to Dundyvan
Ironworks; and one, also about £ mile in length, to
Langloan Ironworks— the last three all in the parish of
Old Monkland.
The project of the Monkland Canal was suggested in
1769, as a measure for securing to the inhabitants of
MONKLAND CANAL
Glasgow at all times a plentiful supply of coals, rhi
corporation of the city immediately adopted the project,
employed the celebrated James Watt to survey the
ground, obtained an Act of Parliament for carrying out
the measure, and subscribed a number of shares to the
stock. The work was begun in 1761; and the opera-
tions were carried on till about 10 miles of the canal
were formed. The first 2 of these miles, extending from
the basin to the bottom of Blackhill. are upon the level
of the upper reach of the Forth and Clyde Canal; the
other 8 miles, beginning at the top of the Blackhill, are
upon a level 96 feet higher. The communication between
these levels was at that early time carried on by means
of an inclined plain, upon which the coals were lowered
down in boxes, and re-shipped on the lower level. The
capital which had been declared necessary to complete
the undertaking was £10,000, divided into 100 shares;
but this sum was found to be altogether insufficient;
for, in addition to expending it, a debt of some amount
was contracted in executing the above part only of the
operations. The concern, in this unfinished state, pro-
duced no revenue, and the creditors naturally became
pressing. A number of the stockholders, too, refused to
make advances either for the liquidation of the debt, or
for the completion of the plan. The whole stock of the
company was consequently brought to sale, and pur-
chased in 1789 by Messrs William Stirling & Sons of
Glasgow. These gentlemen, immediately after acquiring
the property, proceeded to complete the canal; and, in
1790, having, in conjunction with the proprietors of the
Forth and Clyde Canal, procured a second Act of Par-
liament, empowering the latter to make a junction
between the navigations, by a cut from their basin at
Port-Dundas in Glasgow to the Monkland Canal basin,
they built locks at Blackhill, and extended the Monk-
land Canal to the river Calder. On these operations
the Messrs Stirling are understood to have expended
£100,000.
The Monkland Canal is 35 feet broad at the top and
24 at the bottom. The depth of water upon the lock-
sills is 5£ feet. To connect the upper and lower levels,
at Blackhill, there are two sets of four double locks of
two chambers. Each chamber is 71 feet long from the
gates to the sill, and 14 feet broad; the ascent in each
being 12 feet. The level at the top of the Blackhill is
continued to Sheepford, 8 miles, where there are two
single locks of 11^ feet each, after which the canal goes
on upon the level it has then gained to the river Calder.
The supplies of water for it are derived from the con-
tiguous streams, from the river Calder, and from the
reservoir at Hillend, beyond Airdrie, which covers
300 acres of ground near the source of that river, and
was formed at the expense of the proprietors of the
Forth and Clyde navigation. From the advantage
which the canal offers of easy communication with both
the eastern and western seas, and from its unlimited
command of coal, the vicinity of it has always been
considered favourable for the establishment of manu-
factures, especially of a bulky nature. For a long series
of years the revenue of the canal was wholly absorbed
by the expenses of its extension and improvement. In
1807, when a dividend first began to be made, the gross
revenue amounted to £4725; and in 1814 it was £5087,
although the navigation during this year was stopped
for eleven weeks, principally by the severe frost, but
partly on account of necessary repairs. From 1814 or
1815 up to the year 1825 the traffic continued without
much variation, but about the last-mentioned date a
great impulse was given to it by the establishment of
ironworks in the district of Monkland. When the
project of opening up that district by railways to Glas-
gow and Kirkintilloch was first started, it created much
alarm in the Canal Company, lest the traffic should
be entirely diverted from their navigation to the new
channels. The alarm was not unfounded, but it only
induced the company to reduce their dues to about one-
third of the rate which had been charged up till tha<
time, and also to expend large sums in making sucn
improvements on the canal, and on things connected with
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