Monkland Canal prior to motorway

[weskyman]

Thanks Browning, that is a very interesting story. There are a lot of mounds in the wood which appear to be old building remains, rubble etc buried under earth. The parts that are visible look like they are just a small part of the overall structure. Most of the rubble as per the photos seems to be very old. I have no building qualifications but to me it looks like early 20th century maybe older, uneven, varying sizes of stones used in the construction, but there are other parts that look more modern, uniform symmetrical brick structures, again as per the photos.

There is a large area of overgrown grass between the woods and the motorway - now partly covered by the Soccerworld complex where football/rugby fields could have been. Others make mention of football fields further west towards Barlinnie. If you look at the Google map image I posted earlier, there is a rectangular shape visible underneath the grass at the top of the hill at the east corner next to Stepps Rd and the J11 exit.

I got out and took another photo of the motorway for a then now comparison with Alex's other M8 photo from circa 1980

Many thanks to Alex for posting the original older photos

[the photos are actually cropped at the sides for some reason when they appear on the forum, sorry can't work out how to get round that]

[weskyman]

I captured the Croftcroighn Road / Park area from Google Earth circa 1945

The red line appears to be a wall, part of which exists today which acts as a retaining wall to the gardens of the flats on Drumlochy Road. The green part represents the portion I estimate to still be standing today. It looks like the wall used to run through what is now Croftcroighn Park along a ridge at the north side of the football pitch - with the ridge sloping down towards Drumlochy Road - and right up to Campston Place. The oval sort of eye shape just below this is where the present day swingpark is situated.

I'll try to take a photo of the old wall at the weekend.

[browning]

The 1945 black and white photo somewhat confusingly shows "high" Ruchazie as Garthamlock. Clearly wrong...but of course not your fault !
Regards,
Browning.

[Fat Cat]

I captured the Croftcroighn Road / Park area from Google Earth circa 1945

The red line appears to be a wall, part of which exists today which acts as a retaining wall to the gardens of the flats on Drumlochy Road. The green part represents the portion I estimate to still be standing today. It looks like the wall used to run through what is now Croftcroighn Park along a ridge at the north side of the football pitch - with the ridge sloping down towards Drumlochy Road - and right up to Campston Place. The oval sort of eye shape just below this is where the present day swingpark is situated.

I'll try to take a photo of the old wall at the weekend.

The 5 apartment houses in Drumlochy Road have a kind of old wall structure at the back of them. Could this be anything to do with older buildings in Ruchazie?

[weskyman]

The 1945 black and white photo somewhat confusingly shows "high" Ruchazie as Garthamlock. Clearly wrong...but of course not your fault !
Regards,
Browning.

Thanks for admonishing me

The text is an overlay of present day Google Earth road map so we need to take that up with Google Earth I think someone posted earlier in this thread about how to get the 1945 material from Google Earth - there is an icon like a clock wrapped in an arrow at the top of the page which if clicked brings up a slide bar which you can move back to 1945. From the left hand side you can then select an overlay of present day roads which gives you the current locations overlaid on the map. Really cool!

[weskyman]

I am going to start posting this information on the Ruchazie old and new thread which I have just found as this is getting really quite Ruchazie-centric, but since there was a bit of interest in the old wall in Croftcroighn Park I've posted photos of it here:

Image of wall from 1945. Green represents roughly what is standing today and red what has been demolished


[/quote]

Present day wall from east side of the park:



Closer look:





Area with patchwork repairs in more modern times:



View of the ridge facing east:



Remains of demolished sections:





Where the wall veers north slightly:



Furthest east remnants of the wall. Any remains towards Campston Place from this spot appear to have been obliterated for building of housing:

[Fat Cat]

excellent photos. thanks!

[AJM]

I first viewed this site a few days ago. I was taken aback to come across the drawings for the motorway at Bankend Street. I prepared these drawings over 40 years ago when I worked for the Corporation. I was also a member of the site staff on the contract to pipe the Monkland Canal from Blackhill to Cuilhill. This contract was carried out between 1970 and 1972 as advanced works for the Monkland Motorway Stage 2. My job as a young technician was to ensure that the pipes were laid to the correct line and level.
The canal was diverted into twin 30inch diameter pipes, mainly reinforced concrete except for a short section of asbestos cement pipes. Most of the work was carried out in open trench with some short tunnels and a section laid above the existing ground level. Brick manholes were built at regular intervals to allow access for maintenance.
The stretch from Pinkston to Blackhill locks was piped in the early 1960s.
A connection was made to this section at the top of the old inclined plane.
From there the pipeline headed for the open ground on the North side of Gala Street and followed this to Cumbernauld Road.
It then followed the south bank of the Canal adjacent to Smithycroft School.
Then parallel to the prison wall and through Gartcraig Bus Garage. I remember having to go into the prison for some reason.
After crossing Gartcraig Road the line followed the open ground on the North side of Fastnet Street. This section was laid above the existing ground level on a specially constructed embankment. This was then covered over and later covered again by the Motorway landscaping.
The line went into a short tunnel or heading in front of the high flats at the wee bridge at Milncroft Road and then along the south bank behind Longstone Road.
It crossed under Stepps Road into the peat bog, then across Garthamlock Road to Westerhouse Road. This section may have been relaid as part of the Motorway contract.
After Westerhouse Road there was a tunnel section past a wee church and hall and under the open ground at Halliburton Crescent.
It crossed into the fields on the east side of Wardie Road. From here Asbestos Cement pipes were used for a short stretch. No real precautions were taken at that time to protect from the effects of asbestos. I am unsure of the
It then crossed Easterhouse Road still south of the Canal and into the fields heading for Netherhouse Road. There was a wee farm there.
My memory lets me down a bit from this point on. I think this must be the only point where the pipeline crosses the M8 heading towards Cuilhill Road.
The M73 was almost completed by this time and connections were made to large (42 inch diameter) pipes under that carriageway.
The final section headed through the field east of Cuilhill Road where an intake was constructed at the end of the open Coatbridge section of Canal.
Once the pipeline was operational the canal bed was dredged of silt old bikes trolleys etc and then backfilled with demolition material.



AJM

[Dexter St. Clair]

Next HG walk.

[Mungoman]

this shows one of the sliproads to the M8 being built along the line of the canal just east of Townhead

[old jock]

AJM

Very interesting many thanks.

Next HG walk.

I'm maybe missing you're famed irony here Dex, but tongue in cheek or not, that sounds like a dammed good idea to me

John

[jock78]

That's superb guys, Blackhill Cottage was in quite good nick as I recall, the ditch running NW from there was dry but had been fed by a wee tunnel about three feet high, presumably some kind of overflow from the canal above?
Never knew there was a pit at Lethamhill beside Cumbernauld Road, you can still see the Dolerite there, and again behind the golf clubhouse, where the icehouse is on the map. Walker of Lethamhill raised the loch level further and cut ice for sale in town. I believe Blackhill House was owned by a Martin, needle manufacturer. Smithcroft Cottage was Farquharson's shop, two or three steps up into it. The house across the road bottled and sold bleach. Every summer a weedcutting boat appeared, don't remember any traffic though. Riddrie School it is, mostly brick with classrooms opening onto an open verandah.
Halcyon Days, ah can still smell the canal.

Hi Huggie,
My family have a long history of the inclined plane known as 'The Gazoon'which the Irish navigators referred to it as.
Some of my cousins stayed in Blackhill cottage and my grand parents in the nearest of the terrace houses just to the North of it on the other side of the inclined plane. ( famly name Minelly)

I was brought up also on the canal above Alexandra parade and oposite Firpark Street