The Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal, later known as the Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone Canal, was a

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

in the west of Scotland, running between

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Paisley and

Johnstone Johnstone (,
) is a town in the

Ardrossan Ardrossan (; ) is a town on the North Ayrshire coast in southwestern Scotland. The town has a population of 10,670 and forms part of a conurbation with Saltcoats and Stevenston known as the 'Three Towns#Scotland, Three Towns'. Ardrossan is loca ...

, the termini being Port Eglinton in Glasgow and Thorn Brae in Johnstone. Within months of opening, the canal was the scene of a major disaster.

Construction

The canal was first proposed by Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton in 1791. He wanted to connect the booming industrial towns of Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone to his new deep sea port at

and his Ayrshire coal fields. His fellow

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the ...

s included William Dixon of

Govan Govan ( ; Cumbric: ''Gwovan''; Scots language, Scots: ''Gouan''; Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Ghobhainn'') is a district, parish, and former burgh now part of southwest Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the sout ...

who wished to export coal from his Govan

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extra ...

. The Earl had spent £100,000 on creating Ardrossan's

harbour A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be Mooring, moored. The t ...

and intended to make it the principal port for Glasgow. Interest was also shown by Lord Montgomerie and William Houston who would also benefit from the canal passing through their lands and connecting their own coal and iron mines to nearby industrial consumers. In this pre McAdam period, the roads around

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark (; ), is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no l ...

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Renfrewshire is located in the west central Lowlands. It borders East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire, and lies on the southern ba ...

and

Ayrshire Ayrshire (, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety ...

were not suitable for heavily loaded traffic. The other alternative route, up the Clyde river estuary to Glasgow, was not navigable by large ships as the river was too shallow. Engineers John Rennie,

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well ...

and John Ainslie were employed to design the canal, survey a route, and estimate the costs. The original design was in three parts. The first section would be a contour canal of about in length. Following the land, a contour canal is entirely level and requires no locks or lifts making navigation quick and easy. Contour canals require only a small water supply since no water is lost to locks, but this method of construction would make the canal longer than it need have been. The second section would see a series of 8 locks lift the level up to a summit near Johnstone. The third and last section would use 13 locks to bring the canal down to sea level at Ardrossan Harbour. When complete the canal have been just shy of long. The dimensions of the cutting were to be broad at the top and at bottom, . The depth was to be 4 feet 6 inches. The Company of the Proprietors of the Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal was incorporated by an act of Parliament, the ( 46 Geo. 3. c. lxxv) which received royal assent on 20 June. This bill allowed for funding to be raised by the sale of two thousand eight hundred shares of £50 each, a total of £140,000, of which the proprietors, the Earl of Eglinton, Lord Montgomerie and Lady Jane Montgomerie subscribed £30,000. Construction began in 1807 and the first boat, the passenger boat, ''The Countess of Eglinton'', was launched on 31 October 1810. The passenger service initially only ran between Paisley and Johnstone. The full length to Glasgow's Port Eglinton was complete sometime in 1811. The original plans to extend the canal to Ardrossan were soon suspended. The costs of completing the first contour canal had consumed all the available funds – the initial estimates having been grossly understated. Further estimates indicated that £300,000 additional funding would need to be secured to complete the project. Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton, had already spent £100,000 on a separate project to build a sea harbour at Ardrossan, at the proposed terminus of the canal. The harbour project would eventually be competed by his grandson, the 13th Earl, for a total cost of £200,000. Attempts were made to raise extra funds but other major investors, such as William Houston, were reluctant to invest as the canal already linked his own coal and iron mines, around Johnstone, to Glasgow and Paisley.

Operation

The canal ran from Port Eglinton; and an inn was built there in 1816. A

wharf A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more Berth (mo ...

was built on the north bank of the White Cart near

Crookston Castle Crookston Castle is a ruined medieval castle in the Pollok area of Glasgow, Scotland. It is located some south-west of the city centre, on a hill overlooking the Levern Water, just before its confluence with the White Cart Water. Crookston Ca ...

; and canal basins provided at Paisley and Johnstone.

Passenger traffic

The canal became a popular service for passenger transport. In 1830, long, and shallow

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

canal boats began to run regularly, conveying about sixty passengers a distance of , at an average rate of , stoppages included. The boats reached speeds of , and although 14 journeys were made each day, no damage was caused to the canal banks by their wash. This development was copied widely in the canal world, where they were known as swift boats or

fly-boat The flyboat (also spelled ''fly-boat'' or ''fly boat'') was a European light vessel of Dutch origin developed primarily as a mercantile cargo carrier, although many served as warships in an auxiliary role because of their agility. These vessels co ...

s, but it took the young

John Scott Russell John Scott Russell (9 May 1808, Parkhead, Glasgow – 8 June 1882, Ventnor, Isle of Wight) was a Scottish civil engineer, naval architecture, naval architect and shipbuilder who built ''SS Great Eastern, Great Eastern'' in collaboration with Is ...

to explain the phenomenon and show its limits. The Paisley canal passage boats were long and wide. With 90 passengers on board their draft was . The hull was constructed of light iron ribs and thin metal plates. The cabin was covered with oiled cloth. They covered the between Glasgow and Paisley in 50 minutes. They were towed by teams of two horses which were changed every .

Deaths on the canal

A few months before the canal saw its first traffic, poet Robert Tannahill drowned himself during a bout of depression, by throwing himself into a deep pit which carries the water of a stream down to a culvert under the canal. This came to be known as Tannahills Hole. A group of his poems had just been rejected by an

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

publisher. He was well known for periods of depression. He burned many of his writings at this time. His body was found on 17 May 1810 in the Candren Burn tunnel under the canal. Shortly after the canal's opening, the Paisley canal disaster took the lives of 84 people, 52 males and 32 females. Saturday 10 November 1810 was the

Martinmas Saint Martin's Day or Martinmas (obsolete: Martlemas), and historically called Old Halloween or All Hallows Eve, is the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours and is celebrated in the liturgical year on 11 November. In the Middle Ages and early mo ...

Fair. Many people, with the day off work, took the opportunity to travel the short distance of by canal between Paisley and Johnstone. As ''The Countess of Eglinton'' docked at the Paisley wharf, there was a rush of people trying to get onto the boat. At the same time, people from Johnstone were attempting to disembark. Despite the attempts of the boat men to push off again, the weight of people pushing onto the boat caused it to suddenly overturn, throwing many passengers into the cold water of the wharf. Even though the wharf was only deep, the coldness of the water and the sheer sides of the embankments compounded the problem that few people of the time could swim. 85 people died in this disaster.

Freight traffic

Freight also made a significant part of the traffic on the canal. Basin dues were set at 2 pence per ton. Stone, dung and earth were charged at 2 pence per mile per ton; coal, coke culm and lime were 3 pence per mile per ton; Bricks, tiles, slates, ores, iron and metal were rated at 5 pence per mile per ton; and all other goods were charged 2 pence per mile per ton. In 1840, the canal handled of goods.

Profitability

The construction costs were so high that the canal never made an issue of dividend on its shares. Even after 20 years of operations, the accounts showed an outstanding debt of £71,208, 17 shillings and 6 pence.

Canal versus railway

In 1827, a second bill passed Parliament and gained

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...

on 14 June as the Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal and Railway Act 1827 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. lxxxvii). This act allowed for the financing and construction of a railway from the Johnstone canal basin to Ardrossan. This railway was to have been and 3 furlongs long. Parliament dictated that due to the failure to complete the canal past Johnstone, that work on the railway should be started at the Ardrossan harbour end. The line did not progress past Kilwinning before running out of funds. The railway, owned and operated by the canal company, was built to the

Scotch gauge Scotch most commonly refers to: * Scotch (adjective), a largely obsolescent adjective meaning "of or from Scotland" **Scotch, old-fashioned name for the indigenous languages of the Scottish people: *** Scots language ("Broad Scotch") *** Scottish ...

of . It used pairs of horses to pull carriages of up to 22 people each. The fares were initially 1 penny per mile but in 1837, due to the application of a government duty, the fare was raised to 8 pence per . In the three years preceding September 1839, the railway transported an average of 30,000 people each year. Apart from passengers, the main freight was coal from Eglinton's mines. The

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

of the

River Clyde The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. Th ...

and other navigation improvements, allowing ships to sail directly to the centre of Glasgow, meant Eglinton's dream that, "Ardrossan would be to Glasgow what Liverpool is to Manchester." would not be fulfilled. A second railway line was opened, in 1840, by the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway Company (GPK&A), in direct competition with the canal. This new railway linked with the Ardrossan Railway near Kilwinning and later purchased the Ardrossan Railway, the railway company's debts and the harbours. The canal continued to compete with the railways for many decades, but in 1869, was purchased by the Glasgow and South Western Railway Company (the successor to GPK&A). In 1881, the Glasgow and South Western Railway Act 1881 ( 44 & 45 Vict. c. cxlix) closed the canal. Much of the route was used to construct the Paisley Canal railway line.

Conversion to a railway

The Ardrossan Railway

In the 1820s the canal company planned to build a railway between Johnstone and Ardrossan to finish the link. They raised further capital and started building the railway from Ardrossan; reaching

Kilwinning Kilwinning (, ; ) is a town in North Ayrshire, Scotland. It is located on the banks of the River Garnock in Ayrshire, west/central Scotland, about southwest of Glasgow. Kilwinning's neighbours are the coastal towns of Stevenston to the west an ...

before running out of money. In the 1830s they planned to turn their canal into a railway and complete the link from Kilwinning to Johnstone; but allowed the scheme to fold. In the 1840s they split off their railway, by the Ardrossan and Johnston Railway Act 1840 ( 3 & 4 Vict. c. civ) to form a separate company, the Ardrossan Railway, and transferred their debt to the new company.

Closure of the canal

The canal was purchased in 1869 by the

Glasgow and South Western Railway The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) was the third biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle, Cumbria, Ca ...

Company. In 1881, the Glasgow and South-Western Railway Act 1881 ( 44 & 45 Vict. c. cxlix) closed the canal. Much of the route was used to construct the Paisley Canal Line. This line still uses the River Cart Aqueduct (which it crosses at a skewed angle). This makes the former aqueduct the world's oldest railway bridge that is still in active use.

Closure and partial reopening of the Paisley Canal Line

The Paisley Canal railway line closed to passengers in 1983. The rails between Elderslie and the original Paisley Canal Station were uplifted in 1986; and the station became a

steakhouse A steakhouse, steak house, or chophouse is a restaurant that specializes in steaks and chops. Modern steakhouses may also carry other cuts of meat including poultry, roast prime rib, and veal, as well as fish and other seafood. History Choph ...

. In 1990, passenger services resumed on the section from Glasgow Central station to a new Paisley Canal station. Much of the abandoned

track bed The track bed or trackbed is the groundwork onto which a railway track is laid. Trackbeds of disused railways are sometimes used for recreational paths or new light rail links. Background According to Network Rail Network Rail Limited is t ...

beyond Paisley has now been developed into a cycle and walkway operated by

Sustrans Sustrans ( ) is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United ...

. Short sections of the original canal can still be seen at the Millarston and Ferguslie Mills area of Paisley. Houses in Tenters Way and Cromptons Grove face across the remnants. Traces of the old canal are also visible in fields between Hawkhead and Rosshall.

References

Notes

Bibliography

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External links

Glasgow's Canals Unlocked
tourism publication by Scottish Canals {{DEFAULTSORT:Glasgow, Paisley And Johnstone Canal Canals in Scotland Transport in Glasgow Transport in Renfrewshire 1806 establishments in Scotland 1811 establishments in Scotland 1881 disestablishments in Scotland British companies disestablished in 1881 Canals opened in 1811 History of Glasgow History of Renfrewshire Transport companies established in 1806 British companies established in 1806 Transport companies disestablished in 1881