Abandonment
The canal suffered heavily under competition from the railways, and by the 1920s trade was down to 30,000 tonnes (33,000 short tons) per year.
In August 1942, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway as successors to the Caledonian, applied to the Ministry of War Transport for an order authorising the abandonment the canal. Navigation rights were removed by an Act of Parliament passed in 1952. The canal remained the primary water source for the Forth and Clyde canal, and so some sections are still in water today, notably the eastern section between Woodhall and eastern Coatbridge, and to the west of that town and Cuilhill. The rest of the waterway to Port Dundas was converted into a culvert to maintain the water flow, and much of it now lies beneath the M8 motorway which was constructed along its path in the early 1970s; the culvert remains under the jurisdiction of Scottish Canals (as successor to British Waterways) because of its function as a feeder to the Forth and Clyde Canal.
The Scottish Development Agency was formed in 1975, and the canal was the subject of the Monkland Canal Land Renewal Project. The line of the non-motorway section was protected by the District Council from 1978, and there has been some progress with creating a linear park and walkway along its route. The route forms an important part of the Summerlee Heritage Park and Drumpellier Country Park.
| Point | Coordinates (Links to map resources) |
OS Grid Ref | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calderbank Basin | 55°50′28″N 3°58′23″W / 55.841°N 3.973°W / 55.841; -3.973 (Calderbank Basin) | NS765626 | Eastern terminus |
| Start of first culvert | 55°51′04″N 3°59′42″W / 55.851°N 3.995°W / 55.851; -3.995 (Start of first culvert) | NS752638 | |
| Sheepford basin | 55°51′29″N 4°00′11″W / 55.858°N 4.003°W / 55.858; -4.003 (Sheepford basin) | NS747645 | |
| Blair Road bridge | 55°51′40″N 4°02′42″W / 55.861°N 4.045°W / 55.861; -4.045 (Blair Road bridge) | NS721649 | |
| Start of second culvert | 55°51′40″N 4°04′26″W / 55.861°N 4.074°W / 55.861; -4.074 (Start of second culvert) | NS702650 | |
| Junction with M8 motorway | 55°51′36″N 4°06′07″W / 55.860°N 4.102°W / 55.860; -4.102 (Junction with M8 motorway) | NS685650 | |
| Ruchazie | 55°52′08″N 4°09′25″W / 55.869°N 4.157°W / 55.869; -4.157 (Ruchazie) | NS651661 | |
| Riddrie | 55°52′26″N 4°11′02″W / 55.874°N 4.184°W / 55.874; -4.184 (Riddrie) | NS634666 | |
| Blackhill | 55°52′16″N 4°12′00″W / 55.871°N 4.200°W / 55.871; -4.200 (Blackhill) | NS624663 | Locks and inclined plane |
| Townhead Basin | 55°52′19″N 4°14′56″W / 55.872°N 4.249°W / 55.872; -4.249 (Townhead Basin) | NS593666 |
| Map of all coordinates from Google Map of first 200 coordinates from Bing |
|---|
| Export all coordinates as KML |
| Export all coordinates as GeoRSS |
| Map of all microformatted coordinates |
| Place data as RDF |
Read more about this topic: Monkland Canal
Famous quotes containing the word abandonment:
“I am black: I am the incarnation of a complete fusion with the world, an intuitive understanding of the earth, an abandonment of my ego in the heart of the cosmos, and no white man, no matter how intelligent he may be, can ever understand Louis Armstrong and the music of the Congo.”
—Frantz Fanon (1925–1961)