I discover many ideas for walks through the act of studying online maps. Popular trails are named but I also look out for railway paths running between towns, riverside walks and urban circuits that will reveal fascinating heritage. I'd noticed the North Calder Heritage Trail in Coatbridge some weeks ago and I now had a free Sunday afternoon to investigate a large chunk of this loop. I inserted a section of old railway into my planned circuit and set off for Lanarkshire, reaching the old industrial town within 40 minutes.
I parked beside a swathe of green that had obviously been a railway at one time. The shallow cutting was bounded by a platform (or loading bank). A modern roundabout and dual carriageway severed one end of the grassy way and I proceeded in the opposite direction along a tarmac footpath. I could tell I was following the course of an old line and I passed a signal box base and assorted stone rubble. This turned out to be a remnant of Calder Station. The map had indicated a viaduct lay before me and I soon saw the parapets in the distance. As I approached, I clocked a side path snaking down the embankment and took this for a view of the bridge itself. I certainly wasn't prepared for the scale of the structure that appeared before me. I had been expecting a handful of standard stone arches but instead I was confronted with a long run of weathered steel decking upon massive masonry piers. At this point I didn't know the precise nature of the old railway I was walking but there were a few clues obvious to the trained eye. The double-track width strongly suggested passenger services once ran here and the presence of the substantial steel girders led me to the assumption that this line had not been a victim of the wholesale cuts back in the 60s. Steelwork was usually dismantled for scrap in those days. A more cynical viewpoint is that such a move ensured it would be very difficult to reopen the railway in a hurry. My guess was this viaduct hosted freight trains until relatively recently and was at one time part of a passenger route. Later research revealed I was pretty much bang on the money. But first some facts about the bridge itself.
The six spans of the Sheepford Viaduct cover a distance of 120 yards at an impressive height. Its purpose was to carry trains over the Monkland Canal - which has now been culverted at this location.
The eastern piers are perpendicular to the alignment and the westernmost two are skewed to accommodate the watercourse. A glance at the OS maps confirms that myriad lines spread across Coatbridge and neighbouring town Airdrie back in the days of heavy industry. The area was famous for its foundries and rail connections would have brought in the raw materials and exported the finished metal. I had parked at the site of Whifflet Upper Station and had walked by the former location of the Victoria Iron & Steel Works and the Calder Hot Roll Tube Works, both of which were served by numerous sidings. The whole are was dominated by industrial concerns and must have been a hive of railway activity. Meanwhile the canal became something of a relic from a bygone age, finally closing to navigation in the post-war period after a lengthy spell of decline. The passenger rail link to Newhouse ceased in 1930 while a service to Airdrie East continued for another decade. Eventually the line was pared back to the tube works which received regular traffic until the late 80s. The tracks were lifted a few years later and a public path created in the intervening period. Traditional industry has more or less disappeared from Coatbridge and a visit to the Summerlee Museum (free entry) is an absolute must for anyone interested in this type of history. Like Beamish on a smaller scale! I continued along old railway routes to the village of Calderbank and traversed the length of the main street before turning off towards the starting point of the Monkland Canal.
This 12-mile waterway was built to transport coal and other industrial produce to major markets in Glasgow. It opened in stages between 1771 and 1794. Business was brisk and the availability of a a reliable shipping artery led to a huge increase in mining activities as well as the development of iron and steel plants. The coming of the railways obviously had an impact on canal operations but initially the competition wasn't a direct threat. Indeed the construction of short lines and tramways was a useful promotional tool as it enabled goods to be swiftly brought to the water's edge for onward dispatch. Longer distance railways eventually obviated the need for slower canal links and floating traffic declined as the decades rolled by. At the turn of the 20th century, loads carried were just a fifteenth of what they had been 40 years previously. An act of parliament formally closed the Monkland Canal in 1952 although it retained the function of being the primary source for the Forth & Clyde Canal and some sections exist as open water today. The remainder was concealed within a culvert to maintain a steady supply. Much of the route now lies beneath the M8 which was constructed in the early 70s. The road project actually had the working title of Monkland Motorway. I joined the towpath just beyond Calderbank and the walk had a pleasant rural feel as I headed back towards Coatbridge. The canal runs above ground for a mile and a half before disappearing into a drain. At times I was on a high embankment and I could see the North Calder Water (used a a feeder) running parallel down below. The old waterway was semi-overgrown in places and clearly no longer navigable to anything more substantial than a canoe but this added to the country nature of the surroundings and there wasn't any whiff of industrial decay. That side of things had long since vanished completely from the landscape. The Monkland Canal disappeared from view but I must have followed the culvert course as the final leg of my walk brought me back to Sheepford Viaduct. I had done six miles in total and once again had learned a lot about recent local history. A job well done.
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