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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival

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Title: Kirkintilloch Canal Festival


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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
  • The story begins.

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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
  • The forth and Clyde canal was the first ever
    canal to be built in Scotland, and much more
    recently, has been the largest ever canal
    restoration project in the country. The canal
    restoration and construction of the Falkirk Wheel
    was one of Scotlands largest Millenium projects,
    reopening the canal in 2001, 40 years after its
    closure.
  • Canals in the UK have a long history dating back
    to the Romans, who built several canals here
    including the Fossdyke, which is still navigable
    today. A long period elapsed after the Romans
    left Britain when no canals were built. Instead
    improvements to rivers were made with the aim of
    harnessing waterpower, or for fishing, rather
    than for navigation purposes. It was in the
    reign of Elizabeth I that the next canal was
    built, at Exeter.

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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
  • This was also the first use in Britain of pound
    locks - the type of lock in common use today -
    all the navigable rivers at that time used flash
    locks. After this many schemes were introduced
    for the improvement of river navigations, often
    provoking strong opposition from water mill and
    fish weir owners. In 1660 there were 685 miles
    of river navigation, by 1724 another 475 miles
    had been added by improvements to many rivers
    including the Aire and Calder, Douglas, Idle,
    Irwell, Kennet and Weaver.
  • When work began on the Forth and Clyde Canal in
    1768, the plan was for the waterway to progress
    steadily westwards from the Forth via the River
    Carron to Stockingfield (Maryhill), in Glasgow.
    Nine years later work stopped due to lack of
    funds and eight years went by before money
    forfeited from the Jacobite Estates became
    available, allowing the canal to continue its
    journey to the River Clyde.

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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
  • The weather, strong currents and island-strewn
    western coastline of Scotland meant sailing
    around it was risky as well as time-consuming in
    the 18th century. The idea of building a canal
    across the narrowest part of the Scottish
    lowlands to connect the Firth of Clyde and Forth
    gathered momentum and the Forth and Clyde canal
    was born - a 35 mile canal, with 39 locks, from
    Bowling on the northern bank of the Clyde to the
    southern side of the Forth near Grangemouth.
  • The engineer, John Smeaton, carried out most of
    the design drawing on advice from, among others,
    the geologist, James Hutton. The canal was
    constructed between 1768 and 1790 bringing new
    opportunities for trade and manufacture to the
    communities along its banks. Small ocean-going
    vessels could carry goods along it, and parts of
    the canal branched off into Glasgow and Edinburgh.

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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
  • Shipbuilding yards were established at Bowling
    and Kirkintilloch, mostly building the small
    steamboats, known as Clyde puffers. The puffers
    had to be less than 20m long to fit in the canal
    locks, and plied routes along the canals and
    rivers and out to the islands. They were
    immortalised in Neil Munros Para Handy stories
    about the Clyde Puffer The Vital Spark.
  • The pace of change in the 19th century was so
    great that by the time the major canals were all
    finished, their role as a transport route was
    already being overtaken by the railways.
    Management of the Canal was taken over by the
    Caledonian Railway in 1853. Each canal in the
    country is an engineering feat and tells its own
    story about the surrounding area.

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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
  • J. Hay Sons Ltd of Kirkintilloch were both
    boat builders and operators on the Forth and
    Clyde Canal. It wasnt too long before their
    operations extended out onto the Clyde and the
    west coast and Hebridean Islands. Starting with
    a fleet of horse-drawn scows transporting coal,
    iron, timber and grain on the canal, in around
    1857 Hay fitted some of his scows with simple
    non-condensing steam engines driving a single
    screw, and also in 1857 took delivery of the
    first ever steam screw lighter to be built as
    such from scratch. This vessel, named Glasgow,
    was built by David Swan at his Kelvin Dock yard
    on the canal.
  • In 1867 Williams two sons, James and John, took
    over the floundering boatbuilding business of
    Crawfords in Kirkintilloch and put it to work
    maintaining the familys fleet of canal boats.

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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
  • In 1879 they went into business of operating
    coastal steamers on their own account with James
    running that side of the business and John
    continuing to manage the yard. They soon turned
    to building their own vessels and the Helena
    was launched that same year. In the ensuing
    decade the yard launched eleven vessels, ten for
    themselves and one Aniline for a Falkirk owner.
    New-builds were launched broadside into the
    canal as shown in the postcard from the early
    1900s reproduced below. The letters ITO are
    visible and so it is possibly the 1905 Briton.
    The location of the launch is readily
    identifiable today from the red sandstone
    building in the background which still stands at
    the corner of Southbank Road and Townhead.
  • In 1888 the firm of J Hay Sons Ltd was
    formally constituted by John Hay to run the
    coasting business. Shortly afterwards he took
    over the shipbuilding side of the business and
    renamed it J J Hay Ltd.

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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
  • In the period from then until the start of WW1,
    the company built 14 vessel for its own fleet.
    In 1917 the yard was awarded an Admiralty
    contract for some barges with tanks for the
    carriage of oil from Grangemouth on the Forth to
    Bowling on the Clyde. Just as the work was
    completed the admiralty decided to lay a pipeline
    instead.
  • In 1921 the two companies were merged into J.
    Hay Sons Ltd and in the inter-war years the
    company became the principal operator on the
    canal. During WW2, only three vessels were built
    in Kirkintilloch VIC18, the Kaffir and the
    Boer. Their final build was the 1946 Chindit,
    for their own fleet.
  • Hays shipyard at Kirkintilloch was demolished
    in 1954 although the slipway remained in use for
    ship repairs until 1961. During this time Hay
    required a reputation for rebuilds of salvaged
    lighters.

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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
  • As a vessel-operating company only by now, J J
    Hay merged with G G Hamilton in 1963 to form
    Hay-Hamilton Ltd, who in turn amalgamated with
    Ross Marshall in 1969 to form Glenlight
    Shipping.
  • For over 200 years the Forth and Clyde Canal was
    in operation. It was nationalised in 1948, then
    closed down in 1963. It reopened in 2001 after
    massive regeneration.
  • Now it is the focus of leisure activities such
    as sailing through the canal for a sea-to-sea
    transit between the River Clyde and the River
    Forth. It also plays host to canoeing and
    kayaking enthusiasts who can paddle boats from
    coast-to-coast. Because of the new facilities on
    the canal and improved banks, as well as the
    flat water it is a popular sport for paddle
    sports. Canal fishing is also popular, with
    species including roach, bream rudd, gudgeon,
    carp, eels, tench, perch, pike and trout.

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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
  • British Waterways Scotland, who run Scotlands
    canals, hold an estimated 7,766 megalitres of
    water in canals and 18,304 megalitres of water in
    reservoirs. They are rolling out a programme
    designed at encouraging people to take boating
    holidays on the canals, and, since living in a
    houseboat has become a sought-after lifestyle, BW
    have selected locations across Scotland where
    people will be able to reside in boats and
    canals.
  • Cycling the Forth and Clyde Canal towpath has
    never been easier or safer, thirty-five miles of
    towpath through beautiful countryside have been
    restored with the cyclist in mind. Sustrans
    Route 754 follows the canal towpath from Bowling
    to Edinburgh, so you can cycle across Scotland
    coast-to-coast. The towpath between Dalmuir and
    Bowling forms part of the scenic Glasgow to Loch
    Lomond cycleway.

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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
  • There are many walks taking in the countryside
    along different sections of the canal path,
    however if you want a long-distance walking
    challenge, theres only one path to walk from one
    side of Scotland to another. It takes two days
    with a stop-over point in Kilsyth to spend the
    night and stock up on supplies.
  • Along the canal there are four places of
    particular wildlife interest Dullatur Marsh and
    Possil Loch are designated as Sites of Special
    Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and each end of the
    canal is a designated Special Protection Area
    (SPA) for estuarine birds. Wildlife on the Forth
    Clyde includes many types of bird, plant, fish
    and mammals. Otters frequent the canal as do
    pipistrelle and Daubentons bats. Nearby
    hedgerows and woodland provide cover, nesting
    sites and food for hedgehogs, grey partridge,
    chaffinch, water voles and wood mice.

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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
  • Watch out for the extremely rare Bennetts
    pondweed the only location in the world where
    it is known to occur. Birds youll see along the
    canal include mute swan, mallard, coot, little
    grebe and tufted duck.
  • Children can benefit a lot from outdoor learning
    experiences, and the canal offers a wealth of
    such learning opportunities for primary schools,
    uniformed groups and families. There are a wide
    range of tailored, canal specific resources in
    addition to the broader educational aids for
    learning about the waterways, which help make the
    canal a perfect topic choice for a class or
    school project. Resources are linked to the
    Curriculum for Excellence learning outcomes and
    achievements, making it easy to link particular
    aspects of the canals into broader topics. There
    are also plenty of volunteering opportunities in
    the area for both adults and young people.

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Kirkintilloch Canal Festival
  • The Kirkintilloch Canal Festival celebrates the
    heritage of Kirkintilloch, including its status
    as Canal Capital of Scotland. Around 15,000
    visitors attend what has been to date a fantastic
    weekend of events in Kirkintilloch. This year
    the festival will be a week-long, with events
    daily, and culminating in a terrific weekend with
    a jam-packed activities day on the Saturday and
    ever-popular Gala Day on the Sunday. Activities
    will be centred around the marina.
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