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.