Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

;';MONKLAND, OLDMonkland, Old, a jiarisli of tho Middle Ward, NLanarkshii-e. It contains the towns of Baillieston, Coatbridge,and Whifflet and Rosehall, with two-thirds ofCalder, seven-eightlis of Coatdyke, and one-seventli ofToUcross, as also the villages of 13argeddie and Dykehead,Braehead, Broomhouse, Calderbank, Carmylo,Clyde Iron-works, Faskine, Mount Vernon, Swinton,West Maryston, etc. In shape resembling a rudetriangle with northward apex, it is bounded NW byShettleston, Cadder, and New Monkland, NE by NewMonkland, and S by Bothwell, Blantyre, Cambuslang,and Eutherglen. Its utmost length, from E by N toW by S, is 9i miles its utmost breadth is 4g miles ; ;and its area is 17§ square miles or 11,281J acres, ofwhich 345| are water. From Monkland House, NorthCaldek Water meanders 10 miles west-south-westwardalong all the Bothwell boundary, till at Daldowie itfalls into the Clyde, which itself curves 4 miles westwardalong all the boundary with Blantyre, Cambuslang,and Rutherglen. Lochend Loch (3^x14 furl.)communicates with Woodend Loch (i x i mile), andthis again with Bishop Loch {Ixi mile), which lies onthe Cadder boundary, and is one of the principal reservoirsof the Forth and Clyde Canal. The banks of allthree are tame, with little or no beauty ; but their waterscontain some large pike. The surface of the parish isgenerally flat or gently undulating. Along the Clyde,in the extreme SW, it sinks to 32 feet above sea-leveland thence it rises gradually to 207 feet near MountVernon House, 356 near Westerhouse, 321 at Shawhead,345 near Gartsherrie House, and 360 at Castlespails.Whether the fertility of its superficies, or thewealth of its mineral treasures be considered. OldMonkland is one of the most important and wealthyparishes in Lanarkshire. To quote the writer of theOld Statistical Account:— 'A stranger is struck withthe view of this parish. It has the appearance of animmense garden.' This account, penned nearly acentury since, is still generally true, if we except thefact that improved culture has vastly increased the productionof the soil, and that the rapid advance ofpopulation, the enormous progress of the mineral trade,and a perfect network of railways, have sadly marredthose features of rural loveliness for which the districtwas formerly celebrated. Withal, there are few districtswhich combine so much of the attributes ofcountry-life with the bustle and stir of manufactures ;for the soil of Old Monkland is dotted at every littledistance with the villas of the aristocracy of the westerncapital, \vitli the blazing furnaces and tall chimneys ofthe iron and coal works, with belts of thriving plantationand clumps of old wood, with orchards, grassyholms, or waving grain, and with the homely farmsteadingor lowly dwelling of the cottar. From thefacilities of obtaining lime and manure, both by canaland railway, a soil— which is naturally fertile—hasbeen improved to the highest degree ; and the yearlyvalue of the agricultural produce of the arable lands ofthe parish is superior to that of an equal extent ofarable lands in most other parts of Scotland. The soilhere, on the whole, is much more fertile than the soilabove the coal measures in other parts of the country.The arable soil is of three kinds. That along theCalder and the Clyde is a strong clay, changed bycultivation into a good loam ; that of the middle districtsis a light sand, very fruitful in oats and potatoes ; andthat towards the N is mainly reclaimed bog or otherwisemossy. In the northern district, the coal cropsout, and there are some 1500 acres of peat-moss. InOld, as in New, Monkland, flax used to be largelycultivated, some of the farmers having each as much asfrom 20 to 30 acres annually under that crop ; but thesystem of agriculture now pursued on the best farms isa four-year rotation of potatoes or turnips, wheat, hay,and oats, with sometimes one year or two of pasture betweenthe hay and the oats.The parish, however, is chiefly remarkable for itsworking of coal and iron. In an account of it publishedbefore the beginning of the present century, oneMONKLAND, OLD'reads : This parish abounds with coal ; and what abenefit it is for Glasgow and its environs to be so amplyprovided with this necessary article ! There are computedto be a greater number of colliers here than inany other parish in Scotland.' The progress in thecoal-trade, since the period alluded to, has been almostmagical ; and as scarce a year passes without new pitsbeing sunk, while the old ones continue in vigorousoperation, it would seem that scarcely any limits canbe set to the vast aggregate production. The pits havea depth of from 30 to 100 fathoms ; and the principalworking seams, according to the New Statistical Accoimt,'are as follow : 1. The Upper coal ; coarse, and seldomworkable ; its average distance above the Ell-coal from14 to 16 fathoms. 2. The Ell or Mossdale coal ; 3 to 4feet thick, of inferior estimation in this parish, andgenerally too thin to work ; but in places a thick coal,and of excellent quality. 3. The Pyotshaw, or Eoughell; from 3 to 5 feet thick, and from 7 to 10 fathomsbelow the Ell-coal. 4. The Main coal. It often uniteswith the above, and forms one seam, as at Drumpellierin this parish. These two seams are thus sometimes inactual contact, and in other instances separated by awide interval of 6 or 7 fathoms. 5. Humph coalseldom thick enough to bo workable in this parish, andgenerally interlaid with fragments of freestone, about10 fathoms below the main coal. 6. Splint-coal ; about4 fathoms below the Humph, and of very superiorquality. It varies from 2 to 5 feet in thickness, and ismostly used for smelting iron. This seam, when ofany considerable thickness, is justly esteemed, whengot by the proprietors here, a great prize. 7. Littlecoal ; always below splint, the distance varying from 3fathoms to 6 feet. It is from 3 to 3J feet in thickness,and is a free, sulphury coal of inferior quality. 8. TheVh'tue-weU or Sour-milk coal, from 2 to 4 feet thick,occurs from 26 to 28 fathoms below the splint. 9. TheEiltongue coal lies 22 fathoms below the Virtue-well,and, like it, is from 2 to 4 feet in thickness. 10. TheDrumgray coal lies 6 fathoms below the Eiltongue, andperhaps from 60 to 100 fathoms above the first or upperband of limestone. It is seldom more than 18 or 20inches thick. There are, besides these 10 seams, about23 smaller seams between them, none of which are ofworkable thickness. The total thickness of the coalmeasuresabove the lime may be about 775 feet.' Thesame account adds : This large and important coalfield'is much intersected with dikes, and a knowledgeof these is a knowledge of the strata, and of the mannerin which they are affected by them.Still more than to its coal, however, is the parish ofOld Monkland, in recent times, indebted to its ironstoneand iron-works ; although it is proper to mentionthat the ore for the supply of the latter is, to a greatextent, drawn from New Monkland. The introductionof the hot air blast (1828), the increasing demand foriron for railway and other purposes, but, above all, theabundant possession of the most valuable of all the ironmetals—the blackband—which contains so much coalas nearly to burn itself—are the main causes which havecontributed to the almost unparalleled advance of OldMonkland in population and prosperity. To the burningof ironstone were added, in 1830 and the followingyears, works and machinery for the manufacture ofmalleable iron ; and these have already risen to comparewith the pig-ironworks, in the proportion of about 30to 100 in the yearly value of their produce. Everywhereare heard the brattling of machinery, the sonorousstroke of mighty hammers, and the hissing and clankingof the steam-engine ; and the flames which perpetuallybelch from the craters of its numerous furnaces,and for miles around light np the country on the darkestnights, have not inappropriately earned for Old Monklandthe title of the Land of ' Fire.' Fortunes have herebeen realised in the iron trade with a rapidity onlyequalled by the sudden and princely gains of the adventurerswho sailed with Pizarro to Peru. It is understood,for example, that the profits of a single establishmentin this line during the year 1840, were nearly £60,000;47