stirling-1963-vol-1/05_091

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : THE MIDDLE AGES AND LATER
sailings a day from Edinburgh to Glasgow, with connections by coach for Stirling, Bridge of
Allan, Dunblane, Crieff and Perth. A rate of nine miles per hour was claimed for the boats. ¹
Mention should also be made of the works (No. 555) carried out on the River Carron to
improve the navigability of its lowermost reaches, together with the private canal leading to
the navigable water from the Carron Iron Works; and with these may be classed the channel
by which Airth harbour was approached (No. 557). Embankments for the control of flooding
on the River Kelvin are noted under No. 554; others for the reclamation of saltings under
No. 556; and large artificial lades on pp. 438ff.

RAILWAYS
The development of the system of railways throughout the county is outlined under No. 558,
and it will suffice to draw attention here to the two earliest examples - the Slamannan Railway,
authorised in 1835, and the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, authorised in 1838. Their most
interesting structural features are the viaducts mentioned on p. 51, and the terminal yard
on the Union Canal (No. 559); while the stone blocks, used for carrying the rails before the
introduction of wooden sleepers, are noted on pp. 404 and 441. A colliery railway dating from
before the invention of steam locomotives is mentioned under No. 560, and others are known
from record. ²

MINES AND QUARRIES ³
Coal was exploited in the Lothians at least as early as the beginning of the 13th century ⁴ and,
as the Stirlingshire seams would have been easy to recognise where they outcropped to the
surface, there is no reason to suppose that they were not similarly known and worked. ⁵ In
general, the earliest workings were simply dug in along seams exposed in the sides of burns
or gullies. This method was later improved upon by the sinking, from the surface, of vertical
shafts, the lower ends of which were expanded into bell-shaped cavities; and when each
cavity reached its largest practicable size it was disused and a new shaft was sunk near by.
Drainage and roof-support were permanent difficulties. Between 1450 and 1550 the demand
for coal, originally very small, began to show some increase; and between 1550 and 1700
production expanded very much, various technical improvements being introduced. Much of
the coal was no doubt used fairly close to the pits, ⁶ if only on account of the lack of good
roads, though it was also exported where access could be got to the sea. ⁷ The exploitation, and
export overseas, of coal by Bruce of Airth at the end of the 16th century is mentioned under
No. 564, and Sibbald, in 1707, mentions coal at Quarrel, Kinnaird, Bannockburn, Airth,
Auchenbowie and Callendar. ⁸ The parish minister of Campsie believed that coal had been

1 Ibid., 163 ff., where a time-table and fares are quoted.
2 Dott, G., Early Scottish Colliery Wagonways, St. Margaret's Technical Press, 1947, 30 f.
3 Except as otherwise stated, the facts given here about the early mining of coal are taken from the National Coal Board,
Scottish Division, A Short History of the Scottish Coal-Mining Industry, 34 ff.
4 Newbattle, Nos. 66, 68 (pp. 53 f.); Innes, C., Sketches of Early Scotch History, 132.
5 For the use of coal in Roman forts on the Antonine Wall see Antiquaries Journal, xxxv (1955), 205. The forts in question
were from three to four miles distant from the nearest outcrops of the Coal Measures.
6 E.g. Callendar in 1723, "In this wood are very good coal-pits, which serves the village and countrey about at very reasonable
prices" (Geogr. Collections, i, 319).
7 Ibid., 330.8 Sibbald, History, 47-9, 55.
8 Sibbald, History, 47-9, 55.

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