The Canal Bridge, Temple

In a previous post I described the site of Temple Saw Mills (link) which was on the land to the west of Bearsden Road, between the Forth Clyde Canal and the railway line.  As I researched this I became interested in the bridge over the canal which is so wide and straight today that you barely notice it, but it has at least two surprises.

The first surprise is that when it as built, the canal was very much a working waterway and not all canal boat were barges with engines; some still had masts and these had to be allowed access.  So the bridge is actually a bascule bridge (to my simple understanding, a drawbridge with a counterweight).  Here it is open:

As we can see the gasometers in the background, the photo must have been taken looking east, and hence the counterweight mechanism is under the south approach to the bridge.

Gongs and lights warned motorists it was about to open, and electrically operated gates at each end shut the road.  It took 115 seconds for the bridge to raise from horizontal to its maximum height.  The whole procedure including stopping traffic took two-and-a-half minutes (although this assumed promptness on the part of the boat or boats passing through).

The ceremony to allow traffic across was on 17th October 1932.  The approaches and bridge cost £75,000 and the new bridge itself weighed 100 tons.  It was (and presumably still is!) a single span, 55 feet long and 60 feet wide 9so virtually square), allowing a roadway 40 feet wide.  It was designed by the City Engineer, Thomas Somers, and built by William Arroll and Co Limited, probably at the Dalmarnock Iron Works - although how a 100-ton bridge made the seven mile journey is not described.

This seems to show the bridge under construction, taken from the area of Lock 27 looking west.  (Can anyone confirm the style of hat the young girl is wearing fits with a date of 1932?)

The photo is taken from the west side of the bridge looking east with the lock gates visible - timber from the Temple saw mill is visible on the far bank of the canal.

I promised two surprises and the second is what it replaced; the obvious expectation is that it was an older and less sturdy version of the 1932 bridge.  But not so, the new bridge was part of a £180,000 scheme that extended down to Anniesland Cross and laid down Bearsden Road parallel to the existing Crow Road, including cutting through existing timber yards south of the canal and involving the demolition of several houses.

If you were heading south from Canniesburn Toll you would be on the road in the middle of the map and at the very top.  You would come past Redholm and Temple View, heading down a steep slope and under the railway line, but you would then immediately have to turn sharp left, a bit like this:

You would then go past the houses and immediately after them, turn sharp right:

This would have taken you to the pre-1932 bridge.  

From the south end, the bridge is commemorated at the top of Crow Road:

The board says a little about the old bridge (which went over the middle of the lock!) but if you look closely you can see the photo used is the 1932 bridge that carries the modern road.

So what DID the old bridge look like?  From 1930 aerial photos we can get a reasonable idea:

This shows the journey I have just tried to describe, entering the photo top middle heading south, under the railway bridge (noticeably narrower than it is today), sharp left, past the houses and sharp right - and there is the pre-1932 bridge.  

This part of the canal was one the later parts to be completed, so probably around the latter half of the 1780s and while we have no image of it I imagine the 1790 bridge lasting over a century, carrying foot traffic and light carts.  In 1908 its replacement was being discussed but cost was a factor, as the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald reported on 29th May 1908:

On 6th June 1909 the replacement work went ahead - this was a Sunday so men working on this day was (presumably) quite a big deal at a time when the Sabbath as a day of rest was widely respected:

So in 1932 motor traffic including buses was passing over a bridge with dimensions suited to 1790.  We have a hint of this from the 1930 aerial photos:

Note a pedestrian in black crossing the bridge to give an idea of its size.

As an example of the consequences, on 9th November 1928 the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald carried this report of an incident the previous Sunday (the 4th):

While the 1930 aerial photos do not show anything as dramatic as bus passengers walking across the lock gates, we can see a bus waiting its turn to cross from north to south:

The new route through Temple referred to in the final paragraph of the 1928 news report above was discussed in the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald of 17th May 1921:

I have not produced the rest of the article; in brief, the scheme also required changes to the bridge carrying the railway over the road (I suspect this involved widening the bridge on the east side) and the demolition of several buildings including two houses on Temple Road:

Numbers 6 and 10 Temple Road can be seen at the top, numbers 2 and 4 having been demolished in 1932.  The site of the old bridge would have been just to the right of the lock gate.

And finally, after much searching, here is the only close-up photo I know of that shows the bridge that served from 1909 to 1932:

From the Daily Record and Mail, 4th August 1925, showing very clearly why pedestrians could not use the bridge at the same time as a car was crossing.  I think the camera must have been on the north bank, looking back towards Temple Place.