In this course I've used the area of spring burning Glasgow to present the online resources that are available for historical research. And as I mentioned, the fourth and Clyde canal and the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, both influenced the growth of Springburn as an industrial area. Now the small town of bonnybridge lies on the fourth and Clyde canal, about 18 miles east of Springburn. The Edinburgh to Glasgow alone also runs close by today bonnybridge has around 7000 residents. But in the 19th century, it was a major industrial hub, with three railway stations, and many important industries. And their map on the screen here is from OpenStreetMap, and is copyright OpenStreetMap contributors under the Creative Commons license.

Here we can see the fourth and Clyde canal running right through the center of bonnybridge and that was completed to Glasgow as I said, in 17 cents to five we have the Edinburgh Glasgow railway which was opened in 1842 running through the bottom of the screen there. And we have the Scottish Central Railway, which ran from the Edinburgh and Glasgow up to Sterling and in further north to Perth and other destinations and opened in 1848. So the first two questions relate to bonnybridge firstly use the mapping to identify the location of the three railway stations that were in or around bonnybridge. And secondly, identify why the town had three stations. Wikipedia will be a useful resource for this as well. Further two miles east along the fourth and Clyde canal.

We now have the famous Falkirk wheel, which was opened in 2002. The Edinburgh to Glasgow line also runs closest we can see along the bottom of the map there, and the Scottish central line runs along the top there as well. Use the resources presented in the screen. To identify what the site for the wheel was in the past, and explore the site over time, and slide there has a picture of the Falkirk wheel itself very well worth a visit if you haven't been Scotland, and that picture is shared under Creative Commons By Attribution license. Now, you should pause here before we get to the answer to complete the questions. And I'm now going to present a sort of outline answer you may wish to answer in more detail, but this is an outline of the points covered in the question.

Firstly, let's look at this Ordnance Survey map from the 1880s which was from the National Library of Scotland website and this used permission of the National Library of Scotland and we can see the location of the three stations. The first station to open was Bonnie bridge high, which is on the Edinburgh to Glasgow line, and it was opened in 1870. And finally closed in In 1967, so that was the longest running of the stations. The Scottish Central Railway, as I said earlier was opened in 1848. And a branch was built to the canal at bonnybridge in 1886 and a small station was opened on the canal called bonnybridge Canal in 1886, the station close to passengers in 1930 and close to goods in 1964. At this time, there was no bridge over the canal linking Vanya bridge and Hibernia bridge, there was a small wet underpass, which must have been very unpleasant for foot passengers.

The third station in bonnybridge is bonnybridge Central, which was on the Kilsyth and banja bridge railway line, and opened in 1888. The station closed in 1935, and the line was lifted at that time. This was a branch line and was never very successful. If we look on the next map, which is an Ordnance Survey map from the 1930s Also from the National Library Scotland website and us with permission, we see again the location of the three stations still in operation at this time. So this would be towards the end of the life of bonnybridge Central. There's bonnybridge Canal station still in operation again towards probably finished for passengers By this time, but open for good still and bonnybridge high station.

Now if you were traveling to either Edinburgh Glasgow, you would go to bonnybridge ice station which was on the main Edinburgh to Glasgow route. And we'll give you the fastest access to both of those places. The Scottish Central Railway connected with the Edinburgh and Glasgow so you could also get on that the canal station when it was open for passengers to head towards Glasgow, or towards Edinburgh. bonnybridge Central, although it is right in the center of the town is probably the least convenient for passengers because it is a country route and it will take you through many stations before you finally have to change at Killick to change onto the main line into Glasgow and not at all convenient can't get to Edinburgh from that route. All the stations have now closed when the tie was closed in 1967, along with many of the other intermediate stops on the Edinburgh to Glasgow line, so that there are now only about four main stops on that express route.

Bonnybridge Canal station was shot in 1932 passengers in 1964 to goods, and that area is now an industrial estate and bonnybridge Central shut in 1935 and the line was lifted then, and that is now a kind of small public park in the center of the town. Right moving on to the Falkirk wheel then, and here I present the progression of the Falkirk wheel over time. So the first picture is from Bing satellite image Microsoft Corporation, and shows an aerial view of the Falkirk wheel in the modern day. The second picture that I'll put up there is the 1880 Ordnance Survey. First series from the National Library of Scotland site and we can see that the area of the Falkirk wheel is kind of wooded. It looks like there's a mineral line running through it so there were mine workings there about and there's the line Wharf chemical works nearby.

Interestingly, that road is still called lime road. There's no trace remaining of the chemical works today as we can see on the modern map. The third map brought up is Ordnance Survey from 1949. And we can see the chemical works is still there and seems to have expanded somewhat. There's also a number of mineral lines into the area of where the Falkirk wheel is today and the must have been there for mine shafts they're bringing coal for use by the chemical works and the chemical works now we can see it is on a sort of small branch line off the main Edinburgh to Glasgow route. The final map there is the Ordnance Survey seventh edition from the 1950s late 1950s And we can see that it's from a slightly scaled out mode.

We can see at the top of the route the Scottish central railway line heading up towards Sterling. You can see at the bottom there, the Edinburgh to Glasgow mainline, the branch to the chemical works seems to have disappeared. And the line now the chemical works now seems to be attached to the Central Railway. But the chemical works is still there and doesn't disappear until the 1970s. So that's a folk wheel over the ages or the sight of the Falkirk wheel over the ages. And it's a site very well worth visiting.

Okay, thank you. I hope you enjoyed that project. I hope you've enjoyed the course. Thank you for watching.