COATBRIDGE - The Town That Built Scotland

From the early 19th century right up until the 1960s Coatbridge was a major centre for the production of iron in Scotland. It was, as my 'Blue Guide to Scotland' says, 'the chief centre of the Scottish iron trade.' At its height there were over 50 blast furnaces lighting up the night sky and turning night into day.

But things change. Steel took over from iron for many construction projects, and the focus of Scotland's new industry - the manufacture of steel - shifted to Motherwell.

In this video we examine the importance of Coatbridge in supplying iron for Scotland's industrial revolution; iron that was used to build steam-engines in Glasgow, and to build the great ships and liners once built and launched on the River Clyde. For without Coatbridge, Glasgow would probably never have become the second city of the great British Empire.

We also look at the role of the Monklands Canal in moving coal from coal-pits in the Monklands area to Glasgow, and to bring both coal and iron ore along canal branches to iron works in and around Coatbridge. Branches like the Gartsherrie, Hornock and Summerlee canal branch that fed the iron works at Summerlee and Gartsherrie, the latter once the largest iron works in the world.

Summerlee Iron Works was itself the largest in Scotland; at least for a while, and lasted about 100 years between the 1830s and 1930s before closing down and being demolished. The remains of Summerlee lay buried under piles of industrial waste for around 50 years before being uncovered. Those ruins can be seen today in the Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, within whose grounds much of the video was shot.

We also examine changes in the landscape in and around Coatbridge, and how the many rows of workers cottages attached to coal mines and iron works did not survive the test of time, the buildings and their street layout now obliterated and hidden under modern housing schemes.

This is a video about a lost industry, a lost way of life, and a huge part of Scotland's industrial past that has gone.