Calderbank Steel Works
Location type
WorksNames and dates
Calderbank Iron Works (1835-1887)Calderbank Steel Works (1890-1930)
Served by the Calderbank Iron Company.
Description
This iron works was located to the south east of Whifflet, close to the end of the Monkland Canal (1794), the Legbrannock Railway (and its successors) and the Calderbank branch of the Monkland Railways (1855).
This was a malleable iron works making rails and plates. 6 blast furnaces (including two old square ones?) were built on a south west to north east alignment. The charging side was to the north west., approached by a fan of lines from the north. Between the furnaces and North Calder Water were the casting and rolling sheds.
It closed in 1887 and reopened as a purpose built steel works by James Dunlop & Co Ltd. The North Calder Water was culverted under the north end of the works. Plate from the works was used for the RMS Queen Mary, built by John Brown & Company over 1930-.1934
The works was taken over by Colvilles Ltd. Closure came in 1930 during a restructuring brought on by the depression.
Tags
Iron works steel worksExternal links
Canmore site recordNLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
12/04/2022
| Nearby stations Calderbank Chapelhall Cairnhill Bridge Newhouse Drumgelloch [1st] Airdrie Airdrie [CR] Airdrie Hallcraig Street Drumgelloch Carnbroe Calder Mossend Clarkston (Lanark) Holytown [1st] Calder Iron Works [Station] | Monkland Iron and Steelworks Calderbank Viaduct Coal Pit Woodend Colliery [Calderbank] Ironstone Pit Calderbank Steel Works Junction Mine Coal and Ironstone Pit Ironstone Pit Coal and Ironstone Pit Coal and Ironstone Pit Faskine Basin Chapelhall Iron Works Coal Pit Tourist/other Monkland House |
| Location names in dark blue are on the same original line. | |
Chronology Dates
| / /1839 | Monkland Iron and Steel Company Malleable ironworks opened at the existing Calderbank Iron Works. |
| /11/1855 | Calderbank Iron Works Branch (Monkland Railways) Opened from Calderbank Branch Junction to Calderbank Iron Works. |
| /11/1855 | Armadale Branch (Monkland Railways) Line opened. Many mines around Armadale were owned by the Monkland Iron and Steel Company of the Calderbank Iron Works. |
| / /1881 | Airdrie Branch (Caledonian Railway) Authorisation for the Airdrie Branch granted - one of a group of lines called the Lanarkshire Lines. The Airdrie Branch was to run via Whifflet Upper on the Rutherglen and Coatbridge Branch (Caledonian Railway) to Airdrie [CR]. The 'Loop' or 'Lanarkshire Lines' were to run from Airdrie [CR] to Newhouse and beyond, making connection with the existing mineral lines, Salsburgh Branch (Caledonian Railway), near Omoa. Branches to Chapelhall Iron Works, Calderbank Iron Works and Gartness, serving the Gartness Malleable Iron Works, also authorised. |
| / /1886 | Airdrie Branch (Caledonian Railway) The Chapelhall Iron Works closed in 1886, consequently the iron works branch was partly abandoned (retained as a reversing spur for Calderbank Steel Works). |
| 01/09/1887 | Airdrie Branch (Caledonian Railway) Cairnhill Junction to Chapelhall opened. Calderbank Iron Works branch opened. Chapelhall Iron Works branch opened (partially - the iron works closed the previous year). |
