NEWS RELEASE – DRAFT
21st October 2013
Young People Lead Excavation of the Nationally Important
Historic Lock Flight in Falkirk
A two hundred year old lock flight which has been buried from view since the
1930s will be excavated by young students at the Scottish Waterway Trust’s
innovative new canal college and brought back to life as a heritage attraction at
The Falkirk Wheel.
The shallow excavation of one of the locks and the trial trenches designed to
locate two other buried locks within the nationally important Falkirk lock flight,
is the ‘signature’ project of the two year canal college initiative.
Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the European Union Interreg IVB North
West Europe programme, Scottish Natural Heritage and Scottish Canals, canal
college has been designed by the Scottish Waterways Trust to help tackle youth
unemployment in Falkirk and Edinburgh.
Through the pioneering initiative, young people between 16 and 25 years of age,
who have not been able to secure a job or place in further education or training,
have the opportunity to gain heritage and environment skills through a wide
range of practical projects outdoors on the Forth & Clyde and Union canals.
The Falkirk flight, which featured eleven locks, connected the Union and Forth
& Clyde canals until it was filled in between the 1930s, when the canals fell into
disuse, and the 1960s, when they were officially closed to navigation. Over the
next two years, the young students on each of the 14 week long programmes
will unearth the first three locks at the top of the flight.
These locks beside the Union Canal remain accessible though the lower section
of the lock flight, beside the Forth & Clyde Canal, was built over during the
1960s.
During the excavation, which is assisted by Scottish Canals’ heritage specialists
and Archaeology Scotland and supported by Historic Scotland, the students
and their volunteer mentors will learn how to archive, research and survey
buried locks and listed structures and discover the engineering behind the
Forth & Clyde and Union canals, which are both Scheduled Ancient
Monuments.
After revealing the coping stones and upper chamber walls during the
vegetation clearance and shallow excavation, the students will survey and
record the condition of what they find.
This baseline research will help Scottish Canals, which recently launched a new
Heritage Strategy, as the organisation considers the long-term preservation of
the lock flight.
Following the excavation and survey work, the excavated lock ‘bed’ will then be
soiled and seeded with grass and wildflowers so that people can visit and enjoy
this new heritage attraction going forward.
It is hoped that following the excavation, canal college students will also help
create interpretation materials telling the story of the lock flight and its modern
day counterpart, The Falkirk Wheel. These materials may include interpretation
boards at the lock flight and guided walks from The Falkirk Wheel.
Karen Moore, Chief Executive of the Scottish Waterways Trust, says:
“canal college has been designed to equip young people who are furthest from
the job market with a wide range of heritage and environment skills. The
learning opportunities of working on such an important and exciting live
heritage project like this are fantastic.
“The students will gain invaluable experience in helping preserve an important
part of the rich heritage of the Scottish canal network. They will also gain the
satisfaction of creating a new heritage attraction which will be enjoyed by the
communities of Falkirk as well as the 400,000 visitors welcomed by The Falkirk
Wheel each year.”
Chris O’Connell, Heritage Advisor at Scottish Canals, adds:
“Not only is this a very interesting and educative project for the canal college
students, but it is an important initial investigation into the condition of the
lock flight which will help inform Scottish Canals future approach to the
maintenance needs of this historic canal feature, as well as enhancing the
visitor experience.”
Cara Jones, Archaeology Scotland Project Officer, adds:
“Archaeology Scotland is delighted to be part of canal college. Not only is this
signature project recording the baseline condition of a nationally important
monument, it is helping young people develop transferable skills and gain a
better understanding of Scotland’s very important industrial and commercial
heritage and world-leading civil engineering.”
In addition to working on the signature project, volunteer participants and their
volunteer mentors at canal college undertake a wide range of practical projects.
Topics include landscaping, tree planting and vegetation management, wildlife
conservation, trail creation, canal engineering, maintenance and management.
The students and their mentors also work towards a number of awards to boost
their CV, including the Saltire Volunteer Award, John Muir Award (Discovery
level), Youth Achievement Award (Bronze level) and canal college Award.
Help with job seeking and interview skills is also given.
Issued on behalf the Scottish Waterways Trust by
Joanna Harrison: 07884 187404
Notes to Editors : The History of the Falkirk Lock Flight
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The Forth & Clyde Canal opened in 1790. Known as ‘the Great Canal’ in the
early years, the waterway connected east and west coasts, between Bowling on
the Firth of Clyde and Grangemouth on the Firth of Forth, with a short spur into
Glasgow.
The Union Canal, which extends between Edinburgh and Falkirk, was built to
transfer coal from the west into the capital. The waterway opened in 1822 and
connected to the Forth & Clyde Canal through the original flight of eleven locks
at Falkirk.
When the Forth & Clyde and Union canals, both Scheduled Ancient Monuments,
were reopened through the £83.5m Lottery funded Millennium Link Project over
a decade ago, the top section of the flight of eleven locks had been built over so
an alternative method of connecting the canals was sought.
Whilst the original lock flight took a day to travel through, the world’s only
rotating boatlift, The Falkirk Wheel, now lifts boats between the canals in a
matter of minutes using only the electricity required to boil eight kettles and
Archimedes principle of water displacement.
The entrance to the lock flight at Lock 16 on the Forth & Clyde Canal at Port
Downie became a hub for industries including metal and chemical works,
distilleries and inns. These included the Union Inn which was listed on the first
edition Ordnance Survey map of 1860 and which still stands today and is
recognised as a B listed building.
Lock 10, the first lock to be excavated, was originally 69 feet long, 12 feet 6
inches wide and 10 feet deep.