The Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal, later known as the Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone Canal, was a canal in the west of Scotland, running between Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone which later became a railway. Despite the name, the canal was never completed down to Ardrossan, the termini being Port Eglinton in Glasgow and Thorn Brae in Johnstone. Within months of opening, the canal was the scene of a major disaster.
Construction
The canal was first proposed by Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton in 1791. He wanted to connect the booming industrial towns of Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone to his new deep sea port at Ardrossan and his Ayrshire coal fields. His fellow shareholders included William Dixon of Govan who wished to export coal from his Govan colliery. The Earl had spent £100,000 on creating Ardrossan's harbour and intended to make it the principal port for Glasgow. This bill allowed for funding to be raised by the sale of two thousand eight hundred shares of £50 each, a total of £140,000, of which the proprietors, the Earl of Eglinton, Lord Montgomerie and Lady Jane Montgomerie subscribed £30,000.
Construction began in 1807 and the first boat, the passenger boat, The Countess of Eglinton, was launched on 31 October 1810. The passenger service initially only ran between Paisley and Johnstone. The full length to Glasgow's Port Eglinton was complete sometime in 1811. The original plans to extend the canal to Ardrossan were soon suspended. The costs of completing the first contour canal had consumed all the available funds – the initial estimates having been grossly understated. Further estimates indicated that £300,000 additional funding would need to be secured to complete the project. Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton, had already spent £100,000 on a separate project to build a sea harbour at Ardrossan, at the proposed terminus of the canal. The harbour project would eventually be competed by his grandson, the 13th Earl, for a total cost of £200,000. Attempts were made to raise extra funds but other major investors, such as William Houston, were reluctant to invest as the canal already linked his own coal and iron mines, around Johnstone, to Glasgow and Paisley.
Operation
thumb|right|location of Port Eglinton
The canal ran from Port Eglinton; and an inn was built there in 1816. A wharf was built on the north bank of the White Cart near Crookston Castle; and canal basins provided at Paisley and Johnstone.
The Paisley canal passage boats were long and wide. With 90 passengers on board their draft was . The hull was constructed of light iron ribs and thin metal plates. The cabin was covered with oiled cloth. They covered the between Glasgow and Paisley in 50 minutes. They were towed by teams of two horses which were changed every .
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Fast, narrow, iron hulled boats of an innovative design and pulled by 6 horses allowed 80 to 100 passengers to travel at a rate of 10 miles per hour. An extraordinary speed at the time. The price of just one penny per mile for first class and three farthings per mile for the second class cabins was also highly competitive – less than half that charged by the new Liverpool Railway. At its height, in 1834, boats carried 397,375 passengers during the year. In July and August of that year, 2,500 passengers were recorded in just one day. -->
Deaths on the canal
A few months before the canal saw its first traffic, poet Robert Tannahill drowned himself during a bout of depression, by throwing himself into a deep pit which carries the water of a stream down to a culvert under the canal. This came to be known as Tannahills Hole. A group of his poems had just been rejected by an Edinburgh publisher. He was well known for periods of depression. He burned many of his writings at this time. His body was found on 17 May 1810 in the Candren Burn tunnel under the canal.
Shortly after the canal's opening, the Paisley canal disaster took the lives of 84 people, 52 males and 32 females. Saturday 10 November 1810 was the Martinmas Fair. Many people, with the day off work, took the opportunity to travel the short distance of by canal between Paisley and Johnstone. As The Countess of Eglinton docked at the Paisley wharf, there was a rush of people trying to get onto the boat. In 1840, the canal handled of goods.
Profitability
The construction costs were so high that the canal never made an issue of dividend on its shares. Even after 20 years of operations, the accounts showed an outstanding debt of £71,208, 17 shillings and 6 pence.
Canal versus railway
In 1827, a second bill passed Parliament and gained royal assent on 14 June as the Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal and Railway Act 1827 (7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. lxxxvii).