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Orion Pit

Cambuslang Industrial Estate, Cambuslang Road, Carmyle, City of Glasgow (Lanarkshire).

Coal Pit marked on 25" OS map, 1858, next to a bridge croosing the River Clyde

Old shaft marked on Geological survey maps, 1896 & 1911.

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: Not in Cambuslang but immediately north of the River Clyde from Cambuslang across the Rosebank Bridge.

Rosebank Bridge was originally amineral railway bridgebut is now a pedestrian bridge leading to Bridge Street, Cambuslang.

The rail bridge burned down in 1919 and was replaced by the concrete Cambuslang Footbridge built in 1977. [This at first sight does not seem correct as the footbridge stands east of an older steel framed bridge. The structure of the bridge suggests a rail bridge built earlier than 1977.]

The western bridge shows signs of having been a road bridge but was constructed in the same style as a railway bridge. Its steel girder construction tells of its railway heritage and it seems too narrow and lacks pavements (footways) for a road bridge. However, the 1898 OS map clearly shows a road bridge (with a single track road and footpath) parallel to the original eastern timber mineral railway bridge.

Cambuslang Bridge referred to as Clyde Bridge and later Orion Bridge, was built in 1892 by Crouch & Hogg, using the steel lattice girder structure used in rail bridges but historical maps do not show it ever having been used by a railway. For 80 years it was the main road north to Tollcross and was the only such crossing in that part of the city, but weight restrictions meant it became unsuitable for heavy use and in 1976 a replacement was built upstream. Vehicles continued to use the bridge until 1986 when the Bogleshole Road Bridge was built around half a mile downstream. [History of Cambuslang]

'Nothing is now visible of a wooden railway bridge that was built in the 1850s to carry coal across the River Clyde from coal pits on the south bank at Cambuslang to the Clyde Iron Works (NS66 SW259) to the north. It spanned 60m and was known as the Rosebank Bridge, after Rosebank House (NS66 SW259) located 130m to the SW, as depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Lanark 1864, Sheet XI.5). It was also known as the Orion Bridge, after a naval tragedy involving a paddle steamer of the same name in which George Burns, who owned Rosebank House at this time, lost his brother John'. [WSAS]

A bridge is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Lanarkshire 1864, sheet xi) carring a mineral railway serving a number of coal mines and the Clyde Iron works (NS66SW 259).

Hume's photographs of the bridge shows that it is of a lattice girder design similar to that used by railway engineers. It seem likely that the railway bridge was converted for road traffic some time before Hume's photograph of 1977. [WSAS/Trove.Scot]

The Orion Pit (on the north bank) was named after the same tragedy (but possibly only indirectly - it could have taken its name from the bridge).

Orion was a G & J Burns paddle steamer, built by Caird & Co in 1847, which struck a submerged rock and sank off Portpatrick Lighthouse, Wigtownshire, on 18 June 1850 on her way from Liverpool to Glasgow, with the loss of 41 of the 200 passengers on board. The eminent surgeon John Burns was one of the passengers killed in the accident. Among the survivors were John McNeill, who would go on to reach the rank of Major General serving the British Army in India, also winning the Victoria Cross, and his brother Alexander, a future Independent Member of Parliament - though both their parents and two sister perished in the wreck. Some of the survivors were rescued by the Isle of Man vessel Fenella, others by boats from Portpatrick. Her captain was found guilty of the "culpable bereavement of the lives of the passengers" and was imprisoned for 18 months. Her second mate was transported. The incident was described in the 1851 book The wreck of the Orion, a Tribute of Gratitude by Reverend Joseph Clarke, who was one of the survivors. Reverend Edward Lyon Berthon was inspired to invent the collapsible Berthon Boat in the years after in order to allow ships like Orion to carry more lifeboats. [wikipedia]

Rosebank House was demolished in 1938.

Hydrographic Feeds: None

Hydrographic Resurgences: None