Shale Miners.....

Agnes · Post by **Agnes** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:37 am

Hello can anyone tell me about the villages of Inkerman and Balclava outside Paisley. Is there a site I can look up My ancestors came from there.

Hopeful--- Agnes

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:34 am

Agnes wrote:Hello can anyone tell me about the villages of Inkerman and Balclava outside Paisley. Is there a site I can look up My ancestors came from there.

Hopeful--- Agnes

Hi Agnes

Where did you get the info that shale mining was involved?, - as far as I'm aware that was restricted to the The Lothians (although "Paraffin" Young was a Glaswegian

)

Have a look at http://www.scottishironwork.org/replies.asp?ID=95 which refers to iron-stone mining...............

David

WilmaM · Post by **WilmaM** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 10:38 am

Inkerman -

Just East of Linwood. Currently somewhere around the A737 from Glasgow Airport and the Greenock railway line !

If you look at http://www.old-maps.co.uk/

got to Gazetteer - Renfrewshire - Linwood - and then a couple of clicks east and check the enlarged view Inkerman is between West & East Candren. The 2 pits nearby [Douglas and CAndren] are Ironstone. [1864]

or go to:
http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/map/ea ... _list.html
sheet 30 [Glasgow] and zoom into the large yellow patch at the bottom where it meets the green parish on the North west. [1898]

Balaclava -

The web site David posted says that that was near Clippens - That's on the North West side of Linwood.
There are Pits aplenty - Coal, Ironstone and a quarry - around there but no sign of a Balaclava village on either of the above maps .

Neither of the names seem to have been reused in streets etc in the local area either.

Should I come across anything more I'll post it .

Falkyrn · Post by **Falkyrn** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:17 am

"About a half a mile north-west (now today's Clippens area) was another mining community named Balaclava, while yet another mining village, this time a mile to the east was born. This too was named after a battle in the Crimea, Inkerman, and like the other two it consisted of four rows of houses, a school and a company store."

a quote from http://www.happyhaggis.co.uk/linwood.htm

WilmaM · Post by **WilmaM** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:33 am

A paragraph further down that page posted by Falkryn is interesting:

The pits around the Clippens area were mostly mining ironstone, with the primary goal being blackband and blueband ironstone. Shale was a by-product. and thought worthless until James ‘Paraffin’ Young discovered that mineral oil could be extracted by a process of distillation and by the mid-1880’s the Clippens Shale Oil Company was in full swing. His discovery lead to the development of the paraffin lamp. He lived for a while at the Clippens Villa. By 1900 the factory had vanished but the local brickworks used the spent shale, after the oil had been extracted from it, to make blaes bricks. Shale-oil mining in the area resulted in many narrow-gauge mineral railway lines being laid across Linwood Moss.

I wasn't aware that there was shale oil producd in the west.

Agnes · Post by **Agnes** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:31 am

Many Many thanks for all the information and terriffic sites. I had a great day yesterday looking at them.

David I heard about Shale from my father when I was a child he was reard in Inkerman, I must have thought it was a mine.

Thanks again to you all for your help so glad I joined.

Happy Agnes

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:48 am

Just goes to show that assumptions are dangerous

In all that I've ever heard and read about shale mining and processing, the boiography of Sir James (Paraffin) Young (1811 - 1883), and the development of the fractional distillation process, - I'm a chemical engineer, - I'd never come across mention of shale extraction and processing outside the Lothians

Incidentally, Paraffin Young took out patents on his fractional distillation process and successfully sued a number of Texans for breach of patent

David

Agnes · Post by **Agnes** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:04 am

Well David, looks like we both learned something. I am going to read about Sir James Pararffin Young. Glad I asked the question

Agnes

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:35 pm

Agnes wrote:Well David, looks like we both learned something. I am going to read about Sir James Pararffin Young. Glad I asked the question

Agnes

Agnes

There you go

David

WilmaM · Post by **WilmaM** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:50 pm

Agnes wrote:Well David, looks like we both learned something. I am going to read about Sir James Pararffin Young. Glad I asked the question

Agnes

I'm glad you asked too - I've a few more bits of useless information up my sleeve

TalkingScot.com

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