Beard Bros Mineral Lines; no info I can find

[Ivatt5MT]

G'day all,

I was doing a history of the Bonnybridge rail network (where I live) and ran into a roadblock. A line marked on my map called the Beard Bros Mineral Lines is completely unfindable on the web. I'm soon going to visit my local library and have a nose around, but currently I'd be grateful for any information relating to this line any of you can provide me with. I'm guessing it's a line stretching from a mine back to the mainline, but I've got no idea what the mine is or anything about it. All that comes up when I search "Beard Bros Mineral Lines" on Google is a load of shaving products, and Google Advanced Search said it couldn't find anything with the keywords "Beard Bros Mineral Lines Bonnybridge Railway" and excluding the words "Cream Shaving Product". Can anybody help me here? This is going to trouble me greatly.

Thank you!

 

[Lloyds siding]

G'day all,

I was doing a history of the Bonnybridge rail network (where I live) and ran into a roadblock. A line marked on my map called the Beard Bros Mineral Lines is completely unfindable on the web. I'm soon going to visit my local library and have a nose around, but currently I'd be grateful for any information relating to this line any of you can provide me with. I'm guessing it's a line stretching from a mine back to the mainline, but I've got no idea what the mine is or anything about it. All that comes up when I search "Beard Bros Mineral Lines" on Google is a load of shaving products, and Google Advanced Search said it couldn't find anything with the keywords "Beard Bros Mineral Lines Bonnybridge Railway" and excluding the words "Cream Shaving Product". Can anybody help me here? This is going to trouble me greatly.

Thank you!

A quick Google brings up several references to 'Baird Brothers' mineral lines in the vicinity of Bonnybridge. Does your map have a spelling mistake?

 

[zwk500]

Googling 'Bonnybridge Mineral Lines' led me to the following two Wikipedia pages:

Kilsyth and Bonnybridge railway - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Kelvin Valley Railway - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The maps on these pages label the lines as both 'Beard bros' and 'Baird Bros'. Search for Baird Bros railway led me to the following Archive page: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/b81493d2-33d3-3ff8-9111-4aabde15e503

 

[MisterSheeps]

Railscot has a section on Bonnybridge ( https://www.railscot.co.uk/locations/B/Bonnybridge/ ), mentions lines to various fireclay mines & brickworks, most seemed to be owned by Stein or Dougall. The Bairds (of Gartshore) coal mining was further west, Kilsyth & Twechar. This ( https://www.tompaterson.co.uk/mining/mining_stirlingshire.htm ) is useful for the mine owners.

 

[Ivatt5MT]

Googling 'Bonnybridge Mineral Lines' led me to the following two Wikipedia pages:

Kilsyth and Bonnybridge railway - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Kelvin Valley Railway - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The maps on these pages label the lines as both 'Beard bros' and 'Baird Bros'. Search for Baird Bros railway led me to the following Archive page: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/b81493d2-33d3-3ff8-9111-4aabde15e503

Both maps I can find label it as Beard Bros. However, the line in the map under the name "Baird Bros" does match up with my one.

At the bottom left you can see Beard Bros Mineral Lines. Possibly the line could've changed hands or the mine went under new ownership? This map is from 1888, and your map is from 1879. It's a short window of time but it's not completely implausible.

Railscot has a section on Bonnybridge ( https://www.railscot.co.uk/locations/B/Bonnybridge/ ), mentions lines to various fireclay mines & brickworks, most seemed to be owned by Stein or Dougall. The Bairds (of Gartshore) coal mining was further west, Kilsyth & Twechar. This ( https://www.tompaterson.co.uk/mining/mining_stirlingshire.htm ) is useful for the mine owners.

Your second link led me to this. I'm going to google this and report back ASAP.


This site, called Graces Guide, has a huge history on this. We've just struck gold!

William Baird and Co - Graces Guide

www.gracesguide.co.uk

 

[zwk500]

At the bottom left you can see Beard Bros Mineral Lines. Possibly the line could've changed hands or the mine went under new ownership? This map is from 1888, and your map is from 1879. It's a short window of time but it's not completely implausible.

I think it's highly plausible, even in 1879, that Baird/Beard is a simple corruption of the same name depending on which clerk had written it down. It may even be an error in reading the name of an earlier document, or a desire to standardise paperwork with the 'proper English' spelling.

 

[Ivatt5MT]

That's true, too; I was wondering why a bloke in 1888 sat down and thought that he wanted to call his company the Beard Bros!

I messaged the archives that @zwk500 mentioned via email, and they replied very quickly, telling me that I can view further archives on this topic in their Thurso reading room. Interestingly, the person who replied (who I may mention seemed to be a real person, not an automated reply) called the Baird Brothers the "Beard Bros". It could be:
1. It was actually called the Beard Bros, and had been converted to a more professional sounding Baird Brothers in documents, since it was founded by brothers under the Baird surname (as far as I can tell).
2. Auto-correct is weird like that.
3. In my E-Mail I called it the "Beard Bros" but I specifically stated it was incorrectly marked as the aforementioned on many maps.

Beard Bros Mineral Lines or Baird Brothers Mineral Lines? Personally I think that Baird Brothers is more likely. Back then a name like Beard Bros would be weird, unorthodox, vulgar even. The fact that many companies nowadays go under Beard Bros and sell shaving items makes, if it was called Beard Bros, everything that little bit harder.

 

[Lloyds siding]

Baird spoken by a Scot sounds like 'Beard' (to English ears). I speak as someone with a Scots name that is usually misspelt by English folk (I'm English btw).
My ancestors probably worked in the Bairds' coal mines.

 

[Ivatt5MT]

Very true, but if you were plotting a map, I think you'd want to make sure you got it exactly right. However, it certainly does depend on who is plotting it. English blokes would probably write it as Beard if told the name by a Scotsman, speaking as a Scot myself.

 

[matchmaker]

I've just noticed in the 1969 Sectional Appendix that there was a signal box called "Bairds Siding" between Lenzie and Gartshore. It will have been closed when the western end of the line was resignalled in the early 1970s in preparation for the introduction of the push-pull srvices.