Blair Lodge School (c) Falkirk Archives & Museums

Just opposite the landing stage at Polmont there was an elite public school, Blair Lodge Academy, where the prison is today. It opened in 1843 and had 300 students in the 1890s. Sports were a major part of school life with 100 acre grounds bordering the canal. On a map from 1899 there is a landing stage and a footbridge on the canal by the school. Life here must have been quite a contrast to the pit workers at Redding Colliery just further along the canal.

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