of Twechar road bridge, for the purpose of forming a connection between collieries on either side of the canal. As part of the deal the coal company agreed to transport a proportion of its coal by canal although this requirement lapsed early in the twentieth century. However, the swing bridge continued in use until the mid-1960s, its hand-winding apparatus having been made redundant on 1 January 1963, when the canal closed. Housing The original housing provided by William Baird & Co soon proved inadequate and around 1880 the Barrhill Rows were constructed at right angles to Main Street, on its western side. At first there were four rows, supplemented by two more about 1900, by which date the total number of dwellings in the rows was 160. The row nearest the canal included a Gartsherrie Co-operative shop and accordingly was known as the 'Store Row'. Initially the houses had no sanitation and were lit by paraffin lamps. Communal wash houses were provided at intervals along each row. Most of the houses were of the two-apartment (room & kitchen) variety. A great improvement was made in 1925, when Baird & Co. (in response to considerable pressure from the miners themselves, over the years) provided good quality modern housing for their mine workers at Burnbrae, Annieston, Sunnyhill and adjacent streets. There were 200 dwellings in all, some two-apartment and some three-apartment, built in two-story blocks of four. They were provided with bathrooms and electric lighting. When these houses were built the old row on the south bank of the canal was demolished. The Barrhill Rows, however, lasted until 1957. The Baird houses of 1925 are currently being demolished and little remains of Burnbrae, Whitelaw Terrace, Shirva lea and Merryflats ( Nov 09 ). Later housing was provided by Dunbartonshire County Council at MacDonald Crescent (1939), Alexander Avenue (1948) and Kelvin View (about 1955). In the 2001 census, the population was recorded as 1,363, a drop of over 9% from the previous census in 1991. Schools The village also had its own secondary education in Twechar School (now Twechar Primary School) until secondary schools in Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch opened and secondary age pupils were sent by bus to these schools. Pupils from Twechar Primary now go on to further education at the new state of the art Kirkintilloch High School. The Roman Catholic children are taught in Kirkintilloch for their primary and at