Kirkconnel's former gasworks site today has a new role as a valued community leisure park with riverside walk and gardens. Named the Bowman Edgar Park in honour of the tightly-knit mining community's local doctor - who served his 5,000 patients single-handed for more than 30 years until his death - the park now offers a range of attractive leisure activities for residents and visitors' use. These include a quoiting area, a putting and crazy golf course, and a riverside walkway where people can watch for the occasional appearance of salmon in the River Nith. New and improved lighting has also been installed, and new access roads and paths have been created.
The game quoits was once highly popular in mining areas like Kirkconnel, but almost died out after the war. The Council's Community Resources Department in conjunction with Kirkconnel Quoiting Association - a new local club - is now reviving this traditional game, and already, the quoiting facility at Bowman Edgar Park is attracting competition events of regional and national status.
Coal-based gas production began in the Dumfriesshire mining village of Kirkconnel in Upper Nithsdale almost 100 years ago. Its gasworks were located in the heart of the small community on the banks of the Nith - one of southern Scotland's best-known salmon rivers. Gas production ceased at the site in the 1970s due to the advent of North sea gas, and by the 1980s, most of the above ground infrastructure and buildings had been levelled. Coal mining was once the chief source of employment in Kirkconnel, and at its peak, accounted for around 2,500 jobs in a village which today has a population of around 2,500 people.
Following an initial programme of geotechnical and environmental investigations to assess the site's remediation needs, National Grid Property worked with Dumfries and Galloway Council in support of the planned regeneration of the riverside site as a community leisure facility.
A key result of the dialogue with the Council was its successful application to the European Community West of Scotland RECHAR Programme for funding to assist the regeneration of former coalfield areas. This attracted European Regional Development Fund assistance of almost £260,00 towards a £500,000 regeneration initiative planned for the site. Other financial contributors were Lattice Group, Dumfries & Galloway Council and Solway Heritage.
In an eight-week programme of works carried out by specialist contractors VHE of Barnsley, more than 6,000 tonnes of contaminated material, including old underground structures and disused storage tanks, was removed from the site for disposal at a licensed landfill facility. A tar well was identified on the site's northern boundary and a zone of tar-contaminated soils encountered up to two metres below the tar well and around the structure. The well and its contents were removed; and quarried stone selected and approved by the Council was imported and placed across the site to appropriate levels and compaction. Dumfries & Galloway Council's landscape engineers advised on the type of subsoil required to complete the restoration and prepare for detailed construction phases.
Due to its proximity to the River Nith, water sampling was conducted both upstream and downstream from the site before, during and following the remediation works to monitor water quality. Laboratory tests showed no evidence of any impact created by the remediation works.
Following completion of the overall remediation programme, site clean up standards were confirmed by conformance and validation testing.
The company and its consulting engineers Montgomery Watson liaised closely with the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) on the remediation design and excavation works proposed for the site. All relevant safeguards to protect the waters of the River Nith were also approved with SEPA, while local representatives of utility companies and the emergency services were fully consulted on the scope of the works.
During the eight week programme, National Grid Property also ensured appropriate communication and dialogue with the local community on the nature and scope of the regeneration initiative.
