MineArchiveGreenrigg Colliery pithead fire
| Date | 1925 (or 1924) |
|---|---|
| Mine | Greenrigg Colliery |
| Region | West Lothian |
| Type | Fire |
| Fatalities | 0 (No deaths are reported in any source read; the incident is recorded for the escape, not for loss of life.) |
| Injuries | None are reported in the sources read. |
| Context | During active mining (A working United Collieries pit twenty years into its life, with several hundred men employed and its workings joined underground to the neighbouring Southrigg pits.) |
A fire at the pithead of Greenrigg Colliery, between Harthill and Fauldhouse, destroyed the surface buildings and headframes while men were underground. With the shafts out of use they walked out through the connecting workings into Southrigg Colliery. No one is recorded as killed or hurt. The pit was rebuilt and worked until 1960.
Cause
Not recorded in the sources read. Neither the inventory entry nor the local history says how the fire started.
Contributing factors
Nothing is recorded. What made the fire serious was that it took the headframes, so the men below could not be wound up the shafts.
What happened
Greenrigg was United Collieries' deep pit of 1905, east of Greenrigg farm on the Polkemmet lands, with two shafts of 143 metres and between three and four hundred people through the 1920s. In the middle of that decade a fire broke out at the pithead. Historic Environment Scotland's inventory entry, compiled by Miles Oglethorpe in 2006, puts it in 1925 and says it destroyed all the surface buildings; the Harthill local history summarised on Wikishire puts it in 1924 and says it took most of the surface buildings and the headframes. The two accounts are a year apart and no contemporary report has been read to settle it. Men were underground when the headgear went. With no way up their own shafts they made their way through the workings into the neighbouring Southrigg Colliery, whose Nos 3 and 4 pits had been driven to link up with Greenrigg's roads and which in 1924 had over four hundred men below ground of its own. How many came out that way, and how long it took, is not recorded in anything read for this record.
Rescue & recovery
The escape was self-rescue through a connecting passage into Southrigg Colliery near Shotts, according to the local history. No rescue operation, brigade attendance or casualty list has been found.
Investigation & inquiry
No inquiry or inspector's account of the fire has been found. The Mines Department's annual reports for 1924 and 1925 and the local newspapers of the time have not been read, and are the places it would be recorded if it was.
Legal & regulatory aftermath
None has been found.
Changes to practice & legislation
None is recorded. The pit was rebuilt on the same site and in May 1930 pithead baths, the first in West Lothian, were opened there by the Miners' Welfare Committee.
Memorials & commemoration
None is known. The colliery closed in 1960 and its site is now waste ground, woodland and the reworked bing.
Recorded claims
Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.
- Canmore's inventory entry (Oglethorpe 2006) records a pithead fire in 1925 that destroyed all the surface buildings. (disputed) 1
- The Wikishire account of Harthill, drawing on Lightbody's Harthill Through the Years (1997), dates the fire to 1924 and says it destroyed most of the surface buildings and the headframes. (disputed) 2
- The men underground had to escape through a connecting passage to Southrigg Colliery near Shotts; the pit was reconstructed and continued in operation until 1960. 2
- The underground workings of Southrigg Nos 3 and 4 pits had been extended to link up with Greenrigg pit; Southrigg Nos 3 and 4 employed 406 underground and 88 surface workers in 1924. 3,4
- Pithead baths, provided by the Miners' Welfare Committee, were formally opened at the rebuilt Greenrigg Colliery in May 1930, the first in West Lothian. 5
Related terminology
Mining terms this disaster is structurally linked to, with the nature of the relationship.
- Emergency Escapeway (rescue/recovery concept)
The connecting passage into Southrigg's workings served as the escape route. - Headgear (hazard involved)
The headframes burned, which is what cut off the shafts. - Pithead Baths (contextual relationship)
Opened at the rebuilt pithead in 1930. - Shaft (hazard involved)
Two shafts of 143 m, unusable once the headgear was destroyed. - Spoil Heap (contextual relationship)
Named in this record’s memorials: “…in 1960 and its site is now waste ground, woodland and the reworked bing.”
Photographs & further reading
This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this disaster.
Historic Environment Scotland's record, whose inventory entry dates the fire to 1925.
View sourceLocal history of Harthill with the 1924 account of the fire and the escape into Southrigg.
View sourceThe Southrigg pits and their underground link to Greenrigg, the route the men used.
View sourceSources
- (primary) Greenrigg Colliery — Canmore / trove.scot (NS96SW 23) — Historic Environment Scotland
- (secondary) Harthill, Lanarkshire — Wikishire — Wikishire
- (secondary) Southrigg Bogies and Butterflies — Scottish Shale — Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry
- (secondary) Southrigg No. 3 & 4 pits — Scottish Shale — Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry
- (secondary) Greenrigg pit — Scottish Shale — Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry
- (observational) Track on Greenrigg Bing (Geograph photo 6555785, 2020) — Geograph
Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026