Aitken Colliery

Overview

The Fife Coal Company's big pit at Kelty, sunk in 1899 and employing over a thousand men for most of sixty years. It was still raising more than half a million tons a year at nationalisation and closed in March 1963.

History

The Fife Coal Company, formed in 1872, was the largest coal company in Scotland by the early twentieth century, and Kelty was one of its strongholds. The Aitken pit was sunk in 1899 on the north side of the Fife coalfield, six and a half miles north-east of Dunfermline, and by 1905 employed 1,090 men. In 1910 it employed 1,455, of whom 1,163 worked below ground. It worked a long list of seams over its life: the Bank, Dunfermline Splint and Five Feet at first, then the Lochty, Main and Glassee, and after nationalisation the Jersey, Little Splint, Seven Feet and Top Bank. The National Coal Board took it in 1947, when it produced 560,000 tons with 1,248 employed, and the workforce actually grew afterwards: 1,385 in 1950 and 1,392 in 1954, working as Nos. 1 and 2. Mining ceased in March 1963 after some sixty-four years, with an average of about 1,300 men employed across its life.

Geology

The Fife Coal Measures on the north side of the coalfield, worked here through the Bank and Top Bank, the Dunfermline Splint and Little Splint, the Five Feet and Seven Feet, and the Lochty, Glassee, Main and Jersey seams.

Workings

Two shafts, returned as Nos. 1 and 2 from the 1930s onwards. The scale of the place is in the employment figures rather than in any surviving description: over a thousand men below ground in 1910, and still 1,121 below in 1954.

Closure

Mining ceased in March 1963. The Fife Coal Company itself had gone in 1946, dissolved on the last day of that year when its mining property and assets passed to the National Coal Board.

What remains

No account of the site as it now stands has been found, and no photograph. Kelty lost its other pits within a few years of this one: the Lindsay, originally Kelty 4 and 5, worked until 1965.

No surface remains have been recorded.

Nearby mines

• Lochgelly Colliery — 2.0 km SE
• Glencraig Colliery — 2.6 km E
• Lassodie Colliery — 3.5 km SW
• Jenny Gray Colliery — 4.1 km E
• Donibristle Colliery — 5.7 km S

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The official Lists of Mines return 1,090 employed in 1905 and 1,455 in 1910, of whom 1,163 were below ground. Nationalisation did not shrink it: 1,248 in 1947 producing 560,000 tons, 1,385 in 1950 and 1,392 in 1954. ¹
• The Fife Coal Company was established in 1872 and dissolved on the last day of 1946, when its mining property and assets were transferred to the National Coal Board. The Aitken pit, sunk in 1899, worked on under the Board until mining ceased in March 1963. ^2,1
• The seams in the returns change as the pit worked outwards and downwards: the Bank, Dunfermline Splint and Five Feet in 1905; the Lochty and Main added by 1910 and the Glassee by 1915; and under the National Coal Board the Jersey, Little Splint, Seven Feet and Top Bank, with the Jersey Lower, Low Bank and Main appearing in 1950. Household, manufacturing and steam coal throughout, and gas and industrial coal added by 1947. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Aitken Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Fife Coal Company — Wikipedia

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026