Aitkenhead Colliery

Overview

A colliery at Mount Florida on the south side of Glasgow, worked by the Crookston family through the later 19th century and into the 1900s with sixty to a hundred people. Seven deaths there are named, six of them falls of roof or coal at the face — the ordinary arithmetic of a small pit rather than any single disaster. The same pit appears in later records as Aikenhead Colliery, under Aikenhead Collieries Ltd, working to about 1918 with over two hundred people.

History

Aitkenhead stood two and a half miles south of Glasgow at Mount Florida, and its owners as the Durham Mining Museum records them read as one family firm changing shape: Crookstone and Blythe, then George Crookstone, then George Crookston and Son, the last of which the 1893 List of Mines confirms at the colliery. It returned gas, household and manufacturing coal in 1894 and 1900 and household and manufacturing coal in 1905, employing 100 people in 1894, 67 in 1900 and 96 in 1905. Seven deaths at the colliery are named, and they are almost all the same death. Samuel Berkley, a brusher of twenty, was killed by a fall of roof in 1874; Robert Steel, a collier of thirty, by a fall of coal while holing it in 1875; David McNeil, a collier of twenty-five, by a fall of roof at the face in 1876; John Dagnet, a collier of thirty-five, by a fall of coal in 1880; Robert Laird, a miner of thirty-seven, by a fall of coal in 1904, the inspector recording it as due to want of sprags; and William Stevenson, a miner of thirty-one, in 1908, when a piece of overhanging fireclay fell on him at the face, said to have displaced in falling a prop set to support it. The exception is Henry Kerr, the engineman, fifty-seven, who in 1884 got entangled with the fan while it was in motion. The colliery also appears under the spelling Aikenhead, and for a time the two spellings looked like two pits: the Durham Mining Museum has a separate Aikenhead page at NS594615, two hundred metres from its Aitkenhead entry. The Scottish Mining Website's 1890 death index settles it, recording William Cameron's death that February at Aikenhead No 2, Mount Florida, under George Crookston and Son: one colliery, Nos 1 and 2 pits, spelt both ways. Under Aikenhead Collieries Ltd it returned household and manufacturing coal from the Ell, Jewel, Main and Rough seams, with 68 people in 1910 and 219 in 1915, so its last years were its largest. RailScot dates the Nos 1 and 2 pits and their siding on the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway to 1904 to 1918, and Kings Park station, opened in 1928, stands on the site of the loop and short mineral line that served them.

Geology

The colliery worked Coal Measures seams on the south side of the Clyde valley, part of the Central Scottish coalfield that ran in under Glasgow itself; the fireclay recorded in the roof of the workings in 1908 is the seatearth that commonly underlies and overlies coal in this measure.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

A small pit of sixty to a hundred people, rather more than half of them underground, worked at the face by holing and bringing down the coal with props and sprags to hold what was left overhead. It had a mechanical fan at the surface, which is what killed its engineman in 1884. Two pits, Nos 1 and 2, with a rail siding from 1904; the Ell, Jewel, Main and Rough seams were being worked in 1910 and the Ell and Main in 1915.

Closure

The colliery was returned in the 1915 List of Mines with 219 people, and RailScot ends its rail-served life in 1918, which is the nearest thing to a closure date found. No closure date has been located. The colliery appears in the Lists of Mines for 1894, 1900 and 1905 and a death is recorded there in 1908, and the sources read go no further.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery's present state was established from the sources read for this pass. Mount Florida is now suburban Glasgow. Kings Park station, opened in 1928 on the Cathcart line, stands on the site of the colliery's mineral loop.

Nearby mines

• Govan Colliery — 1.1 km NW
• Farme Colliery — 3.0 km E, South Lanarkshire
• Clyde Colliery, Hamilton — 5.0 km E, South Lanarkshire
• Hurlet Colliery — 6.2 km W, Renfrewshire
• Darnley Lime Works — 6.7 km W

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 Durham Mining Museum records the owners as Crookstone and Blythe, then George Crookstone, then George Crookston and Son, with 100 employed in 1894, 67 in 1900 and 96 in 1905; the 1893 List of Mines gives George Crookston and Son at Aitkenhead Colliery. ^1,2
• Seven deaths are named between 1874 and 1908: six falls of roof or coal at the face, one of them recorded as due to want of sprags and one to a prop displaced by falling fireclay, and the colliery's engineman entangled with the fan in motion in 1884. ²
• The Scottish Mining Website's 1890 death index places William Cameron's death at Aikenhead No 2, Mount Florida, under Geo Crookston & Son, the same owner and place as Aitkenhead; the Durham Mining Museum's separate Aikenhead page puts the pit at NS594615, 200 m from its Aitkenhead entry, so the two spellings are one colliery with two pits. ^3,4
• The Durham Mining Museum records Aikenhead Collieries Ltd as owner, returning household and manufacturing coal from the Ell, Jewel, Main and Rough seams with 68 employed in 1910 and 219 in 1915. ³
• RailScot dates Aikenhead Colliery Nos 1 and 2, served by the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway, to 1904–1918, and places Kings Park station of 1928 on the site of the loop and short mineral line to the colliery. ^5,6

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) List of Mines in Scotland, 1893 — Scottish Mining Website
2. (secondary) Aitkenhead Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Aikenhead Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Scottish Mining Website — 1890 Deaths — Scottish Mining Website
5. (secondary) Aikenhead Colliery Nos 1 and 2 — RailScot — RailScot
6. (secondary) Kings Park — RailScot — RailScot

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026