Bankton Colliery

Overview

A Tranent colliery of the Edinburgh Collieries Company, working until about 1927 and then kept on for another thirty years as a pumping pit with three men underground. Its bing was a prominent feature of the East Lothian landscape long after the coal stopped.

History

Bankton stood beside Meadowmill on the edge of Tranent, in a parish that had been working coal since the thirteenth century. The Lists of Mines return it under the Edinburgh Collieries Company from 1905, selling household, manufacturing and steam coal, and its workforce grew from 107 in 1905 to 288 in 1910 and 393 in 1920 — a good medium-sized East Lothian pit. Then it stops. The 1923 return gives 295; the 1933 return gives six, three of them below ground, and the 1940 return gives six again. The Third Statistical Account of Scotland, written for the parish of Tranent in 1953, explains why: the pit at Bankton was closed about 1927. What kept those six people employed was water. The parish's streams had been swallowed by the workings as the strata settled and fractured, and the water had to be pumped out and sent to the Tyne. By 1954 the colliery was returned with thirty-three employed, thirty-one of them at surface, and the Lists of Mines label it plainly: Pumping Pit. The surface stayed useful too. Fleets coal was washed and screened at the Meadowmill washer beside Bankton, the waggons running downhill on a mineral line that followed the route of the eighteenth-century waggonway through the east of the burgh. In 1952 the National Coal Board sank two surface mines on the site of that washer, immediately east of Bankton, and worked them as Meadowmill Mine until 1960. It worked the Jewel and Splint seams from 1905, adding the Three Feet by 1910, the Four Feet by 1915 and the Diamond by 1920.

Geology

The colliery worked the Coal Measures of the East Lothian coalfield around Tranent, taking the Jewel, Splint, Three Feet, Four Feet and Diamond seams. The ground here settled and fractured over the workings badly enough to swallow the parish's surface drainage: a stream that had run from March Wood past Myles farm and down the Heugh no longer flowed except in wet weather, its water finding its way underground instead.

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

Workings

A shaft colliery, latterly kept open only to pump. The National Coal Board's Meadowmill Mine, two surface mines sunk in 1952 immediately to the east on the site of the coal washer, worked to about sixty metres and is a separate site.

Closure

Coal working ended about 1927. The colliery was kept on as a pumping pit and was still returned as such in 1954, with thirty-three employed and only two of them below ground.

What remains

The bing was still described in 1953 as a prominent feature of the landscape. The Meadowmill site beside it was cleared for playing fields and an artificial ski slope, and the A1 now runs past on a dual carriageway that replaced the old route through Tranent. No account of the colliery itself as it stands today was found.

No account of surviving remains was found in the sources read.

Redevelopment

The neighbouring Meadowmill ground was cleared for playing fields and an artificial ski slope; the A1 was rebuilt past the site.

Related mines

• Wallyford Colliery — Both held by the Edinburgh Collieries Company.

Nearby mines

• Tranent Collieries — 1.4 km SE
• Prestonlinks Colliery — 2.1 km NW
• Prestongrange Colliery — 3.3 km W
• Elphingstone Colliery — 4.0 km S
• Wallyford Colliery — 4.0 km SW

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 colliery was returned under the Edinburgh Collieries Company from 1905, selling household, manufacturing and steam coal, and passed to the National Coal Board in 1947. It worked the Jewel and Splint seams from 1905, the Three Feet from 1910, the Four Feet from 1915 and the Diamond from 1920. ¹
• The Lists of Mines give 107 employed in 1905, 288 in 1910, 282 in 1915, 393 in 1920 and 295 in 1923 — then six in 1933 and six in 1940. The 1954 return gives thirty-three, only two of them below ground, and labels the colliery a pumping pit. ¹
• The pit at Bankton near Meadowmill was closed about 1927; its large bing was still a prominent feature of the landscape when the parish account was written in 1953. ²
• With the settling of the strata, considerable fractures let water into the workings. A stream that formerly ran through the parish from March Wood past Myles farm and down the Heugh no longer flowed except in wet weather; instead the water found its way into the workings and was pumped into the Tyne. ²
• Fleets coal was washed and screened at the Meadowmill washer beside Bankton, the waggons travelling downhill by a mineral line which traversed the east part of the burgh on the route of the eighteenth-century waggonway. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Bankton Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) The Third Statistical Account of Scotland: the County of East Lothian, the Parish of Tranent, 1953 — John Gray Centre

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